Fish Snatching

Don’t tell anyone I was at FBWR today.

Supposed to be working on projects.

I snuck over for almost exactly one hour.  My daughter lives less than 1/2 mile from the refuge.  I was dropping stuff off to her and her hubby.  Just happened to have my camera gear with me :-D.

I have mentioned before on previous posts that the professionals don’t waste-time capturing Gulls.  To them it’s a waste of pixels.  For me it’s great PRACTICE.  Never be perfect but more practice will make me better.  So I stop, study and photograph a ton of gulls.  The eagles never really came this year.  At least no more than about eight.  And they stayed far away from the recent crowds that have gathered at the refuge.  The gulls are not as proud or as shy as the Eagles.  However with the crowds they rarely land in the water to fish near the crowds.  Crouds being defined as any number of people out of their cars walking to the birds for a closer shot.  Kinda like sneaking up on big game with a BB gun.   The birds won’t have it.  So they dive, snatch and fly.  Makes for good practice for me.  The trick is to get the focus  on the bird before it hits the water.  I follow the bird as it dives and start clicking just before it hits the water.  Believe it or not at 8 or 9 frames a second not many frames are caught.  But some may turn out pretty darn cool even for gulls!!!!!!!

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This next shot hit home for me.  The gull flying right at camera.  Tack sharp fish and gull eyes.  Taken just milliseconds after the snatch…………

REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ONTHE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT.  THEN CLICK THE “X” IN THE LOWER RIGHT TO CLOSE OUT.