Aerial Tug-O-War

by Mike Lee

Title

Aerial Tug-O-War

Artist

Mike Lee

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

EDIT 10/5/22:
This image is the recipient of the People's Choice Award in the 2022 annual California Trout Photography Contest after being selected by the judges to be one of 25 finalists of 500+ images submitted.

While on one of our great father-son fishing trips, my son hooked a small trout in Baum Lake (Shasta County, California, USA). As he tried to reel the fish in to release it, the fish got a bit of an extra roller-coaster ride courtesy of an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that had been observing the scene from a nearby tree for a time. As I was trying to get shots of jumping trout while my boy reeled it in, I had the camera aimed and focused to just about the right spot to capture the scene unfold. This frame was caught just after the wonderful raptor grabbed the fish but before I could widen my zoom out to get the whole bird in the frame. I went ahead and cropped this frame tight to highlight the details of the water drops and the intensity in the bird’s eyes as it tried to take off with the fish.

Aside from a small nick near the fish’s tail, it was unharmed and swam away, presumably to tell its friends not to eat the gold spinny thingies.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴. 𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘴, 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘴—𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘈 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴.

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May 2nd, 2022

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