Calling Red-necked Grebe

[Jeff Dyck]

Here's a theme submission. I purchased a kayak recently and have been doing a bit of shooting from out on the water. There are a many Rednecked Grebes currently nesting on the Eagle River near my home in Dryden - the river sees a lot of powerboat traffic so the birds seem very tolerant of my kayak.

Canon 1DIV -- Canon 800mm F5.6L IS -- 1/500 @ f/5.6 -- ISO400 -- Manual Exposure

[Randy Stout]

Jeff:

You are a brave man to take that rig into a kayak. The result however was great! Nice shooting angle,sharp, well exposed, pleasant BG, great pose!

I might soften the reed coming right out of the head with the clone stamp.

Congrats

Cheers

randy

[Andrew Merwin]

A consummate capture. I agree with Randy re. the reed. TFS. How did you support the camera & 800 or did you HH?

[Jeff Dyck]

Thanks Randy & Andrew. After much research, the kayak I purchased was a Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5 Solo - I purchased it with photography in mind (Native's website actually has a section on using their boats for photography). The Ultimate is a very stable fishing kayak with a "tunnel hull" design (if you look from the end when the boat is sitting on the ground the is a large tunnel right down the middle of the underside of the boat) - it is more like a canoe-kayak hybrid. While it is very stable, it is definitely not going to win any races! With the open design, I am able to set up the camera on a tripod in front of me - I use an old "shorty" model Gitzo Studex with the legs splayed to the middle position (and the two rear legs tucked under my knees for stability) to get the camera as low as I can comfortably shoot - I usually have it set up so I bend heavily forward to put my eye to the camera - this allows me to get the camera as low as possible while maintaining some room for the paddle in front of me (this however, makes shooting anything more than a couple feet above the water near to impossible). The tripod is really nice if you have to frequently reposition the boat but you are pretty much limited to shooting directly over the front of the boat give or take 10 or 15 degrees either way because of the swing of the back end of the camera. I also frequently shoot hand-held, usually off of one of my knees. When I am not shooting, I stow the entire rig into a (huge) duffle-style dry bag between my legs - the bag is excessively large because of my need to get the length, but I am currently working with a custom dry-bag builder on a made-to-measure bag specifically for this purpose.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Much thought went into this setup , and with images like this , it has paid off big time. Love the light. Ditto on the reed.

[laurie golden]

Great light and low angle. Makes me want to go out and buy a boat.

[jack williamson]

Excellent IQ, love the calling pose with the tongue showing, colors and bg are great. The clone suggestion by Randy is right on, that spot is definately an eye draw.

Jack

[Rachel Hollander]

Great light, pov, HA, detail and overall IQ. Thanks for describing your set-up in detail.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andrew Merwin]

Great light and low angle. Makes me want to go out and buy a boat.

Me too. Jeff, thanks for the explanation.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jeff, great shot. the subject angle, the calling pose, the habitat...superb low shooting and light angles. really liked this one. If you have more room there in the orig, I'd suggest adding a tad at top.

[Dave Leroy]

Lovely shot. Excellent low angle and all the habitat really works for me. I might tone down the few very bright spots on the breast and reflection.
Your investment has already started to pay dividends.

[Ishmeet Sahni]

Jeff, obviously you have a lot of thought and done a lot of research in buying and shooting with your Kayak. I still feel you are
a brave man. There isn't anything left for me to say about your image, it has all been said already. I would just like to say, ITS BRILLIANT.

[Ofer Levy]

This is a really excellent shot!! Love it!

[Arno Ellmer]

Stunning capture,Jeff . The low perspective and Ha captured here make this image something special.Cloning out the bg reeds will greatly improve an already great shot.
Also very impressed by your kayak setup and dedication. As they say : the more you put in ,the more you get out. I am sure there are many more superb oppotunities waiting out there with this set up.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Brilliant image, Jeff. Pose, habitat, bird placement, light, all excellent. Looking forward to more from your kayak.

[Shawn Zierman]

Outstanding image. Easily one of the best red necked grebe (in habitat) images I've ever seen. The calling pose is really dynamic.

[arash_hazeghi]

sweet pose details and light. lovely TFS excellent work