Night time Water Rail

[Mike Poole]

179678


Taken from a set up where there some floodlights put into the water along with some bait to try and get something different before the sun rose. Fortunately these birds can hold their pose for a while before darting for their food, so it gave me a fighting chance of something sharp with unusual settings.

Canon 1dx
500mm f4
ISO 3200
1/80th f4

Camera just resting on a concrete slab in the water

Mike

[Dorian Anderson]

This is a an astoundingly good photo in my book. Most bird photographers aren't also hardcore birders, so many won't appreciate
how difficult it is to see - let alone photograph - rails. They are one of my favorite bird families, and I am super envious of this shot.
Sharpness looks really good given the conditions, and the black BG and contrast are just killer. Really well done!

[Jake Levin]

Great bird, great shot. It's fortunate you had the concrete slab to steady the camera. Despite the tricky conditions there's lots of detail, and you even have the little ripples on the water surface to the bird's left. Nice job!

[John Mack]

Pretty neat. Very sharp for 1/80sec. The low angle and reflection are spot on. Details look great. I hear rails at my local wildlife refuge but never see them.

[Paul Burdett]

Ditto the positive comments. Superb shot!

[Isaac Grant]

Lifelong birder in me loves this. And I love that you were out at night getting it. Kudos for that Mike. When other people were home you were out making a super cool and unique image. I know you mentioned that you are not a big fan of flash but there is a whole world of activity going on at night and beautiful images like this to be made when using it or some type of spot light. Considering the circumstances the image quality is very good. I think had you used flash you could have really frozen the action and gotten a razor sharp image. Although I do not know if the bird would have flushed. I know that the owls that I shoot never flush from the flash.

[Steve Kaluski]

Good detail and overall colour here Mike, like the SA hides, it great when they are at such a low level.

Looks like Alan McFadyens Scottish hides in Dumfries, as a very good friends of mine did the drone work for him, promoting the location and the various hides.

TFS
Steve

[greg cowle]

Really dramatic, really well done. Agree with Isaac on experimenting with flash, although I don't know if it would have altered the dramatic black background you achieved here.

[Bill Dix]

This is an amazing and unique shot of a bird that is normally difficult to photograph. I don't know that flash would have made it better. My only nit is that I find the double catchlight a little distracting, especially in the reflection, and I might tone down the highlight on the reflected bill. Wish this were mine. Congratulations for being there, and for getting the shot under tricky circumstances.

[arash_hazeghi]

look great and you handled the artificial light nicely I might clone out the small specular reflection on the mirror image of the bill on the water and also the 2nd catchlight from the flood light, excellent work Mike

[Arthur Morris]

As a 35-year photographer I just love this one. Fabulous technique resulted in a fabulous image. Ditto Arash on losing the reflection of the specular highlight.

with love, artie

[William Dickson]

Love it Mike....I know how difficult they are...so to get one in conditions like this is tops...Yes, I think I will be giving a visit :S3:

Will

[Alex Becker]

What a work of art. I love the background pose and details especially in these conditions. TFS