One sunny day, just south of Newport, a red-shouldered hawk was kind enough to sit for a few photos as he scanned the ground beneath his power-line perch for fresh dinner possibilities. Finding none, and glaring at the encroaching photographer (me) as if he were solely to blame (maybe I was), he departed for greener pastures in a furious flurry of feathers.
Only with the benefit of 20-frames-per-second motor drive (and the blessing of the old adage “it’s better to be lucky than good”) was I able to freeze that instant in time as you see it here. In the split second it took for the hawk to become airborne, every feather and color and pattern of his incredible design flashed on display, faster than the ability of an unaided human eye to perceive it. Only later did I discover I’d even captured this image, leaving me to wonder:
What else do you suppose I might be “seeing but not seeing” as I go about my busy life?
For me, images of this hawk and other living works of wonder depicted on this site represent so much more than “pretty pictures” — they are all reflections, IMHO, of an absolute perfection that surrounds us always, however rarely we might succeed in seeing it.
(These and other high-resolution nature photos may be available in print form in a wide variety of sizes and media types. If interested, contact Nature’s Coast Oregon. All photos copyright 2019, all rights reserved.)
