"The Osprey flies at midnight"

Towards the end of September, I had the opportunity to use my boss' Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera.

Attached to that, was the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens (minus the flash trigger).

The only thing that I found to be a pain was the simple fact I'm not used to a heavy zoom lens. It's nice and all, but the heft can be challenging if you're not used to it. It felt a little clunky as well. Like, I could feel the reason my boss told me to wrap the strap of the camera fully around my wrist if I wasn't going to hang the camera from my neck. One wrong move (slip) and this thing go flying if you're not careful.

Because this camera is geared towards the professional photographers, the card compartment only allows the use of a Compact Flash. Not that I am complaining, but it did take me a few minutes to figure out how to get the card door open. It's a little more flush against the camera than I anticipated. Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose, as I was given full permission to "go play" with it... only after the camera was put in auto mode and made sure the card in the camera had locked images worth saving. I ended up shooting both camera raw and jpg files.

All I can say is, thank god for slow days.

The whole reason I was able to "have fun" with the camera, is the simplest of answers: we had a visitor outside.

Due to having a (man made) lake in front of our little plaza, people are constantly fishing in it. Somehow water creatures always end up in this water, and when they do, winged animals arrive. First time I got to see an osprey "up close" was when I was out taking pictures with the Mark III.

I'm so used to my Canon EOS Rebel T3, that I honestly don't have any more experience with newer cameras. I'm glad it got me into the 21st Century, I'll give Canon that, but it seems that the Mark III is in a different league of it's own (like I said, it's geared to people who use it in business... and a lot more money if you want "updates" like the use of a compact flash).

At any rate, the Osprey was sitting pretty for quite some time on a post. I felt like I was out playing speed patrol. People passing by kept slowing down when they saw me with this clunker in my hands. I'm sure they saw the bird, but it didn't help I was out with what appeared to be a new radar gun. Or the fact we share the entrance to our street with the local sheriff department.

The power of the internet allowed me to learn to zoom in on my pictures, as I can honestly say that I'm still a "noob" when it comes to photo editing. Therefore, I'm kind of proud of how I was able to save the pictures!

Sorry the color may be off. They are the camera raw images and I don't have my laptop monitor calibrated to the best possible use.

The Original:

The zoomed in edit:

Original:

Edit:

It was fun standing outside for twenty minutes watching the bird. I didn't want to get too close because I didn't know what kind it was until my boss told me it's a fish eating animal. Which explains why I see a similar looking one near my house. It keeps catching fish and eating it on a lamp post.

Every once in a while, I've been told, these birds come and hang out at the lake. I do see them flying around with the egrets and herons, but the ospreys don't stay. If there wasn't a bird sanctuary near by, I don't think I'd get to see the different local birds to begin with. So it's pretty cool.

Cheers;