As I was walking on the fairly unused section of the trail I almost walking into an occupied spiderweb. (Prior to this my camera settings were: f/8 ~ 1/1000 sec ~ Auto ISO ~ 500mm for bird photography)
In the first photo I was about 5 feet away and the background was 20+ feet behind. The Sun peeked through the branches just enough to light the scene. Handheld at 500mm ~ f/8, I needed to be steady to keep everything in manual focus as the DoF is about 1/8".
The second photo is a different web that was broken with a strand floating in the breeze in and out of the light shaft. Shot also at 500mm ~ f/8 but the distance was about 15 feet away so I had around 1-2" to play with. I used manual focus and took my time adjusting as the breeze blew the wisp in and out of the light.
ISO set to AUTO
Photo 1: f/8 ~ 1/250 ~ ISO 4000 ~ 500mm
Photo 2: f/8 ~ 1/320 ~ ISO 40000 ~ 500mm
This was the uninteresting part of my walk, photographing someone eating.
Actually, I find this one most interesting. The bird looks angry! "Don't you dare steal my meal!"
EEK! Just the thought of running into an occupied spiderweb. Glad you were able to capture it digitally rather than physically. Lol! The lighting in both of these is lovely. I like how all elements of the first - web, position of the peeking lights in the background - all point to and highlight the subject naturally. In the second one, you captured the wisp in and out of the light in just a moment of time, but I can still see the continued motion after the moment in my mind. Good work! What kind of ?hawk? is the bird in the comments?
Osprey.
Eagles are well known for stealing their food and they generally do not play well together.
Here is a Bald Eagle hanging out about 50 feet from where the Osprey was perched. (different day)
Awesome picture! Apparently bald eagles and red-tail hawks don't play well together either. We were on our walk through a wooded neighborhood on a hill behind our house. Perched above us was a bald eagle minding its own business. We were so surprised by the sight that it took me a moment to remember my camera at my side. Just as I was about to focus on it, a red-tail came diving down at it full speed, and it flew away. A day later, we saw 2 bald eagles and 2 red-tails flying at each other over the neighborhood. I guess the red-tails won because we haven't seen the eagles since. Here's one of the red-tails enjoying a dinner of rabbit. I kept going closer and closer expecting it to fly away, but it was not going to give up that rabbit for anything.
Great shots. I started photographing birds about two months ago. It's not easy because they generally hate paparazzi.
I like that! They definitely don't like us at all.
I think your 1st picture is very well-crafted Dean. You have done a great job of catching the subject in front of the wonderfully light bokeh you have in the background - that really makes the image for me.
I admire those who are able to get usable bird pictures - I have neither the lens nor patience required.