Permission to land - Jabaru stork

[Robert Campbell]

Barranco Alto Fazenda - Rio Negro - Pantanal - Brazil

This receding flood-lake was crammed with Jabaru storks (Tuiuiu in portuguese - pronounced too-you-you), wood storks (cabeca secas), muscovy ducks, tree ducks, caiman alligators, with everyone eating the captive fish, and the alligators eating one or two jabaru when they couldn't catch a fish. We counted, I think, 16 different avian varieties.

I could hardly hear myself think with the noise - wonderful experience. The next day, the lake was totally empty.

My Mk III was new and I was practising, and it was before the all-important Canon firmware upgrade - so I think the settings are probably irrelevant, and more misleading than informative! But I know the lens was a 100-400.

The Pantanal area of Brazil, by the way, is absolutely wonderful for people who love nature and love photographing birds. It's a very flat area about the size of Belgium that gets water-logged each year - so there are no asphalt roads, no gas stations, no stores, no police, no hospitals, no politicians - wonderful!

I once drove to a fishing camp in the Pantanal, 280 kms from a tarred road, using GPS coordinates to get us from one gate to another, and camping on the way. The wild life was simply out of this world. The ranches are almost the size of ranches in Texas, so you can imagine - they're BIG! I've been there lots of times, and can try to be of help if anyone is interested.

I'll post more Pantanal pictures to give you guys an idea of what it's like, but only in December. In the meantime, I'm driving up to Bahia for some golf and beaches, but with my camera, of course.

Thanks for looking.

Robert

[Adams Serra]

Oi Robert,
Thank you for the info about the Pantanal, i would love to spend some time there.
Quem sabe um dia.

Adams

[Jeni Williams]

Must have been awesome Robert. Thanks for sharing.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Robert Even without the firmware all info is just as valid particularly exp and f stop which will help critiquing the image.

For this and others with lots of white birds you need real soft light to make them look special, lots of contrast . Would also try using the largest aperture for minimizing dof in the trees. Do lik the composition with the bird landing in front of the flock, great way of taking advantage of your focal legth !!

Almost made it to Pantanal last year and sure hope I can make it some day Does look to be one amazing place !!!

[Robert Campbell]

Thank you, Alfred. here are the details:

Date/Time: 2007:11:06 18:03:21
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec Aperture: 6.3
Exposure mode: Av Exposure compensation: -2/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous
ISO: 400
Lens: EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal length: 400mm
Subject distance: 112 m
AF mode: AI Servo AF

Just one question. You say "real soft light to make them look special, lots of contrast" - isn't contrast the opposite to real soft light? As you can see, it was after 6pm, yet still quite harsh sun - and I had to just take what I was offered. How would you have exposed this image to soften it? I agree, I would have liked to have a more blurred BG - the trees and foliage are ugly.

Thanks for looking.

Robert

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Robert I meant you have lots of contrast in your image, the light is harsh.

Not much you can do about the light except shooting later. Normally I don't bother to shoot if I know the contrast will be a problem since the image will be deleted.

You did well with the compensation. For this particular image would have used manual since in manual you have fine control. On any Auto mode ( Av, Tv or P ) the bg and subject size will determine the exposure but your subject is in the same light.

One other suggestion is using the widest aperture for blurring the bg in this case 5.6 ( not a huge difference) As presented can select and do some blurring in PS It is a very nice image !!1

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Robert,
You have allot of action going on. You need to watch the light at all times. Lighting is he key to a good image. The light you were working with is very harsh. Very good advise given by Mr. Forns. Looking forward to your next capture...:cool: