Willing Subject - Not So Cooperative Lighting

Beautiful day outside, I was heading towards town, down a country road when I passed a buzzard resting on a fence post. As I passed, I noticed that he didn't even flinch. Well, this might just be a great opportunity! I pulled to the side of the road, took my camera out, did a U-turn and approached the bird in my car. I knew better than to get out of the car, so approached slowly.

This is the first shot that I took. He didn't seem bothered by my approach, so I continued on moving closer. Note that I'm posting these pictures as they were shot and haven't modified the lighting or contrast in Photoshop so you can see exactly what my problem was.

It was pretty cool that this guy was going to be pretty cooperative, I was delighted!

It was great fun that he didn't spook or flinch or even appear to want to leave as I got closer and closer.

I was noticing that I was having some troubles with the lighting - dark shadows that were hiding some really interesting parts of this bird.

I tried driving to the other side of him, but still not getting what I wanted. I was north of the bird and the sun south and slightly west. I couldn't get to the south side of the bird as it was a field and there was likelihood that I might get stuck in there. Mother Nature refused to move the sun to accommodate me, so I worked with what I had.

I wanted to get an action shot of him taking flight. I was alone in the car and hoped that if I focused then blew the horn, turning on my rapid shoot option that I might get a good one of him spreading his wings and leaving. It took some creative moves to get him in focus, hold the camera and shutter with my right hand while honking the horn with my right elbow. I managed it! Mr. Buzzard just stood there and looked at me. Oh, well, fail that move!

Finally he decided that I'd had enough of a turn and he took off for a nice flight with a view of the river below the bluff. Thanks, Mr. Buzzard.

When I got home and pulled up the photos on my computer, I was indeed disappointed with the pictures, as you can easily see the dark spots. I pulled up Photoshop and tried to work with the lighting and contrast, but still, the dark areas were too dark to do any justice. I suppose I must be happy with what I got as an opportunity like this doesn't come along very often!

If you have any suggestions for what I can do in the future, I'd love to hear them.

Happy shooting!