Mike’s Photo Blog: Conowingo Dam this morning was ........

...... colder than a witches tit. It was 22F (-5.5C) when I left at 5:15 this morning and almost as cold when I got to the Dam an hour and half later. Being along side the river made it feel colder but I was dressed for it apart from only wearing one pair of wooly socks. Everywhere else was warm and toasty but after standing around for almost 5 hours my feet were not happy at all. Only one pair was mistake #1 of the day, mistake #2 was give any credence to the weather forecast. The forecast was for winds from the WNW which should have been behind me and as there was a high ridge immediately to the rear we should have been fine. The wind was coming from the NE which meant it was blowing across the river right in our faces. Not only was it cold it meant that any fishing from the eagles was towards the wind and away from the assembled photographers. Not ideal at all. I also made a load of silly photographic mistakes, stupid mistakes and I should have known better. I was photographing this pair of perched Bald Eagles and I dropped my shutter speed down from 1/3200 sec to 1/640 sec, after all they were perched side by side in the trees behind us. Then when a flurry of eagle activity took place along the river I forgot to switch back to 1/3200 for a good while. I was fumbling the controls due to wearing gloves for the first time this season, I was trying to acquire the target in a smaller focus mode then when locked on switch to Auto Area mode to track it. I keep missing the right button due to the gloves. It was my first trip this year so I'll remember next time, it probably wont be long because with the present cold snap the Bald Eagle numbers are increasing rapidly as they move South to the always ice free downstream of the dam along with the good fishing opportunities.