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Northern Harrier - Harriers can be recognized by their distinctive flight pattern and the very distinctive white mark at the base of their tail. The preserves are quite large and in the distance I saw this Northern Harrier. They tend to cruise low and capture their prey in an abrupt twisting pounce from just a few feet above.
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Stopping the action of flying birds meant that your speed had to be really fast, but that fast speed in these conditions meant moving the ISO to ranges that would give an image with a great deal of noise. And getting things sharp was a major problem as well.
And as the light changed with the ebb and flow of the fog, so did the shooting conditions. Shooting raw and post processing is one option … but I really like to get the best image in the field. So what do you do … well you just do your best. You shoot and then change something, try again and if that doesn’t work, you try changing something else. This is why it becomes critically important to know your camera and to check the in-camera results more frequently. I can tell you that photography becomes very frustrating under these extreme conditions.
So
often photographers go with a specific mind set about what they want to
photograph and then close themselves off from great opportunities. It is
easy to do and the results can be so disappointing if you set yourself up
for that. You need to have goals, and you need to reach for those special
images, but then you also have to keep your mind open to other opportunities
and other possibilities. And you need to try to do your best at both of
these.
Well, this was the situation that Mother Nature presented to us and how we tried to make the best of it. In the past we had concentrated on large flocks of geese and a variety of ducks. This time we kept seeing raptors and hawks. Most of the time they were sitting with wet feathers and not looking particularly pleased with the weather either. But we saw them fly and worked on getting them as they took off or landed and we worked on panning along with the camera as the bird flew--a lot more difficult than you can imagine. There were also a number of heron and egrets. We looked for other critters carefully when we didn’t find birds and began to see more than we expected. Because our mind wasn’t set to watching these other critters on previous trips, this time we took what we were lucky enough to find and discovered all sorts of interesting behaviors.
Copyright © Noella Ballenger
Tule Elk - Elk are a part of the deer family and, as such, are hoofed animals and chew their cud. The males have antlers that they shed every year. Tule Elk are a dwarf elk and are found only in special locations in California. They were once considered extinct until a small herd was found in Kern County, California. Since their discovery, the herd has been divided into several herds and relocated to areas on both the eastern and western sides of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They have made a major comeback in their numbers.
