Gallery GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2009
Winfried Wisniewski, GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2009
Freeloader - near miss
For some time now it is possible to photograph white-tailed eagles at the coast of Norway. These eagles are baited with fish by Ole Martin Dahle. I captured this photograph in summer 2007. It shows a white-tailed eagle hunting, with a cheeky common gull on it’s back. This is one of my best wildlife images I have managed to take during my career as a wildlife photographer.
During the “photo session” of July 22nd, a hunting eagle was flying straight towards me. However, a common gull, on which the autofocus happily jumped, got into the way and destroyed all hope for a fantastic eagle image. The eagle came back, this time sideways. I concentrated on keeping it in the viewfinder, handholding my 500 mm lens, and already pictured myself as the photographer who took a perfect series of “flying eagle approaching” until, suddenly, the white of a gull appeared in the viewfinder again. Naturally, I thought that also this series would turn out to be wasted and I felt both sad and angry. Frustrated, I wanted to delete all images of this series immediately (and chase off the gulls) but finally decided to look through them on the laptop computer. This was good luck: because this time, the gull didn’t come between the eagle and myself but sat down on the eagle’s neck, a position which it lost immediately as the eagle slowed down after catching the fish. To my surprise, the series was in focus - and I was suddenly relieved. An imp among my friends to whom I proudly presented this photograph simply commented: “Don’t worry - you can easily remove the gull in Photoshop.”
Technical details: Canon EOS-1D Mark IIN, 4.0/500mm, ISO160 and -2/3 stops underexposed, f 4.5 at 1/1250 sec, July 22nd, 2007, 8.54 pm.
 |
| "Trittbrettfahrer" |
|
The prize for the the winning image is sponsord by...
;)
;)
;)