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Daily Bucket Friday Sequence: Unexpected Eagle Photo Shoot [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-12-29
My self reliant lifestyle is one of comparative seclusion. Other than occasional photo outings I spend most of my time right here on my place in company of my horses and BJ. I go to town about once a week. Due to the area I live in (Flint Hills of Kansas), a trip to town for supplies also falls into the category of photo outing. That is the setup for this Friday Sequence.
THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS.
WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.
What is Friday Sequence?
Friday Sequence is intended to be an end-of-the-work-week feature which is a photographic challenge displaying more insight than can be captured in a single image.
On a day our temps fell by about 20 degrees accompanied by an unusually dark and gloomy sky I got ready to go to town for some stuff I was low on. Bird feed, suet, groceries, fuel, and the like. I am not a shopper. I make a list of what I need and know exactly where to go to get it. I go there, get it, and am that much closer to being ready to head back home. I am always anxious to get back home as soon as possible due to the lengthy to-do list invariably waiting there for me. With weather conditions what they were I almost left my camera at home. But at the last minute I remembered my rule...’it always happens when you least expect it’. I picked up my camera and set it in the seat on the passenger side of my birding buggy (the seat BJ covets to be his own) and explained to BJ that I would be back soon. He knows the routine. BJ trotted out to the end of the sawmill and laid down under the beautiful young oak near the gate. He would be waiting right there for my return, no matter how long it took...although now that he has learned to ID the sound of my truck he often runs up to meet me at the road gate, dancing on his front paws just inside the gate while whining a tune called “What took you so long?”.
I headed out onto Wagon Trail West. Wagon Trail West is normally a raptor haven. Not this year. In fact bird numbers in general are very low. It is a nine mile trek to hit the junction with Highway 99S. It is ten miles south on 99 to Highway 54. Six miles west on Highway 54 gets me to Eureka. On this trip I scarcely saw a bird of any description. Turning on to 99 I was thinking about that, and how I might, in a more normal year, expect to see at least a dozen raptors of various species. Today I saw only one to this point. I thought that one MIGHT have been a Kestrel. But, facing a long to-do list waiting for me when I got back home, I was in a hurry and didn’t expect anything to change on my way to Highway 54. During that stretch I was noting all the places I had seen and took photos of this bird, or that bird, and how today there were none to be seen. I was also thinking about the why behind that depressing change. After covering about 6 of the ten miles, still thinking the same thoughts, a bird suddenly flew across the highway in front of me. It was a large bird, very dark, but I thought I might have noticed a white head. “EAGLE” I shouted to myself while hurrying to get as far over to the side of the highway as possible. I jumped out camera in hand and rushed to got the bird visible in my viewfinder.
The Eagle was diving into what is now a dry pond bed. I barely caught it and clicked the shutter just before it disappeared from sight.
I waited breathlessly at the ready, expecting the Eagle to reappear at any moment. After what seemed like a long time with no sight of the bird I decided a sneak up was in order. I crossed the drainage to squeeze through a fence and slip through the tall grass to see what was going on in the bottom. I hadn’t much more than started when the bird suddenly sprang up and flew at grass top level from left to right of my view. I was in such a hurry I forgot to stop halfway through the click to allow the camera to focus, so what you are seeing is about the third or fourth click after takeoff. The other clicks flew right into the scrap pile.
Picking up speed just above ground level.
As speed increased so did its elevation.
Once past by a safe distance the Eagle banked to its right to cross over behind me. This shot led to what might be the two best pics I would get on this day.
The Eagle is crossing back over the highway behind me but angling closer. I approved that choice.
Directly behind me to the north, the best light possible on a day like this one. Once over the highway it will gain cover from a stand of timber.
Once over and past the highway the Eagle found its ‘safe zone’. See the Eagle?
That sequence of pics shows a behavioral trait often employed by Eagles and raptors in general. Since there was no visible Sun to fly toward it seeks to gain safety in cover as soon as possible. Our bird perched in the top of a tree near the back end of the timber stand, so I knew this session was over and trudged back to my truck to resume the trip to town.
At this point I should address a photography issue that plagued this session. When I looked at my camera screen expecting to see some pretty nice pics I was greeted by black blobs with white head and tail. Extremely disappointing. It took a LOT of work later that evening to manipulate the raw images into what you have just seen. We will return to this topic later.
My errands in town took me about an hour and a half. On the return trip I slowed down to see if the Eagle was still where I had left it. It was gone. So I continued on up the highway toward home while keeping an eye open to see if I could spot it again. As luck would have it about four miles further on I saw a large dark spot in the top of a distant tree. I slowed again and pulled over before I got to the area where I had seen what I hoped was the bird, then crept through the brush and grass to get within view. Sure enough, it was my bird! So just as I had made a circle of a trip, this story has returned to the beginning. But this time he doesn’t have the sleepy lens covering his eye.
This time the Eagle is wide awake. I hoped I was as focused on him as he was on me! One of my favorite things about a photo such as this is to study their feet and note how they use their talons for things other than securing prey. Leverage is definitely a part of their tool chest.
I snapped off several pics of him and could tell he wasn’t long for this perch. His head was turning this way and that like a traditional pow wow dancer emulates. Sure enough it flared its wings and flew back in the direction of our first meeting. I had arrived from a different direction so the bird was seeking to get behind me again.
I tried for some BIF shots but the Eagle had unsurprisingly selected a route with trees between us. Fancy that! It was repeating exactly what worked so well the first time. My opportunities were very limited and so brief most turned out to be more fodder for the scrap pile.
Looking at my camera screen I first thought this was going to be my pic of the day. Instead it turned out to be one of the worst. There is nothing I can do to actually make this a great photo, but we will see if I can make it more pleasing before this story is done.
My camera did its part to salvage the attempt by blurring the power line crossing over the lower part of its wing, then ‘healing’ that area of the wing to make the feather lines continuous. But all the magnification and processing destroyed the background and the bird lacked the desired clarity and definition. This attempt ended the photo session with finality. However, it would resume later that evening as I began the task of processing the pics.
Remember that to-do list I mentioned? Here are some reminders. NOTE: No, my barn is not crooked. Camera/lens distortion just makes it look like that! LOL
A log on the mill to finish sawing into live edge siding.
A stack of milled live edge siding. The live edge is to the left and the slabs on top are up to 14 inches wide, 12 ½ inches minimum at the narrowest spot of the lot. I have eight more (oak) logs ready to work up this way.
A pile of freshly split firewood, splitter, siding, and sawmill in the background.
BJ in his supervisory role. He NEVER takes time off! LOL
Enough of that work stuff. Lets get back to the photo topic. The Eagle pics turned out to be extremely disappointing silhouettes. So what could I do to save them? The answer is in processing. Thanks to shooting in RAW format I might be able to coax more light onto the subjects and get something presentable. The first round of attempts were better but not all that encouraging. This stuff takes time and patience. I started over and put the first results through an entirely new round. Again, they were improved, but not what I hoped for. However, a third round produced results more along the line of what I had wanted to see. It took me several hours of tedious effort but I finally got what I thought is the best I could currently manage. Processing is definitely a learning process. LOL
What’s the point? The point is clicking the shutter is, more often than not, just the beginning of getting the photo you want to see. Processing is what creates the final result. I used to do no processing at all. My solution to a less than desirable photo was to go out and try to take better shots. That can turn into a very expensive, time consuming, and often unsuccessful solution. I learned from others of our Backyard Science community (as well as some professional level photographers from UHH and Flickr) that processing is the answer to improving less than perfect photos. I will rework that photo I thought would be my best of the day and try to turn it into the kind of memory I can sit inside my warm, live edged siding covered, cabin and enjoy on a bitter cold winter day. Like this…
I am a poor hand at photoshop, but I was able to remove that dark grainy background with the power line intruding onto the bird’s wing and replaced it with a sky shot I took while sitting at my pond this summer waiting for Swallow activity. 100% my photos. It’s just that two are merged into one and more pleasant than it started out to be. It will never be a wall hanger, but is fun to remember and a great learning experience.
So that’s it for my unexpected Eagle photoshoot on this particular day. It was fun and I was thankful for the chances I got. I didn’t get what I really wanted but the nice part is that I know the guy who did! He will be sharing those with us coming up real soon. I can hardly wait.
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