Endangered Splash

[Arthur Morris]

On my Barrow, AK trip a large group of photographers working together were able to get fairly close to a pair of endangered Stellar's Eiders in a tundra pond. At times, simply pressing the shutter button when most folks would not think to do so can result in something different.

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the 1.4X II TC and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/800 sec. at f/8. Some weed clean-up.

Don't be shy. All comments welcome.

ps: This is the drake.

[denise ippolito]

Very different look indeed. I do like the details and the water splash. The BG and environment colors are lovely. Since I am not familiar w/ this species I would love to see what the head looks like.:)

[Arthur Morris]

Here's the whole bird.

[sandy richards]

Artie, is this "OOTB" for you? Hitting the shutter at something less than the perfect second and not having a perfect head shot?? (lol!) ;)

Your wonderful Fractalius work a couple weeks ago was more "OOTB".

This is a "different" shot - I really like the splash and environment, but I, too, would like to see the whole bird. So much so that I'm looking him up now..

Cheers -

Sandy

PS - I see you posted the whole beautiful bird as I was writing..

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Sandy. Yes, this is out of my box :) The image in Pane 3 is surely in the box.

[Indranil Sircar]

Artie, this is an interesting and definitely OOTB composition. I like the splash and the details on the feathers. I am wondering if a bit tighter crop would have made any difference. Thanks for sharing the original; a new species for me!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Infdranil and YAW. This is already a decent crop. I like the compositional balance as is with the reeds on the lower right, the bird and the prominent wave on the left :) Sharp MIV files however do allow for lots of cropping.

[Paul Lagasi]

Artie since this will be one of my hardest birds to photograph, I'd take it in a flash. Without seeing the head any bird person (who owns a bird guide) would recognize this bird..that black dot is pretty telling. Nice capture with the splash, thanks for sharing this one.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Paul. Yes, it is a pretty distinctive duck :) But very hard to photograph at all. I came to Barrow a few years ago and struck out on Eiders. This time I got great stuff on King Eider and the other two endangered ones :)

[Kerry Perkins]

Artie, that is an interesting and different image! Did you get a sequence? Would be cool to see the head coming back out of the water too. Thanks for the education, I didn't know this bird at all. Love the whole bird shot too!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Kerry. I had one other splash shot that I deleted but not the dripping head image. It was very windy and the tundra and ponds were soft and spongy. Also, most folks do not realize that even with a ten fps camera and the shutter button held down you are missing 99% of the action (when using a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec.). Actually, you miss more than 99% of the action if you are in AI Servo AF.....

[denise ippolito]

Thanks Kerry. I had one other splash shot that I deleted but not the dripping head image. It was very windy and the tundra and ponds were soft and spongy. Also, most folks do not realize that even with a ten fps camera and the shutter button held down you are missing 99% of the action (when using a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec.). Actually, you miss more than 99% of the action if you are in AI Servo AF.....

Artie, Can you elaborate on that for me? :)

[Arthur Morris]

Surely :)
I learned the basics of this from Joe McDonald's Safari book.

You are using high speed drive and working at 1/1000 sec. (It makes the math easier :)) The bird does something interesting so you hold the shutter button down for exactly one second. How many images do you make in one full second if you are firing away with a ten frames per second camera? That's easy: ten. That's why it is called 10 frames per second, you make 10 frames in exactly one second.

Okay, now, how many 1/1000ths of a second are there in one second? That's easy: 1/1000 sec. means that you have divided one second into one thousand tiny parts. How many parts? 1000. So there are 1000 thousandths of a second in one second. As we saw above, you have capture only 10 of those one thousandths of a second. So you have captured only 10 of the 1000 instants or possible poses (that occur in one second. 10/1000 = 1/100 or 1%. If you have capture only 1% of the possible poses then you missed 99%.

That math is only in an ideal world. First off when you are working in AI Servo AF you do not get 10 fps, more like 7 or 8. And if your shutter speed is less than 1/1000 sec. then you will be missing more than 99%. If you are working with manual focus or in One-Shot at a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec. then you would get 2% of the possible instants thus missing only 98% of the possible poses.

Any questions? :)

It is ironic that folks using high frame rate cameras and fast shutter speeds and holding the pedal to the metal think that they are getting everything :)

[denise ippolito]

Artie, I think I got it. Thanks for the detailed explanation. Maybe this should be copied to the Educational Forum.:)

[sandy richards]

Very Nice explanation, Artie, thank you. I sure found this true. Even with high-speed hummingbird strobes to help, at 8 FPS, I usually get only a few good wing-positions in an hour, when there are many thousands available.
Think of how many "flaps" those tiny wings go thru in one second, and I'm catchionly 8 of them.
Very poor odds of that very pleasing position you're hoping for..