One of my (many) faults is that I appear destined to constantly repeat the same mistakes over and over again...........
I was trying to photograph some Black Scoters in one of the harbours to the north of Onuma. I had the teleconverter on, I've missed quite a few shots over the last couple of years because of too much reach but I thought the ducks were not so close so why not...............nothing else seemed to be happening.
An Osprey flew over...............cue lots of identical hovering shots like these............
At this point I could have taken the teleconverter off but I didn't because a) it was a bit windy, b) I'm lazy and c) 99 times out of 100 the Ospreys give up and move on without doing anything.
Unfortunately this was the 1 time in 100 when they do something..............it dived right in front of me.
It must have been less than 8 meters away.
I had no chance at 700mm on a APS-C camera (and actually probably the bare 500 may have been too much as well) At least I got a couple of shots with its face in focus. Nor did it emerge with a big wriggling fish.............we both kind of failed. Still, it was by far the closest I've ever been to an Osprey and was pretty exciting despite the teleconverter frustration.
I have unfinished business with this Osprey.
I rarely use my teleconverter. But then I rarely get close enought to an Osprey. A few going over this week but none near me.
ReplyDeleteDon't think i've ever been nearer than 100 metres to one in Europe...............
DeleteSpectacular, anyway. "Too close" is an unusual problem to have !
ReplyDeleteThanks John, in terms of bird photography I guess 'too much reach' is akin to 'first world problems' in the real world.
DeleteWell that first shot was fantastic, so I wouldn't worry too much! I saw my first ospreys this year and even at 1000mm they were a few pixels smeared by heat haze :)
ReplyDelete