My first published AND paying photograph!

Today was a fantastic day! One of the eagle photos I featured in my April 4th Random Photo Friday post was published in this week's edition of  The Georgia Straight, Vancouver's popular entertainment newspaper, which came out today - and they're sending me a cheque for the privilege! Wohooooo! I'm absolutely thrilled....to say the least. (I was delighted when a couple of my flower photographs were published before - used for the poster and promotional materials to North Vancouver Arts Council's annual 'Art in the Garden' event - 2011 & 2013.) It's the first time I've submitted a photo to The Straight and I sent it in just a few days after snapping the original shot down at Spanish Banks on April 1st.

Published in this week's Georgia Straight - April 17, 2014

I was pretty happy when they emailed me right back saying, "Awesome work, Katrina" and then, a couple of days ago, they sent me another email confirming it would be in this week's edition. Needless to say, I picked up a copy and Lorne, sweety that he is, came home with about 5 more 'spares'.   :-)

The original photo - taken April 1, 2014

I was amazed that the timing was so perfect for me to catch this shot in the first place, especially so close up, but to see it in print, with my name right there, is an amazing feeling - the fact they're apparently sending me a cheque too is pure bonus!

Naturally I shared this news on Facebook and have had some lovely compliments. Even a guy I worked with a couple of years ago (who's also an avid photographer and has had his pics published in the Straight) had seen my photo in this week's edition and took the time to send me a congratulatory note - we're not actually FB 'friends' but he messaged me to say congrats on a stunning photograph. How nice is that?!! :-)

Furthermore, in the past couple of weeks I've updated my Flickr photos, not least to include the eagle shots, but to add the pet portraits, that way I at least have somewhere to point people to (since I was asked) until I might get an actual website going. I noticed just a couple of days ago that The Georgia Straight also has a Flickr group, which you can join and upload 10 pics/day and they might get used/acknowledged on their website, while simultaneously linking back to you/your Flickr site, so I added my first 10 pics.

Imagine my double excitement when I checked my Flickr site tonight (to happily add the above photo to my 'Published' set) and I noticed they have already marked one of my first 10 pics as a favourite.

Selected today as a 'favourite' in the
Georgia Straight's Flickr group.

Heck, after a day like today, maybe they really are :-)

Random Photo Friday: Timing is everything!

Finding yourself in the right place, at the right time, WITH your camera AND a zoom lens, is a rare and wonderful thing indeed!

Basically never have the photographic stars aligned in my world, such that I'm casually wandering along, armed not only with my DSLR camera, but also kitted with its 300mm VR zoom lens and ready to go at a moment's notice.....when the absolute perfect moment just happens! But - holy cow - did it ever, just a couple of days ago. And here is the result:

It's not so much that he'd just caught a fish, but rather his massive talons
were so deeply embedded into a dead, half-mangled fish, that it made
take-off and landing a right bugger.

Let's just say, it was a gorgeous, sunny and mild (13C) Spring day and I decided to walk down to the local 'doggy beach' past Spanish Banks, to try my hand at a few more candid doggy shots, having got a few good pics down at the Kits Beach/Marine Museum doggy area the day before.

Lorne and I have made the 90-minute drive up to Brackendale (near Squamish) to see the eagles (Dec-Jan) a few times but we have yet to experience anything nearly this amazing. In fact, the past couple of visits to Brackendale, we counted only a handful of far-off eagles, nothing that you could confidently pinpoint on a photograph, other than a white-headed blob. At Spanish Banks I crept down to the edge of the tide and literally got within 30-40ft of this incredible adult eagle.

It's safe to say, I NEVER would have expected to get these pics, least of all during a casual afternoon walk at the beach, just a kilometre or so from home!

So incredibly majestic and powerful.
I still cannot believe I got this shot. 

What's more, when you go to Brackendale there are lines of avid photographers with their big guns - some seriously enormous zoom lenses and expensive high-tech gear - I always feel so amateur. In this instance, I was surrounded by people armed only with Iphones, so for once I looked like the pro! (Thanks in part to Lorne, for the upgraded zoom lens he gave me for Christmas 2012.)

The main challenge was zooming in just enough to get the shot but not so much that you risk the long lens creating blur from being handheld, even with built-in VR. Not to mention that whole depth of field thing. Of course I still see a little softness to them, but on the whole I'm very happy with what I got.

Naturally I posted these pics of Facebook too and got some wonderful (ego-boosting) feedback and I've decided to submit a couple of them to the local media, mainly just to get the coverage.

But seriously, what a unique and A-M-A-Z-I-N-G experience! And I could have probably taken lots more photos too, were it not for these two rambunctious goofs who came tearing down the beach and into the water, thinking they had a chance at catching Mr. Eagle.