WOW! Great job capturing these gorgeous photos! My wife Sue and I watch a pair of Osprey rebuild their huge nest each year on a platform that is about 3/4 of a mile away across Humboldt Bay on the Samoa Peninsula from where we live in Eureka, California, using long-range Oberwerk binoculars mounted on a hefty fork and Bogan's heaviest tripod. It is exciting to see the magnificent birds coming and going, arranging quite large sticks and bringing softer material to line their nest. Once the hatchlings emerge, the parents take turns guarding the nest while the other goes hunting to bring back food. The Osprey are too far away for us to see them fish, and we've never had a chance to see them up close like this. The ocean atmosphere makes long-range viewing difficult at times, but as the hatchlings mature we can see their heads popping up out of the nest and their awkward first flights. Then they're gone to wherever Osprey vacation in the winter, and the whole process starts again the next spring. If you don't mind my asking, what equipment did you use and where did you take these magnificent shots? Is there any chance you would be willing to email me a copy of the Osprey Touch-and-Go jpeg for my strictly personal use? We'd have it printed at our local Costco and either put it in an album or display it in our home with full credit to you, of course. I would never pass it on, claim it was mine, attempt to sell prints or put it on a website for any reason. I totally respect your property rights. However, if you are not comfortable with sharing your photo with me, I'll completely understand -- it's just such a beautiful portrait of a species we are particularly fond of, and a superb photograph that we'd never be able to capture ourselves. With kind regards, Mark Hubbard Eureka, California mark.hubbard.1949@gmail.com
Thanks Mark. I shot it with a 5DS-R and the 600mm F4 IS II. I just added the Canon in the beginning of July, I have been shooting Pentax and I'm still learning all the Canon settings. Every summer the ospreys come to nest where I normally shoot bald eagles so in the summer months we get a nice mix. This year looks like more ospreys than last year and when I shot theses photos their was about six that kept circling and diving down. I wasn't able to get any good shots of the dives, they were just to fast but a few came in and just drugged their talons in the water like this one did. They are so much fun to watch some days, the way they fish is completely different than how the eagles do it. I'm always waiting to get a shot of a eagle chasing down the osprey for their catch but they seem to just leave them be, they will spend lots of time chasing other eagles though. I'll send you the jpegs, they are a heavy crop they were about 90 yards away but with the 5dsr I still can get good prints. I did have these printed up 8x10 at my Costco and liked how they turned out. I am hoping to get a specific shot this fall of a mature bald eagle coming in directly at me and getting one of those big metal prints Costco has.
Thank you so much for emailing me the jpegs, KiloHotel. I really appreciate your kind generosity. I hope Costco will let me print them, even though they bear your copyright watermark. If I print out this page and bring it along, then it should be OK. I'm actually glad that photo printers are doing more to protect copyrights these days, especially since everything has gone digital. Sue and I have some great medium format equipment, but developing and printing from film negatives is getting expensive. We still love the tonality available from medium format film as well as the relatively slow, thoughtful process involved in setting up, metering and capturing an image, but digital is fantastic and addicting. Most of our digital gear is Nikon, but we do have the original Canon 5D 12MP full-frame (a bargain if you can find one used in good condition), a Rebel T3i and a few Canon lenses. I look forward to seeing more of your work. You are an outstanding photographer! Best wishes, Mark
