Some photo opportunities fall right in your lap and are super easy while others require a bit of patience and discomfort. Today I've got examples of both with some nice bird photos.

The first is the easy one. I came home from work and as I got out of the car, an extremely large hawk flew overhead squawking like crazy. I watched it fly into our front yard and land in one of our tall pine trees. I never get much opportunity to photograph hawks, so I dropped my stuff and ran to go get my camera. As I went to go back outside, I looked out the one window and saw I had a good vantage point from there if I could get the window open without spooking the hawk. I managed to do so and was able to take several photos while hanging out the window. Since the hawk was being so cooperative, I decided to try climbing out on the roof outside that window and continue shooting. That too was successful, and though the hawk was still easily thirty feet (if not more) higher than me, I managed to get some very nice shots...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm, 1/250 sec at f/10. ISO 200. IS Mode 2. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

The second opportunity required a bit more investment. We've been seeing a number of green herons feeding at our pond. Green herons are among my favorite birds - but they are extremely skittish and hard to approach. Well, we've repeatedly observed this one feeding from a stick that pokes up out of our pond, and when we saw it there this morning, I decided to see if I could get some photos. I approached as stealthily as I could, but still spooked the heron before I could get into position. Luckily, it didn't look like it flew too far away, so I decided to just hunker down and see if I could hide out long enough for it to feel comfortable to come back. An hour later with both of my feet falling asleep from me sitting on them the whole time, it finally flew back out to its branch. I managed to fire off about ten shots before it spotted me and flew off again... I could barely walk because of the pins and needles in my feet from sitting still so long, but it was worth it...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm, 1/800 sec at f/8. ISO 400. IS Mode 1. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

I may have to do some major work on the site here soon. Hopefully I will be able to do so with minimal disruption, but I might have to mothball this site and start a completely new one. I'm not sure what I want to do just yet, but stay tuned and hopefully I can get it worked out quickly and get back to posting more regularly.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill