Of course I mean with a camera and not with a weapon. This story is for photographers, anyone who has tried to photograph a bird knows how tricky they are to capture. When they are still, they are generally in a tree, and without a powerful zoom lens, which is very expensive, then all you get is a bird in a tree. You can't make out what type of bird it is, what subtle colours its feathers have and why you took the photo in the first place. Photographing a bird in flight is even more difficult, again you need the expensive zoom lens, then you have to find the bird through the viewfinder in the expanse of sky and finally you have to keep track of its flight path, not to mention keeping the shutter speed high enough to freeze the action while ensuring you get enough light into the camera so that you don't end up with a bird shaped silhouette against the bright sky. Not an easy task!
There are particular times that give better or should I say easier shots. When they are just taking flight or just landing, at these times they are not moving too fast but still have their wings partly out or in the case of the fish eagle above at the point when the eagle snatches a fish out of the lake, for a fraction of a second the bird is almost motionless. This is when you shoot, simple! So the trick is to know when the eagle is going to swoop, to know where the eagle is going to swoop and to be prepared.
This is how I did it; While staying at lake baringo I took an early morning boat ride with a young local man as a guide. The boat was just like a small rowing boat but with an engine at the back. The guides around lake baringo know all about the wildlife as they make their living from tourists. We first went to see some local fishermen, they fish the lake in small, no, very small hand made boats that look more like small moses baskets. They catch fish to feed their families, sell any extra at market and also sell to tourists looking to photograph fish eagles. They were very proud of their boats and their catch and offered to pose for photographs, I didn't realise until afterwards that the photos had to be paid for as well. The guide took three fish, each fish was stuffed with a light balsa wood so that it would float. Each one was prepared very carefully to give just the right amount of buoyancy. The guide obviously thought that I might need three goes to get it right, as it happened he wasn't wrong.
I admired the lake and the huge variety of birds concentrated along the shoreline as we drove over to where the fish eagle had its nest. The engine was cut so we were just bobbing around in the water while the guide explained what would happen and gave me time to get my camera ready and decide what settings I would need. All prepared, I gave the nod and he let out a shrill whistle, this alerts the fish eagle that its time for breakfast, the eagle perches in a tree on the shoreline and waits. The guide then throws a fish in the water at a spot not too far from the boat, this is where I focus, I count to six then pressed the shutter button, I had made sure I was shooting on continuous first. It takes a fraction of a second for the eagle to lift the fish out of the water, it was such a surprise that I stopped shooting and didn't get a very good shot. Fortunately we had the three fish and I was better prepared the second time.
It was great to get a shot like this, It is a truly amazing thing to see, even better to capture it forever.
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