Behind the Image #3 - Rabbit eating seeds on my patio
What creates motivation is different every day and for everyone. Often times, I find motivation to grab my camera while I am just sitting watching television. This photo opportunity was one of those times.
As you may have noticed from some of my bird pictures, I have a bird feeder outside of my patio door, hanging on the overhang. This is great for the birds, but also apparently for other wildlife that opts to take advantage of uneaten seeds dropped to the ground.
This little guy appeared one Saturday morning, and was out eating for almost an hour. I noticed him as I opened the blinds in the morning and was about to open the door (I have French doors and love to leave them open as much as I can), but when I saw him enjoying the seeds, I decided to leave the door closed and not bother him.
As I watched for a few minutes, I then walked away and grabbed my camera, with my 70-200 lens. My challenge with this shot, as you might imagine, is that I had to take the photo through the glass window in my door. So the challenges this presents are window glare, reflection, odd lighting, and limitations to zooming and positioning.
The first thing I did was grab my CPL filter, which I have had a lot of luck with in removing reflections - and it also helped to prevent some of the bad glare I was getting from the morning sun. Next, I just set my zoom all the way out to 200, and then switched to manual focus, because the lens was struggling with auto-focusing through the window, and other than chewing, the rabbit was pretty still.
From there, I just started snapping photos and got some pretty good ones. Coming through the glass, this still wasn't as tack-sharp as I wanted it to be, but a good shot none-the-less. And although I was able to get some nice color shots, if you have been following me long enough, you know that black & white is my true preference and passion. This one, in my opinion, was a great shot in black & white, so I was very pleased.
Shortly after I finished these shots, I guess this little one got his fill - he left and I haven't seen him since.