Picture Of The Week 10-12-09

Where: Chincoteague, VA • Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Notes: Most of the time, nature photography takes a lot of waiting, searching and luck. This photo was no exception to that rule. Toward the end of a long day of hiking and exploring along the refuge's wildlife loop trail, this beautiful young Peregrine was spotted by my best friend. We crept out of the vehicle slowly and the falcon paid no attention to us. Soon we realized the bird was comfortable at that distance in the tree top and we could move around a bit. This bird sat on this one perch for about twenty minutes. It was one of those rare occasions that allowed for some experimentation with different exposures, apertures and lenses. I have learned from experience, that when an opportunity like this comes along, to take full advantage of it. Basically I used a variety of different setting combinations. These include: hand holding and using a tripod, some with narrow F-stops and with some more open, some with a 2X teleconverter or 1.4X or none at all, some with high or lower speeds and many shots of each. Situations like this in the past have sometimes produced undesired results, so I wanted to give my self the highest possibility to come home with some good images. This is another bird that's populations still suffer from the DDT pesticide poisoning of the late 1950's & 60's. Reestablishment efforts continue to help re-populate this endangered species.