Avian IOTW 3/12/10 Paul Leverington
Congratulations Paul Leverington
"KICKIN UP THE DUST"
Mark IV 600/4 1/1250@5.6 ISO 800 (Baited with beef stew meat--I have never used live bait)
This shot is a vignette of the total scene I was working with and only became a composition when he decided to land where he did. Given that there was a nice rounded stick ready with a snack, I wonder why he landed on these sharp ones instead. One of the things I worked on for this shot was to be below him looking up, while yet he is right over the ground. This was accomplished by being downhill of him, tripod and myself standing, with the lens I would say a good 8 feet below his altitude. The scene is actually on the downhill somewhat. This then also gives any snow a dark BG for which to stand out against, augmenting it's power, plus helps eliminate any ground based obstacles for clean controlled composition(behind the scene and over and past the crest of the hill). I took great care to line up areas in the bg forest where I could utilize lighter and darker regions for effect, and having those differences gave me options in composition over the many shooting compositions I tried this winter. The location was also established for distance to the BG to provide a good BG blur even at F8 if necessary. The sticks I had to hike out of the woods a mile and a half, cart them in my truck to my house, and after being prepped moved once again by truck to the shooting location and hiked in. They were selected for the unusual almost black color and sharp pointed ends. I felt that would work well with a cold unforgiving winters theme. A lot of work as some where very large. About six trips with a hired hand to help--I think we broke 75% of the pointed ends off before I got them to the shooting location. There were 44 of them-only a few of which are showing here. When I glued them to the base boards of plywood inside my living room it was quite a different home decorating look! My cats loved it--scratching posts everywhere! I found after a clean sawsall cut on the stumps polyurethane glue works real good to hold and seal the bottom of the stump to the plywood. I then seal the plywood so as to get a few years use out of them. It may be hard to see them but I placed dried oak branches that still had their leaves in the BG forest to add a touch of warmth which strengthens via a supporting subordinate color the powerful tail color.
I put a frame on this as someone mentioned once they could not see where the image started with a region of white snow against a white web page.
Paul
*Your comments, thoughts, and ideas are most welcome. That which doesn't kill me shall only make me a better picture taker!.
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