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Shorebird Pano Habitat Image #1
Semipalmated Plover on mudflat with invertebrate burrows, extreme pano
This image was created on 11 May 2021 on the second day of my recent busman’s holiday at Fort DeSoto. Working one the Panning Ground Pod while seated, I used the Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body). ISO 500. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1/800 sec. at f/9 (stopped don 1/3 stop) in Manual mode. AWB at 9:09am when a light cloud obscured the sun for a bit.
Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly.
It is not uncommon to see large areas of exposed mudflats at North Beach in Fort DeSoto dotted with small mounds and pyramidal & irregularly-shaped structures of wet sand. Such landscapes remind me of Mono Lake, but on a much tinier scale, of course. They can be strangely beautiful. With no birds in sight, I set up my gear abutting a small pool on a rising tide with the flat as described above. The little sand piles were so pretty that I made a few images of them without any birds.
The habitat looked perfect for shorebirds and I was confident that I would get some birds. It was a case of if you sit, they will come. The SEPL featured in Image #1 was the first to venture into the shallow pool to feed. It was soon joined by a few more semi-plovers, about a dozen Dunlin, a Black-bellied Plover, and a Willet. Many of the shorebirds wound up coming quite close. Image #1, however, the one of those that showed the habitat quite well, was my favorite from the session by the pretty little mudflat.
As for the image, don't be shy; all comments are welcome and appreciated. To learn more about the creation of this image, to see the Eye AF performance at 1200mm, to learn about the Panning Ground Pod, or to learn about the Sony Alpha a1 Info and Updates Group, see the blog post here.
with love, artie
