Personal Best

There are times when you just know, after the shutter has fired, that you just captured a pretty good photo. You were prepared and it came out nice, but...There might have been some distracting "this or thats", but who cares, you really like the photo! There are also times you hope and pray that what just happened got caught on film, and that the settings are right, but it ends up a "woulda, coulda, shoulda" photo that you keep anyway, just as a reminder to do things differently. And then there are times when everything comes together perfectly. The environment, the subject, the camera angle & the camera settings are all perfect. This photo represents the closest thing to perfect I can muster. I took this on Tuesday, not knowing what was about to transpire. The sky was filled with thin clouds, the sunlight was weak, but I went out anyway. As I drive along the gravel road, I whisper a gasp as I see that an eagle on a dead tree branch with nothing else but sky. He was just 50 feet away, and to top it all, I happened to be shooting vertically as it lifted off his snag in my direction as the sun brightened for just a few seconds. I was thrilled! Right place, right time! I couldn't wait to get home to review the images. I knew the settings were good. I played with them previously, as the eagle sat tight for at least a few minutes. What a great day it turned out to be!




I took liberty with the background to fancy it up, and liked the results. So, as far as personal best's go, this is mine.






Here is the original.



Tomorrow will include the rest of the series!

I would love to see all of my bloggy bud's "Best's". So if you would like to show your Personal Best, include the link in your comments, or start a new post and lets start a new meme! I challenge everyone to post their "Personal Best"! So...Richard, Chris, Shelley, Craig, In the Garden, Marsha, Barb, Rattlin Antler, Nick, Eve, Tina, Jalynn, Ruth, Helen, Michele, Melissa, Don & Sher! Will you do it?