As I drove out of my neighborhood to take my daughter to school (it was drizzling outside), we saw two buzzards dining on roadkill rabbit. My daughter proceeded to say (as she usually does when she sees a dead animal), "I'll never recover from what I just saw." I drove her up the hill to drop her off at school.
Once she was out the door, I rushed home, grabbed my storage card from the computer, hastily stuck it in my camera, did a fast manual settings check when I got in the car -- so I would not fiddle at the site with the initial iso, etc--then drove over to the front entrance (only to have someone sitting behind me as I tried to get my first shot). It's a busy time--folks are going to work. So I drove away and then back to park and exit (knowing that last time I did that to get a vulture shot, the majestic bird promptly left). Not these two--they did not bother with me much and I inched closer and closer to see what I could get.
I've avoided the full roadkill shot, but this closeup shows that there are remnants of what his beak was just in -- the efficiency with which they dine is pretty impressive.
omg-!!love that face--need some moisturizer 'tho--(kidiiiiiing!!)-thanks for the follow, really appreciate it-but please forgive me,ifI forgot/late in commenting back---my brain/ hands really tied up sometimes--hA !!:)
Great shot of a (I'm sorry Mr Bird for saying this...) very ugly bird! You have caught the detail and texture of it's skin and feathers so well, even the wee hair coming off it's beak.
@jo13 Oh, thanks very much Jo! Guess what, I just realized that I have not been using the AI Servo focus ever--do you use that? I am expecting my focus to improve over this week. Shhheeeesh. It takes me forever to figure something out! :)
@twistergirl I was just thinking that it was nice that the city didn't need to be called to clean up the dead animal--circle of life and street cleaners all in one. :)
@darylo I only use it if the subject is moving, as in flight, if not I stick to Al focus, I find the higher I can get the shutter speed the best chance of good focus.
@squamloon It's the Camera Settings Challenge this week. There's too much to learn, but I'm going for this setting since I'm often going after a moving target. My hope is that my focus issues will improve. It may just be that I'm really bad at focus. :)
@catwoman2 I love vultures. So essential. I felt bad that I called the city to pick up a dead rabbit in the road in front of the house, and hoped that the vultures would have some of it before it was cleared away, but they came within hours of the request. A crow got in some bites, though.
@darylo I've always loved watching them fly in circles high in the sky, but it wasn't until I met my flightless buzzard that I appreciated their beauty and intelligence.
June 8th, 2014
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This is a wonderful shot, Daryl.