Leucistic Moorhen

[Rich Steel]

Hi

The moorhens on one of my local lakes have produced two very rare leucistic young. Last year there was reckoned to be about 4 of these white versions of the moorhen in the UK, one of which was on my local lake but apparently disappeared. They are beautiful birds but a bit of an exposure nightmare as the white on them is dazzling. I only found out about them this week so my next mission is to try and get a photo of both these young birds in one frame. This was taken in a short session before heading to the office this morning.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k217/squidfish_2006/wmoor14.jpg

Taken with 1Dmk3 and 500mm lens at ISO400 F5 1/1000s -1EV.

Cheers

Rich

[Krijn Trimbos]

So weird! Love what you did with the black BG, makes this that much weirder! Do wish for a bit more headangle towards you, and would get rid of the two darker dots left of the head. Otherwise very well done, cool!

[Charles Glatzer]

Rich,

Time and time again I here how exposing for white is a problem. Yes, if you use Eval and the subject is small relative to darker background..Try spot metering the white highlights and adding (plus) 2 FULL STOPS. Spot metering negates everything that is not within the spot pattern, the background becomes irrelevant. Spot metering renders everything within the pattern as a midtone value. You need only add or subtract expsoure to render the value properly above or below the mid-tone. Plus exposure to render the value lighter, minus exposure to render the value darker.

Try it you will be amazed.

Best,

Chas

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, details and angle. I agree regarding the head angle and great exposure idea by Chas.

[Ramon M. Casares]

This is just amazing!!! Love the great and unique find and the tech are right on! CVongratulations!

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely, Rich. Great light and the black/white contrast works well.

[Juan Aragonés]

Very nice job exposure here Rich and a very cool moorhen for sure.

[Rich Steel]

Thanks for the replies. I intend to spend a bit more time with these moorhens given their rareity.

Chas, many thanks for the info on the spot metering I will be definately be giving that a go on my next visit.

Cheers

Rich