Project 366
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- Where eagles dare
Project 366: Day 293
- Where eagles dare
Saco River, Buxton, Maine.
One of the fringe benefits of landscape photography is the semi frequent awesome wildlife encounters you tend to have while you’re out shooting, a fact that used to lead to much consternation on my part. It never fails. You’ve got your widest lens on with camera settings basically the exact opposite of what you would use for wildlife photography and some critter emerges one the scene, a situation that used to leave me scrabbling to grab a longer lens. Anymore I don’t bother unless the animal seems like it might stick around a while. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m older or because I’ve been shooting for so long, or perhaps a combination of both, but over the years I’ve learned there are times when you need to let photography go and just enjoy a moment in nature for what it is without worrying about capturing it.
While framing this shot shortly before dawn I heard a soft whoosh just behind me and looked up to see a bald eagle fly directly overhead no more than 10 feet above me, and I didn’t even reach for the camera. Instead I just watched as he scraped the surface of the water some 20 feet in front of me with his talons and came up with a decent sized fish. He headed off to the opposite shore to eat the catch and I went back to the business of making this image, with an even bigger smile on my face.
