Week 10: The Challenge Starts Traveling
What have I gotten myself into? Raptors and more ducks, dogs, ice, and frozen water.
PHOTO JOURNAL 2026
James Bradley
3/12/20264 min read
Raptors and more ducks, dogs, ice, and frozen water.
Week 10: The Challenge Starts Traveling
What have I gotten myself into? Raptors and more, ducks, dogs, ice, frozen water…again.
By Week 10, I realize that I can’t stuff this monster back in the box I pulled it out of. It is not going to be perfect. Overlap is bound to happen. Is that an old gnarled tree I see…again? Some photos get posted out of order, and some days I am just trying to keep the whole thing moving without losing track of what I already posted. It’s part of the learning process too, right?
This week I have a good mix of subjects again. There are ducks in flight, a raven from my phone, the dog chasing a ball, a pebble on frozen Mud Lake, a wide, yet compressed landscape (what does this even mean?), and an eagle in flight.
The eagle was actually the first eagle I have even seen and been able to photograph. It turns out that going on a road trip has more benefits than just getting ice cream and looking for Big Horn sheep. Susan and I went to Challis to see if we could find the sheep that always hang out near Challis Hot Springs. We did, in fact, find them, but they were super boring, not a good shot in the bunch. After the strike out with the sheep we went to the ice cream shop in Challis to grab some, you guessed it, ice cream. After acquiring said ice cream we decided to go to the boat launch by the bridge to eat it.
So, long story short, we had been sitting there for about five minutes happily munching on the tasty treat and I looked up to see this bald eagle flying straight at the car from across the river. I almost dropped my ice cream in my lap and yelled “EAGLE, EAGLE, EAGLE”, as I scrambled to get my camera out and get some shots of it! We both laughed about it and I ended up getting some relatively successful shots of it both flying and perching. I was super excited about it! It was a cloudy day and the light was kind of fighting me, like I had a clue how to even set my camera right, so I am grateful for the shots I did get.
I can tell the challenge is starting to spread out more. It was not just home and local practice anymore. I have been shooting every day and it has opened up a lot more chances to find interesting subjects to shoot.
The pebble on the lake photo feels like one of those simple, honest moments. Nothing too fancy, nothing flashy or dramatic, just a quiet interaction with nature. Who knew you could find such interesting things on a frozen lake in the middle of March? I like photos like this, because they remind me that not every image has to be dramatic to be worth taking.
The duck in flight was another attempt at catching motion, and I was still learning how unforgiving wildlife can be. I got lucky with the eagle. These damned ducks are my nemesis to get a good action shot of. They move fast, they do not pose, and they have absolutely no respect for a person still trying to figure out autofocus. But I’ll keep trying. Every one of these attempts taught me something, even if the lesson was mostly, “Well, that did not work.”
My favorite photo this week is probably the eagle in flight. First off, because it's an eagle (‘Merica). It is not perfect, but it feels like one of the stronger wildlife shots from this stage of the challenge. Considering how little I know about this, I’ll take it as a win. The background helps give it some mood, and the eagle stands out enough to make the image work. I was starting to understand why people get hooked on photographing birds. When it works, even a little, it feels pretty dang good.
My least favorite is probably the raven photo from my phone. I like the idea of it, and I like the fact that I grabbed the shot when I had the chance, but the phone stamp and overall framing make it feel less finished than the others. It was taken from about five feet away from the bird and I was behind a sliding glass door, but still, it counts right?
Part of this challenge has always been about taking the shot with whatever camera I had available. The ice photo is interesting to me too. I am starting to pay more attention to texture, shape, and quiet details instead of only looking for obvious subjects. Ice, water, dirt, reflections, and light can all be subjects if I slow down enough to see them. This is one of the bigger lessons I keep running into.
So, Week 10 is over and we’re still moving, the calendar and lack of organization is trying to make things complicated. It could be me though. I am allowed to blame the calendar right? I am still figuring out how to keep all of this organized without making a giant mess, but we’ll talk more about that later. But the volume of photos is adding up, the lessons are adding up, and I can tell that I am starting to look at things differently than I did back in January. This week includes my first duplicate image, the old gnarled tree, and I am sure it will not be the last. I could pretend that it is part of some deep artistic plan but honestly, it was probably jus time learning that if I am going to do a photo a day post for a year, then I’ll need some organization.
I would love to get some feedback from you all about the photography learning process. Please feel free to shoot me an email through my contact page.
