A bit too much glass for the shot

We can see that two people on the left of the image were trying to photograph Magra the wedge tail eagle. One was using a phone, and might have got the shot, but the person with what looks like a 150-600mm zoom lens had a bit too much glass to get a shot at that distance. I am not criticising my fellow shooter – that lens would have been good for most of the bird show, but when a wedge tail is that close, well, let’s just say she is well inside the minimum focus distance! I have been in exactly the same situation (I have even shown a sequence with Millie the barking owl flying over my head).

This was shot with the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II at 200mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 320, on the Sony A1. The A1 nailed eye AF on the bird while tracking at 20 fps. I cropped the image to a square, but you are seeing the full vertical extent of the frame.