On the last day of my trip to Montana, we spent the morning around the house on the Gallatin river. As I sat upstairs processing pictures of Sam the Golden Retriever, an Eagle landed outside the window just out of the camera’s reach through the branches. Sam had given me the perfect practice for this opportunity that morning, posing as a live and naturally active creature. So I ran downstairs, laced my boots, and ran out the back door with the camera in my hands. Not knowing his threshold for safety, I took a few shots as I moved towards him. As I took one slow step closer to 50 feet, he decided that was enough.
I took about 50 shots in under two minutes, as he flew north up the river, turned around, and made another pass to the south. Maybe three pictures were worth keeping, but I learned a lot in the process. Birds and planes are a lot alike to the camera; very often you only get one chance.
Looking back at the pictures now and thinking of these similarities leads me to ask why the bird and airplane are so different. We have been flying for about a hundred years now, and as the airplane has evolved I wonder how often people think back to nature. I used to have a dream of creating a recreational two-seat toy for the water, but this has been done. (IconAircraft.com) Now I want to fly like an Eagle, and I think we have the technology to make it happen.
