In this series, I am going to give some behind the scenes details for one image at a time. I’ll go over some of my settings, what I did in the field, why I composed it the way I did, or any other bit of information that I feel is relevant to the image. I will not be posting this series on Facebook; it is meant to be a bonus article for my subscribers.
How Low Do You Go? The angle of declination is the degree to which the lens is pointing down or up at a subject. When laying belly down on the ground the distance from your subject to the background will appear more out of focus. This can be extremely valuable to know in the field, especially when dealing with clutter in the background. However, it has been my experience that if you get too low, your foreground will be out-of-focus, and the feet of your birds will disappear. That can be great or not so great depending on the shot you envision.
For years, I shot shorebirds and waders on the coasts of Florida, NY and NJ. I always lugged around a long prime lens like the 500mm or 600mm lens along with a heavy bulky tripod.; because at the time, that was the best that there was. I didn’t have an articulating screen on my camera, so getting on your belly or lowering yourself in a crouched position was the only way unless you carried the right-angle attachment for your camera (I never brought mine-it was not easy to use on a daily basis for shot after shot). My favorite position ended up being a half seated, half bent down really low pose to get somewhere in between a seated position and belly down position. This enabled me to capture the feet of my bird and also allowed the background to look far away and out of focus. Needless to say, it took a toll on my back! Move ahead many years later to mirrorless systems and voila—life is easier!
The shot above was captured at Matanzas Inlet in Florida on my one and only trip there approximately 10 years ago. Thanks to Bobby van Mierop (a local) for taking me to the Least tern colony that day. The action happened really fast, and I was lucky to have captured it. I focused on the bird on the ground as I knew her suitor would get close to her and bring her a fish and attempt to copulate. I loved the tiny shell on the beach and that the sand looked pristine. I composed my shot putting both birds directly in the center so I wouldn’t miss which side he came in from. In post processing, I evaluating the visual weight and then made a slight crop.
My shutter speed was too slow in hindsight. I wished it were 1/2500 instead of 1/1600 sec. Everything that needs to be sharp is sharp, but I do wish for less wing blur. But my justification is that the wing blur is that it implies motion and action, and this was an action shot <wink>. My aperture was f/8 as I was using a 1.4 teleconvertor. And, yes, I was in my crouched position. Manual mode, evaluative metering, natural light, AWB. I do wish the birds were captured against a soft blue ocean but that didn’t happen.
Well, the darn male tern never did give her the fish, even after multiple attempts. I had hoped she would bite him or reject him, but she did neither. Getting up early is always a good thing as birds are usually more active in the morning, it was a memorable photo shoot and even though I walked away with only this one shot, I will never forget my time at Matanzas Inlet.
