Photo of the Week 2017-02-20

This week's photos are more about the experience around the photo rather than showcasing a single image that I'm pleased with ... quite the opposite actually. I wish I'd been able to get a lot closer to capture a stunning image of the activity I experienced on a gorgeous sunny winter afternoon.

The background ... it begins with me heading into the cottage after a short walk with Lynn  and Murphy. I'd been fighting a cruddy cold, coughing, sputtering, wheezing, sniffing and generally feeling crappy since Thursday. Tired out from the walk, I decided to go in and rest for a bit, while Lynn headed down to sit in the chairs at the shoreline and take in the sunshine.

She had taken the binoculars with her, as she often does now, and soon there was a knock at the picture window and some words that were just mumbles through the glass. But she turned and seemed to hurry back down to the shoreline so I figured there was something to see. I grabbed my 7DII with the 100-400mm and went down to see what was up.

It turns out she had spotted a Bald Eagle flying along the far side of the bay and by the time I managed to get out there I figured it was long gone on it's search for a meal ... not so. Lynn managed to spot it again perched in a tree along the far shore and directed me to the spot.

Even with the longest lens I had, there would be no close ups given the distance so I settled into a chair and we watched the eagle for well over an hour. We saw it fly from the tree to the ice, where it caught something (fish likely) and had a meal before flying to perch on top of an ice mound. As it sat there we scanned around and we both noticed some other activity that turned out to be a family of three otters bobbing in and out of the open water. Apparently there was a meal in the area and eventually I was able to capture a scene with with all the payers in one frame.

3 Otters and an Eagle

Yes there's actually and eagle out there ...

an Eagle ... crop

 Yes there is actually a family of 3 otters out there ...

3 Otters ... crop

 ... and yes I'm wishing I had a longer lens but even 600mm @ $10,000 wouldn't have gotten the image that I wanted in this case so I'll save my money.

One final image as I followed the eagle over onto the ice flow where it had another meal and then flew back to perch on the ice mound for a while before taking off for who knows where.

touchdown

... what a memorable experience.

DJE