Quicksilver

[Doug Brown]

I photographed this Eared Grebe at Bolsa Chica a couple of months ago. Due to a combination of cloud cover and sunshine, the water had a quicksilver look to it. This grebe gave me a good look.

Canon 50D, 700mm, f/7.1, 1/2000, ISO 400, no flash, hand held

[denise ippolito]

How do you HH that lens w/ ex? beautiful shot, love the water color and reflection

[Doug Brown]

It takes a little getting used to, but it's not that difficult. Of course I'm a big guy, so that helps. I'll be co-leading Jim Neiger's flight workshop starting this Friday, and he gets plenty of women in his courses who want to learn hand held flight; some do quite well hand holding the 500. Lately I've taken to hand holding the 600 with a 1.4x. That's not nearly as easy, but it has the same benefits as hand holding the 500.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice title, quite apropos. Love the smooth water. The yellow eye pops nicely against an otherwise monochromatic-looking image.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the monochromatic feel, details and reflection. A slightly lower angle would have been even nicer.

[Doug Brown]

Unfortunately a lower angle is not possible at Bolsa. At least the steeper angle allowed for a better reflection in this instance.

[Alan Melle]

Nice pose by the grebe with a good headturn. Great light and water makes for a great reflection and BG. Very nice!

[bill kominsky]

I'm a big guy as well and totally cannot hand hold my 500, the images are bad enough on the tri-pod. The image is beautiful as shown with great clarity and depth, my mission is to one day meet you Doug, nice job.

Bill