October 2009 Assignment Winner – Brian Keifer

This was taken at Hawk Mountain’s north lookout on one of the weekends during prime migration season, which also happened to be a fairly prime weekend for the foliage in the area. We were sitting on one of the rocks farthest out and right at the edge so that we had a good view of any birds that came through, but none really came close enough to get a decent shot at.

This fellow came hiking up the trail and stretched out on the rock below us. I saw the photo and nearly fell off my rock trying to get my second body (with the 10-22mm) out of my backpack. I shot probably 12 frames at various focal lengths, orientations, and apertures, and this one was the best of the bunch. (1/25s, f/8 @14mm, ISO 100) If memory serves, I also had a circular polarizer on at the time.