Bald Eagles In The Rain At Millerton Lake

Dale Matson

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Millerton Lake

There is an old saying, “A blind pig will find an acorn if he hunts long enough.”

I know where the eagles are supposed to hang out at Millerton and have seen them off and on for 25 years. Most of the time I was running the route that leads from the historic courthouse to a trail that leads to Winchell Cove where the bald eagles had a nest along the trail portion.

Eagles like high vantage points and I recently had one land in the top of a nearby tree while I was taking landscape photos in the early morning. Millerton Lake is a half million acre-foot reservoir only 20 minutes from my home in Fresno CA. I have never fished in the lake but my wife, friends and I swim there once a week during the warmer 6 months of the year. And of course mountain biked and ran the trails also.

I drove there Saturday in a seasonal rainstorm hoping the eagles would show up. As I drove up toward the tall tree, I could see a large dark bird on a limb and assumed it was a juvenile eagle. The eagle was cooperative and allowed me to leave my truck and approach for closer photographs. In the low light and in the “shade” of the inner branches, the photographs were not optimal. I had a 70-300mm lens on my Sony Camera and of course more magnification would have been nice but…such is life.

After about 15 minutes a pair of bald eagles arrived and landed in the top of the tree. What a treat! They remained there until I grew arm weary taking photographs. The photos show that the birds are obviously soaked from the rain. It was one more moment in time where persistence and patience shook hands with good fortune.

Leica M Elmarit 28mm f2.8 and Sony A7R2

Dale Matson

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I really like the small size, handling, build quality, sheer beauty of the lens and photographs this lens produces. There is some vignetting which can be dealt with in Photoshop. Some of the helping features of the A7R2 like focus magnification and peaking assist in fine-tuning the focus. An additional Sony feature I recently discovered is “Clear Zoom” which can double the image size.. My eyes aren’t that good but I believe the quality is not that diminished when using it. I programmed one of the buttons for this feature. After using the native manual focus Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2, I found that I enjoyed the process. The adapter I used does not convey any information to the camera. the photographs of the camera and lens were taken with a Sony RX1R using the macro feature on the Zeiss f2 lens.

  

Clear Zoom

 Clear Zoom

Millerton Lake At Sunrise

What I Too Easily Took For Granted: ADLs

Dale Matson

One comes to reluctantly accept life’s personal limitations and physical ability. As family and friends decline and even some, sadly pass on, there is a sense of survivor guilt. My best friend of over fifty years recently died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.

Whether we admit it or not, we sometimes try and strike a deal with God to perform this or that meaningful deed before our life comes to an end. It reminds me of the actor in The Seventh Seal pleading with death that he still had a contract to perform.

My recent treadmill stress test led to a definitive angiogram, which led to stents in an artery blocked by plaque. The blood thinner (Plavix) “exposed” longstanding but undiagnosed ulcers in my stomach with resultant serious bleeding. This led to another hospitalization with the difficult choice of stopping the Plavix, which keeps blood from clotting in the stents or continuing the Plavix and needing a transfusion with all the risks that entailed. A Gastroenterologist was called in to cauterize the ulcers and I was released with the hope that things were stabilized.

The three days were filled with anxiety, lonely, enforced, seemingly endless and restrictive and that is the point of this account. It is only too easy to take the activities of daily living (ADL) for granted. These ADLs, the ordinary things of life are taken for granted until they are taken away. For example, the chores of brushing one’s teeth or showering at home, when performed in a hospital, become a privilege and can push aside the dehumanization of hospitalization. For convenience and efficiency you are not even processed as a number. Your wrist contains a band with a bar code that is frequently scanned, making you an ‘inventory’ item.

IV lines installed in your wrist and arm to infuse medication limit your movement. All too often a slight arm movement will trigger a loud beep on a machine that needs to be reset by a person not immediately available.

Procedures and protocols dictate treatment as staff moves by endlessly this way and then that way. Doctors of course, are the final arbiters of meds and treatment decisions. They also say when you can leave. Using the bathroom is an advanced stage of treatment along with walking unaccompanied down the hall. Sitting in a chair, standing up, walking make you feel human again. So and so will see you soon but waiting is more like waiting for Godot.

I understand this process and realize that what I experienced was minimal and of short duration. I don’t resent this experience or the well intended staff and treatment I underwent. What is shameful and difficult to express is the anxiety and uncertainty, which dominated my thinking during this time. I should have appreciated and trusted in the many caring brothers and sisters holding me aloft and their prayers for God’s guidance of the treatment efforts. This experience ‘rehumanizes’. It makes me pose the questions once again. “What have I done with this day?” “At the end of this day, if I am granted a tomorrow will I be a good steward of that time?” “Will I appreciate more fully the simple ADLs of daily life daily?

Thank You Lord,

Your unprofitable servant Dale        

 

    

The Photographers Dilemma: Have You Been There Too?

Dale Matson

So, I was sitting in my truck near Millerton Lake before sunrise and waiting for the local bald eagle to drop by and land in a nearby tree. It was a cold morning and after shutting down the engine, I rolled down the window to get a clear shot if the eagle landed. It began getting cold inside the cab so I rolled the window back up but then I couldn’t take a clear shot at the bird. I had the telephoto lens on but brought my Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8 and Loxia 50mm f2 for some early sunrise shots before it became too overcast out over the lake.

Well, the sunrise looked nice and I guessed I could switch lenses, drive over to a good spot for a few shots over the lake and come back for a shot of the eagle in a minute. I switched lenses and drive about a quarter mile for my landscape shots.

I got a nice shot in low light with the Batis 85 followed by a couple nice shots in low light with the loxia but what was that…Oh shoot, here comes the eagle. I got a low light shot of the eagle flying by and disappearing in the distance with my Loxia. If I had only shot first with the Loxia and then the Batis 85, the Sony fe 70-300 shot at f 5.6 would have been too grainy in the low light anyway. Next time however, I need to ask myself the basic question. “Why am I here today?”

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Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8

Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2.0

Eagle In Center