Routes Taken

By soiledchamois on November 23, 2020 in Outdoors, Photography, Random

There is a special time in man’s life when he reaches a crossroad; one direction means that his life will stay exactly the same. While the other direction will have his life staying exactly the same, except he wasted time writing a blog post that no one—not even himself—~~will~~ should read. For most of the past week, I have taken the first route. Today, I take the path of increased time waste. Apparently I have some time, and it needs wasting.

After Wednesday’s mild flirtation with capturing a shot of some bald eagles in Meridian Park, I was eager to get back for another try. But first some hours of gimping in the shop on Thursday.

Gimp…

OK, with gimping out of the way, I headed back to the park on Friday with my big ass lens with an ill-advised 2x teleconverter attached. I lugged that shit around, saw no signs of eagle type creatures, and cursed my luck.

As I headed back to the car, I figured I might as well keep walking and do one more pass along the riverbank trail that looks out at the long-time nest in the distance. As I crept along the river, I could see that there was indeed a lone eagle perched in the distance!

Face obscured, focus lacking, and about as sharp as a Vaseline covered iPad screen. But I’ll take what I can get.

Under the harsh mid-morning sun, I attempted to aim my camera and the massive 600mm lens, 2x teleconverter, and F-to-Z converter by hand; BIG mistake! I did my best, but in the end, I was just hoping that lens stabilization and fast shutter speeds would help me out. The focus was made even harder by the eagle being tucked behind some branches and the bright sun whiting out my electronic viewfinder.

I got a few OK shots but nothing that I give too many bowel movements about.

A few things I taught my dumb ass:

Take the monopod! What were you thinking! It only weighs about 6 ounces.
Use your DSLR if it’s sunny. Girl, you know you have trouble seeing with the EVF in the bright sun!!
Don’t bother with any of this, really. At that distance, using such a ridiculous, ill-advised lens/TC combo is never going to yield a wall hanger. It will get you nothing more than a snapshot. If you want a better shot, you’re gonna have to figure out a way to get closer to the nest, and no offense, you’re not exactly the bushwhack through dense brush and wetlands sort of guy. Well, you are, but you’re the bushwhack through dense brush and wetlands sort of guy that people read about in newspapers—because they’re dead.
Learn from this, but also enjoy the photo and the memory created. “Snapshot” or not, you got a photo of an amazing creature, spent time outside, and captured a memory of a 2.5-mile hike on a sunny November day during arguably one of the worst years in recorded modern history.

Note: You may be seeing more about No. 4 in the future. I actually had a conversation with Wifey about how I “photograph” as we hiked through the Sylvan Solace Preserve on Sunday morning. Spoiler Alert! I lean more towards documenting than photographing. Meaning, I’m not the sort to give a shit about “golden hour” and perfect light and more about capturing an event, activity, or moment in real life. I think that sums it up, but it won’t stop me from doing an unneeded 3,000-word post about it in the future!

Speaking of the Sylvan Solace: Wifey and I did a quick 2-mile hike on Sunday morning. It was fun to be outside with my bosomy, big-brained ginger gal-pal, and take some photos along the way.

Everything in the autumn woods is dead and rotting (like many parts of my mind) and seems to be crying out for a snowfall to add some flair, but a few things here and there caught my eye enough to stop for a photo before scampering after Wifey ahead.

After the walk, the rest of my Sunday was spent watching footy on TV and preparing a marinade for a chicken sandwich I wanted to make for dinner. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that after 6-plus months, I have returned to being a carnivoretarian (made up word) in a limited capacity; mostly because of boredom, but also because I started getting some serious meat cravings that had me nearly biting the head off of a baby ~~chicken~~ on a few occasions. Hopefully, this return to semi-carnivoretarianism won’t fuck too much with the cholesterol numbers that I lowered like a tofu-loving champ this past summer.