"Raptor #1 – or The Bird Who Wasn't There"

You won't believe this! At least I'm not sure that I do.

I mentioned briefly in the comments of another picture the story of the bird on my back wall and the picture I missed by 1 second while the camera was auto-focusing. The first one I've seen this close in 15 years in Arizona.

I went out to lunch in the afternoon and ran some errands afterwards. I returned home to find the same bird on the same part of the same wall.

Grabbed the camera again and stayed further back from the window this time in the hopes of not spooking him. The lighting was truly horrible. Not only is that wall in the shade from light above due to being covered with dense Mesquite tree branches and leaves, but now the sun is low enough in the west to be blocked by our house since I'm shooting due east. In short, shadows on top of shadows. Nothing like the shot I'd come so close to getting earlier.

Stayed back from the window this time and basically accepted that there were going to be reflections and hoped that the Pentax anti-shake system would work as advertised since I've never had especially steady hands. I got off six shots.

This was the best one before he flew off again.

Details: f9 at 1/25th of a second at ISO 1000. 300mm lens (35mm equivalent of 450mm). Because this is a RAW image a bit of work can probably pull out some more from this image, but it's late tonight.

Taken by David Barber on 9/25/2009 in Oro Valley.