24 Mar 11. While waiting for the second half of the Mountaineer's Basic Photo class to convene Sunday afternoon at the clubhouse on Magnuson Park, I drove down to where the old airstrip used to be located. It has been removed and in its place a series of ponds have been created to make an attempt at returning the area to what was fundamentally wetlands prior to the construction of the Naval Air Station after WWI. There are now a series of ponds that have been created to look very natural with a cement walkway allowing you to meander around all of them. Depending of the timing of your visit, they can be bustling with life, seeming devoid of it, and everything in between. As I was walking along the path between two of the ponds, I was aware of a lot of crow activity very close to me, but they didn't seem to be all that excited by my presence. So I stood still for a few moments trying to determine the source of their activity and then suddenly I realized what was happening. Perched on a log not 10 feet from me was a beautiful raptor quite intent on watching some of the ducks swimming a few yards away. I slowly raised the camera and began to push the shutter. After more than 10 minutes of rearranging electrons, I decided it was time to move on and let the critters do what they were intending prior to my interruption. Several of those shutter presses turned out O.K.; this is one I particularly liked. Since the area is very busy vegetation wise, I elected to use a medium large aperture to soften the background. ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 6.3.
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