A war of wills between bird and photographer.
1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Four days ago I spent far too much time trying to get takeoff/flight shots of this male Red-winged Blackbird. It should have been much easier than it was. He was feeding on the seeds of a large patch of sunflowers and he repeatedly took off to land on another nearby sunflower, which gave me several dozen chances for takeoff and flight shots.
But time and time again he launched with his back to me or his head turned away, which completely stymied my efforts to get an acceptable shot of the type I was after. After a while I couldn’t help but think he was doing it on purpose.
I was beginning to take it personally. So eventually my ‘stubborn’ kicked in and I told myself I wasn’t going to quit trying until I succeeded or the bird flew off with a full belly. And I stuck to my guns.
1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
It was probably more trouble than it was worth but I finally got my shot, with no time to spare. In this photo, rather than flying to another nearby sunflower, he’s flying off to Timbuktu or someplace similar. So this was the last chance I had to catch him in flight.
I’m just small enough to consider it a personal victory over a mean-spirited adversary.
Ron
Autor Ron Dudley
