Once in a lifetime oppourtunity and.....I blew it (pic heavy)

[LightSpeed]

The bad thing about once in a lifetime opportunities is that they don't only happen once in a lifetime. I seem to run into one once every couple of months.

Couple of years ago walking around a lake in February I see a Red Tailed Hawk come slamming down on the ground about 10' away. He snatched something up and flew up into a tree about 50' away. Then I realize that what he grabbed was a snake. In Tennessee. In February. At 25 degrees. He just sits there on the tree limb eating his nice hot lunch and I'm snapping away, my camera happily mounted on a tripod for the ultimate in stability. So I go home happy.

When I get home I start looking at the shots and they are all soft. Not bad soft but disappointing soft. That's when I remembered that I hadn't disabled image stabilization before putting my camera on the tripod.

Trust me: It happens to all of us and it will probably happen again.

Edt ... If it's any consolation I love the first two of the waterfowl ignoring the huge wave. Plus your Eagle shots are better than my only Eagle shots.

I get a once in a lifetime about once a week. I usually don't have a camera with me.

Looks like multi segment metering was used. The reason the eagle looks dark and under exposed is because the camera was exposing for the brightest part of the scene.
I might have tried center weighted metering with a +3 compensation.
The problem is, you really don't have time to tinker with the camera when these subjects present themselves.
Being ready is KEY to wildlife photography, I've found. And even when you're ready, things have a tendency to go wrong.
Been there, done that and not finished making mistakes. I do that all the time. I'm probably better at making mistakes than I am at anything else.

 

[Spuzzette]

MLeek! Thanks! Can't wait to play with the photo...

Bird Studies Canada

I actually looked into the little transmitter thing a big...and discovered that this guy may be one of these Eagles. Pretty interesting research!

 

[MLeeK]

WOW! That is neat!