If I had the space, I would...

If I had the space, I would write several pages on what it took to

get this photo. It really just boils down to time and effort.

I came up with the idea six months ago. After observing the osprey

for months, I found a spot that it frequented that would be feasible

for a photo. It afforded a nice view of the overall bay, had a clean

background, was well-lighted and would guarantee a frontal shot of

him -- the bird always liked to face into the wind, which meant that

in the afternoons it would face west into the prevailing ocean

breeze, into the sun and into the camera.

I needed to familiarize it to the camera, so I made a dummy camera

out of socks, electrical tape and a black plastic trash bag. Then I

paddled out before dawn in a kayak, shimmied up the 15-foot pole to

attach the dummy, praying it wouldn’t get dumped in the water.

Several weeks later, after seeing the bird there and ignoring the

dummy, I replaced it with a real camera, preset the focus and

exposure and retreated to a cliffside to watch. After several days of

trying, I finally shot the photo with a remote trigger from a quarter

mile away as the osprey swooped in with his fish. It was the single

most difficult photo I’ve ever taken.

-- Kent Treptow