It was a dreary, overcast day at Hayden Lake, but about 30 photographers wait patiently to snap the perfect photo. These eagle-eyed — or rather osprey-eyed — photographers have traveled from as far away as Asia to capture pictures of the birds circling the lake before diving down to catch a bright red kokanee for lunch. 

“It’s a risk you're gonna miss something to run and get a hamburger,” said Richard Olsen, who traveled from Colorado to photograph the osprey.

For a roughly two-week period, the kokanee spawning season intersects with the osprey’s migratory patterns, creating prime opportunities for exceptional photos. Shots of ospreys gliding high in the air are nice, but the real prize is photographing them as they skim the surface of the water, lock onto a fish with their talons, and jet upward toward the sky.

“Initially it’s just a big splash of water and when they first come out of the water they're pretty large fish, so they have a hard time getting them up, lifted up out of the water,” Olsen said. “The fish is trying to swim away, it's just a bunch of commotion.”

Getting these photos is incredibly tricky. Adjusting exposure against bright clouds, changing the ISO setting as the sun rises and sets, tweaking shutter speeds and getting the focus just right are all challenges in snapping the ospreys and their prey. One of the most difficult parts, however, is staying on the bird.

"They're moving so fast, and everything's happening; it's tough to track them and be able to stay on the bird when the bird flies," Olsen said. "It's all just practice, like learning how to hit a ball."

The high contrast between the black, brown and white feathers of the ospreys, their glowing yellow eyes, the bright red scales of the kokanees and the water droplets in the air creates stunning visuals. It’s all in the chase to capture the brief ecstasy of the perfect shot.

“So ospreys, you kind of learn what the different wildlife behavior is so that you get to know when they're going to go hunt,” Diane Beard of Rathdrum said. “If they're sitting in a tree and their head starts bobbing, then that means that they're kind of looking at the fish, and they might go.”

It’s not just the birds, but also the supportive community that brings people back year after year. It’s clear that even though they are strangers, some navigating language barriers, local and out-of-town photographers are dedicated to helping each other succeed while staying tight-knit.

“Everybody here is really nice and they care about you as a person, but they also care about the shot,” Beard said. “If there's a bird flying, then somebody will yell, ‘Osprey’ or ‘Diving’ or something like that. They aren't in it just for themselves. They're in it for the experience and they're happy when other people are successful as well.”

An osprey looks forward to eating its recent catch.

    One osprey soars through the air with an unlucky kokanee.
  

    A kokanee is snatched out of the water in Hayden.
  

    A photographer spots an osprey getting ready to dive toward the lake.
  

    One photographer points out an osprey high up in a tree to another photographer.
  

    Photographers line up to snap the perfect shot of an osprey and kokanee.
  

    Five photographers aim their cameras upward to capture photos of ospreys.