Offering in the spotlight...
EOS R EF400 DO I 2xtc II f11 1/250 ISO 200 manual exposure
The other morning, I arrived just before sunrise and decided to put on the 2xtc for an intimate view of the males' fly-ins. It was however a blustery cloudy morning and I was at 1600+ for ISO for the 45 minutes I was working this nest. Then as I was looking through the viewfinder at the female she started her usual reaction to the males return. At the same time, the sun popped through the clouds for the first time(only lasted for this fly-in). I didn't even look up to catch the male as I stayed in the viewfinder and furiously dialed back the ISO til it looked reasonable in the viewfinder with their faces and bodies not overblown and the shadowed BG was dark. Then I mashed the trigger and concentrated on the aim with the AF box. As I looked at it in DPP, I left the shadow and highlight bars alone as I liked the high contrast feel and the well lit faces of both. The deep shadows added to the effect.
I'm a newbie to manual exposure and would have loved to only backed off to 400 ISO and increased the shutter speed. All the other frames in this short burst had even more motion blur. Also, I was off the light angle to my left due to nest branches blocking even more of the view. This is almost full frame horizontal with a little off the top and the sides cropped in to avoid many more branches. I know most don't like cluttered nest images, but I can't resist the chance for yet another angle at the almost iconic bonding of these beautiful herons. She was just accepting the offering in this frame and per usual behavior they both placed it in the nest.
As always comments,critiques and discussions very appreciated and welcome.
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