Birds Show Birds

Another from today. It was (is) overcast, so it offered more even lighting for this seagull's face than the sunlit shots the other day. Here, I think this guy is waiting for me to throw a french fry out of the car window.
seagull beak.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
It’s an American coot. Its feet are “lobed”, which almost act like webbing, but they fold away to not impede walking on land. Male and female look nearly identical.
Now that you mention Coot, I suppose I have seen them on the water around here on occasion. I always assumed they had a similar undercarriage as a duck. After now seeing it's feet, I understand why they don't really want to be out of the water...in the daylight.
 
Strike 1 ....... strike 2 ...... strike 3 ....... The crabs out!

P7250488.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


P7250555.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


P7250553.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


P7250565-2.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


White faced Heron on the strike. Have a blast out there.

I see we have Carlos in here, very nice to see another bird shooter using unusual gear ;) Post a few up Carlos :)

Danny.
 
what are these "ducks"? beautiful
Yes they are. Mostly arctic region. They come "south" in the winter time to feed because most of the water is frozen up there.



 
It's mostly rubber duckies and dancing swans for me lately :p

OVI00493-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

I always find it difficult to find the right balance for such beautiful but unilaterally bright and single-shade subjects, balancing the exposure of the body with the neck and head is difficult because it's so easy to blow up one over the other and separately edit exposure in post is difficult to not overstep and make it obvious that brushes were used. It is one of the very few subjects/situations where I found that the DR can be greater than even a good Sony sensor can muster (without very careful consideration).

OVI00345-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

So I've been looking for more interesting aspects of a swan, isolating details and getting to know them better, like their beautiful feathers.

OVI00987-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Or their very dinosaur-looking feet, so many scales and quite sharp nails.

OVI00992-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

And their feet are so wide it's difficult to get them entirely in focus.

OVI00499-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

They always look so cute to me when the water drips off them, someone forgot to close the water tap again :p

OVI00981-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

I wish I didn't cut the tip of the tail off because I love this composition and picture so much, I would definitely love a print of it (one day when I can afford it again).

OVI00507-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

The red spot on the neck is a bit of blood from getting bitten by the father of this young one (still not fully mature yet, still has shades of grey on the feathers).

OVI00977-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

A tighter crop on the image that I like but next in the burst stack that has a few water drops.

OVI00562.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

It's so nice to have a place I can reliably (and easily) go to for a few pictures, helps with my mood swings and depression episodes, just need to look to find the King Fishers that live here.
 
I was lucky to have 2 very synchronous moments that I managed to capture:

OVI00974-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

What would someone call the quaking equivalent of a chu chu train? :p

OVI00961-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

2 male ducks were perfectly next to each other and decided to flap their wings, some of the images in synchronous with each other's wing position :)

OVI00962-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

I tried a few different crops since I had a burst at a full 10 FPS.

OVI00963-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

This one is probably my favourite, would look very nice as a print ... maybe for the bathroom :p

OVI00964-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

I didn't have time to try f 8 or f 16 to try and get both of them in focus, the whole moment was about 3-5 seconds long.

OVI00967-Edit.JPG
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

The duck behind gave up quicker than the front one, but I am still happy and proud of the images.
 
Back
Top