The Trick of the Osprey

A few years back when I first started paddle boarding, I noticed the opportunities of having my camera with me. I realized the risks but with some care, I could get very close and the wildlife I see on the water left me with images I kept in my mind. It was frustrating to me that I did not have them on file to prove that they even happened. So I committed to carrying a smaller camera, not a huge expense but it gave me some very good shots of wildlife on the water. Living close to the Puget Sound is like having an open door to marine mammals and plethora of migratory birds as common neighbors within an uncommon habitat. 

I have always had affinity to photograph raptors, they have a mystique as a cunning predator that hunts for its food without fear of its own life. It hunts as a survivor in a balance between life and death never revealing any fear as it hunts or protects its own food source. In a way, serious photography is about the image that tells the story within that moment you see and feel what the photographer is reveling in a one-shot moment in time. We are always in a way searching for them, like a hunger that needs to be fed, it never stops. So I hunt them for the image and in turn, they do for a moment look at me as an annoyance at times, mostly they ignore me as if I do not exist at all. However, there have been several beach walk photo-shoots that I have been buzzed across my face like a warning. Through the viewfinder I keep shooting and hope for the best, usually, the photos are good for the first burst, then I flinch reflex and lose focus, the birds keep flying, I do believe they are trying to move me along out of their hunting area.

There is one raptor that's not afraid at all of having contact and I have ducked, moved and wondered if it's just a warning pass as the Osprey wings go over my head. I have watched Osprey's for years and at one point, thirty-five years ago I was living in Sandpoint Idaho on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille. There is a bridge that crosses the lake and there are some Osprey nests along the bridge and it's the first time I became aware of them. We used to watch them on the special hidden beach that was somewhat unknown at the time. Greenbay is a beach that not easy to find but a double back dirt road just outside of Garfield Bay area.  

The Osprey would fly around the bay, and our family would wonder how could these birds make the 75-meter drops and survive. Ospreys have somewhat predictable flying patterns that go up and down the beach. When they see their prey they drop out of the sky like heat-seeking missiles that are programmed to catch their prey usually fish. It's difficult to say what the ratio is between catches and misses, however, if they missed they would continue to fish. Osprey sometimes look awkward when they hit the water, we used to laugh at times about the somewhat belly-flops these birds would do. They would pull themselves out of the water, sometimes without a fish and do "the shake" fly in a semicircle and dive again. At that particular time I was not shooting on a daily basis, however, the image worm was beginning to turn. It started with a Nikon FM, mostly for backpacking then a trip through Europe on a touring bike for ten weeks and that moved me into a photodynamic kind of mindset. 

My career has alway's been within Print and Graphic Arts, so I have alway's looked at photography, and the images that made my mind think about "why" is this image different. The dynamics of light and freezing that moment in time and it is "knowing" the habits of the wildlife you are hunting and it takes years of patience to be at the right time and place.

My appreciation for Osprey became an obsession a few years ago. I was reviewing images on my iMac and looking at the detail of the Osprey dives. I then started to time my shots to get their talons just before they touched the water. I believe I have a few shots that are within one cm, maybe even closer. What I noticed was the Osprey fold their wings straight back and their talons drop progressively straight like harpoons into the fish.

So depending on the height of the bird and the line of sight, I can follow it with the viewfinder reasonably well, however, if the bird is close and falling out of the sky in front of me 10 to 20 meters away, I will lose the shot. It's extremely difficult to get a close shot just as the bird is entering the water. When the bird is close they are traveling so fast, even with a solid burst of shots at 1/8000 you only get a couple of shots before they hit the water. So you have to time the shots to get exactly what you are looking for, it's very difficult, but the shots I have are pretty good. I am still working on it.....there is one that I have not photographed yet.

The shot is to get the bird as it enters the water, but not not enveloped by the water. I am looking for talons breaking the plain of the water, birds head clean but below the waterline. As a photographer we set our own limits, there have been many before us and all experienced wildlife photographers are set within limits of weather, gear, budget, and then go out to finesse the shot we are looking for. The more you know of their natural habits and specifics conditions within their habitat the better chances you are your going to get the shot. The the challenge is to get the prey to react to the condition, and with the Osprey, even if all the conditions are perfect, if they do not dive your just shooting a flying bird, and my shot is the dive and the within the plunge of the dive I want specific detail. So breaking down the process of the dive there are certain clues to what the bird is going to do.

Osprey's stretch the limits of hovering above their prey, they are somewhat like Humming Birds where they can remain above a certain height and stay within that position. Their wings are a bit different than other Hawks or Eagles, they are a bit more articulate at the second joint elbow and they use that skill to stay in a hovering space until they either loose altitude in a dive or they continue to fly straight in a glide for a better opportunity. They usually fly straight lines up and down a beach, if they see prey, they bank hard then they loose altitude, stall and hover until they see their opportunity, then they dive

There have been several times that an Osprey has been perched in a tree, and when they are perched high for a clear view within a pond or along a beach and they will bob their head back and forth like parakeets in a cage. You can tell they are seeing something and just not ready to launch, then Boom! they are in the water

I have noticed different types of dives depending on the height and wind their tail feathers help control the depth of the dive and their tail feathers also lift them to the surface once they enter the water.

Their wings are bent at the elbow's talons begin to drop, however, if they do not go too deep, their tail will act as a rudder, slowing their dive, and again it also helps them pull themselves out of the water. They thrust downward on their tails and upward with their wings.

They have extremely strong wings are pulling them out of the water, but also lifting a good size fish, that can be half the size of their own body. Another anomaly is they move the fish as they fly, they transfer the fish to an aerodynamic position to fly with them, so it's almost like they are surfing the fish in the wind. Their feathers also shed water quickly and they also shake the water off as they fly. It's like a dog that's been in the lake or just had a bath, they want to shed the excess water. It's an amazing sight to see them pull themselves out of the water, fly get aloft even a few meters, they do the shake, they are also maneuvering the fish, head forward, and then they do a second shake to shed more water if needed. 

The first shake is about 5 to 10 meters out of the water, they shake even with a fish, that's being moved by their talon's. They do additional shakes as they lose the excess water to gain speed or altitude.

The dive is my favorite, I have tried different views, approaches to getting the best focus and vantage point for detail of the dive. The light is always important with photography, but with the dive, it's about where the light is when they dive.

Osprey can just drop out of the sky without any lift of their shoulders like when they are perched. They tend to see something then bank hard, then drop but it's difficult to predict the exact moment when they will drop. I have followed them with intent focus locked, then loose my attention for a moment and boom they drop and I miss the shot. Earlier I mentioned that it's the close up shots that I am interested in the detail of quills in the feathers, it is a special feature of being close. The eyes have a fierce detail that captures true nature of being wild, and it's that moment in the lens, that's fierce and it is what I want to see in the image. Whey you see it you can feel it, and it transmits to the audience that see's that spirit and then they believe.

The dive is the thrill it is seeing the true nature of an amazing bird. It's cunning and heart to risk it's life to eat and feed it's young.

So when the talons drop the Osprey is committed to the water.

So the next frame is the plunge, or it's as close to the water's edge as I have been able to shoot so far.

There are several photos that are pretty amazing if your looking for the edge of impact.

It was my first challenge to see how close I could get before the Osprey broke the plain of water.

This image is better in detail and has the bird's eyes just before impact.

This next photo is as close as I have come before impact.

The next image is my favorite of all it's everything I see in Living in "Urban Wild"

The Osprey is in the perfect 10 position of the dive, shoulders at parallel, tail straight up so the bird is going deep. It's a crazy cool photograph and the next photograph has to be breaking the plain of water with claw's, head below waterline but visible. I hope to have it by the end of the year, you will be the first to know when it happens.

The Trick is not a trick at all, it is a practiced ritual of survival, fishing for food

To Live in The Urban Wild.

Stephen Benzon