Eagles Port -- Barley Falls, Geelong

This is one of my favorite pictures. A chance encounter, totally unexpected -- I was walking along a remote path heading home after finishing taking a whole bunch of shots of a nearby water fall - when I heard some squawking magpie's above my head. I looked up and saw that about 3 of them were harassing this huge eagle. I couldn't believe my luck, I was so close to it. A tense, focused feeling came over me (you know that feeling you get when have to work fast, but you're conscious that any wrong move might totally ruin the situation), so I swiftly took my backpack off, knowing I had my 18-55mm lens on (from taking landscapes) and needing to switch it to my 210mm as quickly as possible. I lay everything down on the dewy ground without looking up, and in one motion attached the zoom lens, extended it and turned on the camera. I quickly switched to auto and burst mode (no time to adjust any manual settings), aimed straight at the eagle and held down the shutter. The first couple of pics were blurry, then this one focused beautifully. A second later it flew off with magpies in pursuit and an intense 30 seconds was over.

EagleTreeWatchfulClawGeelongBarwon RiverMagpie18mm55mm lensVictoriaAustralia

From Buckley Falls