The freedom of flight

While traveling through spain and hiking a lot onto small mountains, I encountered a lot of different birds of prey. These animals fascinate me a lot. They seem to fly so effortless using the thermal, gliding through the air. It seems like they can go where ever they want and as a human with his two feet on the ground it was always impossible to catch up with them.

While traveling I developed a new passion for photography and I got intrigued to shoot a good picture of one of those great birds. I would still consider me a total newbie in photography as I am still struggling with the fundamentals like getting the exposure right. Therefore every time I had the chance to take a picture of one of these birds, I ruined it because I used the wrong shutter speed or couldn't get the focus right. Also most of the time they were just too far above and I had to crop the photo until you could see every pixel. I find it very interesting (and also a bit ironic), that the freedom to fly makes them so interesting to photograph but also equally hard.

Yesterday, finally when I scrambled down a mountain, returning from a hike, I got the perfect opportunity. I was just taking a short break, when I heard a "Swoooosh" directly over my head. I looked up and saw a giant vulture flying just a few meters above me. I grabbed my camera and when he returned, although I was very excited, I did not make any big mistakes this time. I was very happy to make my first good shot depicting the freedom of flight of this great vulture.

Canon EOS 50D | Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM | ISO 100 | F7.1 | 85mm | 1/400sec

This is my entry for the A - Z Photography Contest Week 5: The Letter F which is hosted by @sustainablyyours. He is giving away steembasicincomes for the three winners, so check it out here.