I’d finished my conservation work for the day and headed out for another wander.
Near our accommodation was a lovely wooded walkway beside the river, with mangrove vegetation and stretches of riverbed that became accessible during the dry season.
It was familiar territory. The same river where I’d enjoyed some rather memorable fishing adventures, including encounters with piranhas.
But this time I was looking for birds.
And there, high above me, was a bat falcon enjoying his lunch.
A chick, to be precise.
I stopped to watch. What a magnificent little predator. Those extraordinary eyes, that hooked beak, the beautifully striped undercarriage and what can only be described as a splendid pair of fawn leg warmers!
I managed a series of photographs while he tucked into his meal.
I was also experimenting with my camera settings, particularly ISO and exposure, trying to get the best detail in the bird.
The results were quite revealing.
In some frames, the sky retained its colour, but the falcon became a rather dark silhouette.
In this one, the sky was almost completely washed out.
Technically, not exactly textbook exposure.
But look at his face!
That expression, the detail in his feathers, those enormous eyes and the remains of his lunch tell you everything you need to know.
And I rather like the stark white background.
It wasn’t the photograph I might have planned, but it became my favourite of the sequence.
Sometimes getting the photograph right isn’t quite the same as getting the exposure right.
Behind the Photograph · A Wilder Eye