Photographed on the same day and location as the Horned Grebe a couple of weeks ago (that was also a first for me). It's a productive day when two new species are successfully photographed!! Quite a variable windy day light-wise with sun and cloud affecting exposure in sudden bursts. I could lose or gain 2 to 3 stops of light in a matter of seconds, and combined with the windy conditions, active subjects, and bobbing platform I was lying flat on I just dialed ISO 800 and left the exposure mode to AV...
Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/5000s., f/6.3, ISO 800, no EC, natural light, handheld, cropped top and bottom but FF lenght-wise. A few small specks eliminated from the water via spot removal tool, and minor eye work performed on the subject (darkened the pupil).
Congrats on your first long-tailed! Did you see any males? They are truly spectacular -come to Cape Breton as we have oodles of them from Jan-March! I like the head angle and the water droplets on the tail. The blues are nice as is the smoothness of the water. I also like the rolling wave because of the curvy line it creates in the image.
Gail
Very nice Daniel. Lovely smooth BG and nice detail and lighting on the bird. And you didn't have the long tail feather to create problems for the comp . We have those birds around here all winter and I have tried many times to get close enough to make a quality image like this. Did you make a platform or were you just taking advantage of something that was there? I was thinking of trying to make something to float on to try to get closer to them.
Hey Dan, you seem to be scoring on new species, and congrats on this one too. Super low angle, eye contact, and I like the darker feel to this. Did I mention the excellent overall IQ, and just love the balancing droplets on the tail. Well captured.
Congrats on 2 new species in one day. I would be elated just for that. Love the low angle here and that one water drop really adds a lot. Nice details in your bird. I wonder if you had any without the wave which obstructed the view of much of the bird?
Another first for me: Long-tailed Duck.
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. We have those birds around here all winter and I have tried many times to get close enough to make a quality image like this. Did you make a platform or were you just taking advantage of something that was there? I was thinking of trying to make something to float on to try to get closer to them.
