This image is the recipient of the People’s Choice Award in the 2022 annual California Trout Photography Contest after being selected by the judges to be one of 25 finalists of 500+ images submitted.
While on one of our great father-son fishing trips, my son hooked a small trout in Baum Lake (Shasta County, California, USA). As he tried to reel the fish in to release it, the fish got a bit of an extra roller-coaster ride courtesy of an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that had been observing the scene from a nearby tree for a time. As I was trying to get shots of jumping trout while my boy reeled it in, I had the camera aimed and focused to just about the right spot to capture the scene unfold. This frame was caught just after the wonderful raptor grabbed the fish but before I could widen my zoom out to get the whole bird in the frame. I went ahead and cropped this frame tight to highlight the details of the water drops and the intensity in the bird’s eyes as it tried to take off with the fish.
Aside from a small nick near the fish’s tail, it was unharmed and swam away, presumably to tell its friends not to eat the gold spinny thingies.
Prints available here.