Yep, this one has a story. This shot cost me my ankle.
It was New Years Day 2014 and a strong blizzard was bearing down on our area. The day before, I had seen a bald eagle fly right in front of my car as I was driving my wife to work. Having New Year's Day off, I knew I'd have the opportunity to go back to see if I could grab a few photos.
Where I live, wildlife is not very abundant. We have all the common mammals (racoons, possum, occasional foxes and coyotes), but we don't see many "big ticket" animals such as the bald eagle.
Sheryl and I set out in the raging snow on New Years morning to see if we could locate the eagles and hopefully snap a few pictures. There they were! Five that I could count scattered in trees along the banks of the Fox River. I parked in an empty parking lot across from the river and I was "only going to be a few minutes". As I made my way across the road and down a paved drive of a restaurant, I slipped on glare ice and went down on my ankle. From where I was, Sheryl could not see what happened and unfortunately for me, there were no other foolish people out in this weather that I could yell to. I heard my ankle snap as I went down and knew it wasn't good. Knowing that I could not get back to my feet on the ice, I crawled back up the hill, got up on my one good leg with a backpack of camera gear, and used my tripod as a crutch to hobble back to the car.
(At this point I hadn't yet shot a single frame)
Sheryl and I drove to the other side of the river, where I stood in a parking lot, my ankle starting to throb but not badly since it was so cold. I rattled off a couple dozen photos before heading home to get off the foot. See the other photos
here.
High ankle sprain, slight fracture at the end of the shin bone and some torn ligaments. Six weeks in a boot with 3 hours of driving each day back and forth to work. Not my best move, but I did get some good photos!
Canon EOS 5D, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5/5.6L IS @ 400mm, 1/2000 sec @f/5.6, ISO equiv 800, Calumet 8000 Carbon Fiber Tripod, Gitzo G1276 Ballhead
