Fun with an Osprey

Osprey

A few days ago I was driving home from Miami and decided to take a detour off I-95 to visit Viera Wetlands. I was looking at a first year Red-tailed Hawk when I saw out of the corner of my eye an approaching Osprey. I quickly panned my camera around to catch him landing on a pole, but in my rush I accidentally cut off the tip of one of the Osprey's wings.  That was so irritating because everything else about the Osprey was quite lovely. I had an idea, though. I decided to crop the photo to clip both wings enough to make you think I was so close that I couldn't get the whole bird in the frame.  But I'll confess to you that I wasn't.

Osprey

Now the Osprey must have had sympathy for me in my frustration.  I continued to point my camera at the Osprey, and he must have found my actions rather curious.  He looked straight at me and tilted his head, as if I seemed strange to him.  I think the look on the Osprey's face makes up for the wing clip on my previous photo.  I can't look at the photo below without giggling a little.

Osprey

These photos were shot with my 400mm lens in aperture priority mode (A/Av) at f/5.6 with I think +1/3 exposure compensation.  I know I displayed a couple of these photos before, but I couldn't resist telling you more about the story behind the photos.