Not sure what I could have done to make this shot better, under the circumstances. I was hanging out at an egret/cormorant rookery on Biscayne Bay. Normally, I see the adult cormorants feeding the young in the nests, but on occasion, they do their feeding in the water. I was as close to them as I could get from the anchored canoe, but thought it might work with some cropping.
Sony a700, Minolta 300mm, 1.4XTC
1/500, f5.6, I believe I had it metered at +1, and I think it still came out a bit too dark.
Connie
Tough exposure but just fine and all sharp. Biggest suggestion is framing a little different but its tough here since you were trying to get in the water splashing Maybe a little more room on the right if you have it. Really neat action and don't see them feeding in the water much .... dangerous enough in dry land !!!! Metering wise is interesting since the bg is dark you figure the meter would open up !!!
.. btw neat canoe in the avatar is it a Wenonah or Mad River? Looks familiar !!!
Alfred,thanks for the comments. I think I metered on the mangroves (like grass) and figured +1 would lighten the birds since they were in the shadows somewhat. It looked dark in PP and so I did a bit more exposure compensation there as well.
Connie, I like the action you captured! Might still try to lighten a bit. Your darks on the birds look good.Details look good and I like that you left room on top for the water splashes. Well done.
Hi Connie,
I like the capture...you did very well in recording the feeding in water...well done...the capture angle is probably as good as could be considering the conditions that you had to work with...I like it...agree on lightening your subjects a little...:cool:
Connie, what was you metering mode and pattern. What did histogram look like, any clippings on the left. I assume it was sunny, morning?
Nice nature shot, lot's of action. I photograph these guys all the time and they are very hard to approach and the dark colors pose exposure challenges for me. You were shooting 420mm focal length, I shoot 400 and can never get close (probably b/c, I am on the shore line). Was this a large crop.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 08-15-2009 at 10:22 PM.
Thanks everyone, appreciate the comments. Alfred, I love my Wenonah, fantastic profile (never catches a drop, even in 2-3ft waves). The Merrimack is a lovely boat, beautifully crafted. Do you and Fabs go out in it to photograph?
Jeff, I cropped about 40-50% on this shot, a bit more than preferred. But I thought the behavior was interesting enough to work with it. There were some clips on the histogram, but only the underside of the left bird's wing.
I used manual metering and on this day I was experimenting with spot metering ('experimenting' is another way of saying I really didn't know what I was doing!). I typically shoot in evaluative.
Connie, in this scene I might select spot too and your metering reference point was good. These guys seem to always left-clip some body parts. I am playing with flash too.
I think the exposure was close maybe another (+1/2),..maybe not,. but the large crop probably made the image a tad soft. Check me out from time to time, I post shots of these guys and always struggle with the results. You did well as, if not better than me. Nice picture, show more if you can, I love these birds.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 08-16-2009 at 01:30 PM.
Cormorants feeding
