I have taken to carrying the 400 5.6 and 40D around with me on surveys just in case anything presents itself -- often I think non-photographers look at successful pics and think that it is pretty easy now with digital SLR's and big lenses you cannot fail to get good shots! Before the Red Arrows flushed everything I was doing some surveys in a big area of arable fields; slowly appearing around the end of a hedge (fieldcraft!) I noticed a Common Buzzard feeding on a carcass about 80m into the field -- it was directly into the sun but clouds were skidding across the sky in a strong N wind -- another 3cy buzzard was sat further out in the field waiting its turn on the pigeon so there was no chance of even creeping up the buzzard's side of the hedge; so I crept up the other side of the hedge but it was a thick 1m wide hedge and was solid with branches and leaves; guessing roughly where I thought the bird was I attempted to peer through a very small hole in the hedge and could see the older bird in the field and then suddenly the juvenile flew in and landed on the pigeon only about 30m from the hedge; it was so thick that it could not see me but I couldn't find a hole even big enough for the 70mm diameter lens hood! so I had to try and line up the centre of the field of view with a gap through the leaves that was about 4cm square (upper pic)-- inevitably many images had a green tinge but sometimes I found the gap in spite of being blown about by the wind and attempting to compensate for the blowing leaves; the bird was so oblivious to my presence that it even picked up the pigeon and flew closer to me at one stage but as shown below there was just no way that I could get the bird in the clear spot with its wings open as it took off which was such a shame! so photos I was pleased with and ones that I would not have got leaving the 500 in the car but not the simple shot that many non-photographers would imagine -- the images below are cropped with the greenery removed from the sides
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