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This Pied Avocet image was created at Texel, Holland with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops as framed: 1/200 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual Mode. Central sensor Surround AI Servo/Rear Focus on the bird’s eye and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. |
Ridges: Not Just For Potato Chips
Many folks like their potato chips with ridges. Can you say Ruffles? I’ll take Wise please.
Every morning that we photographed at the Pied Avocet colony island on Texel, I’d remind folks, “Look for the birds standing on ridges.” Doing so moves the background farther from the subject than if the subject were on level ground. And by getting low, either by lying down flat or by sitting behind your lowered tripod, that effect is heightened.
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This Pied Avocet image was also created at Texel, Holland, this one with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/125 sec. at f/9 in Manual Mode. Central sensor (by necessity) Expand/AI Servo/Rear Focus on the front bird’s neck active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. |
Ridge to the Rescue Again
With the subject’s mate nesting behind the ridge the only chance of creating something pleasing was to make an image with the subject up on the ridge in front of the nest. I simply acquired focus, tracked the walking subject, and made an image or two when the juxtaposition looked relatively pleasing.
Your Thoughts on the Juxtapositions
Take a moment to let us know what you think of the out-of-focus bird in the background in the opening image and how you like the arrangement of the two birds in the second image.
And Of Course…
Take a moment to let us know which of the two images above you like best, and why.
Next Year In Holland
Despite a 100-year record cold spring with very few tulip fields in bloom this trip has been a spectacular success. The colors and variety of tulips at Keukenhof simply stun the mind and the senses. Denise and I are planning our Holland trip for next year: the Keukenhof Creative Tulip Photography IPT with a Touch of Holland. If you are a Happy Camper who is interested in joining Denise and me next spring, please shoot me an e-mail. Details will be announced soon.
Short Notice, Dirt Cheap, In-the-Field Nickerson Beach Photographic Instruction with Arthur Morris. May 14 (am/pm) & 15 (am), 2013. (Yes, that is soon.) 6-9:30 am/4-7:30pm. This one is priced so low that you need to e-mail for the rates. Limit 4/session.
Payment in full due immediately. If you would like to join me please get in touch via e-mail or call me at 863-692-0906. Breeding American Oystercatcher and Piping Plover (small chicks possible). Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Sanderling, and other shorebird species. Early-arriving Least and Common Terns, and breeding plumage Lesser Black-backed Gull likely. Courtship and mating behaviors; flight. Learn digital exposure and creative image design.
New York City–On Location with Denise Ippolito & Arthur Morris May 25 – 26, 2013, 2-day Workshop-$495
Join Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris for a two-day creative workshop in the Big Apple. This exciting adventure through the streets of NYC will begin with an informal get-together at our hotel on the evening of May 24th. This will give us all a chance to get to know each other before we hit the streets in the morning for our first exciting photo shoot. We will explore China Town, Little Italy, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station (tripod permit included) and much more during our two days together. The emphasis will be on street photography, seeing and capturing dynamic images, and expanding your creativity using a variety of in-camera techniques including HDR and Multiple Exposure.
Please contact me via e-mail for complete details and the itinerary.
Bosque del Apache 2013 IPT: “The Complete Bosque Experience.” NOV 26-DEC 2, 2013. 7-FULL DAYS: $3399. Co-leader: Denise Ippolito. Introductory Slide program: 6:30 pm on 11/25. Limit: 12.
Tens of thousand of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks including point-blank American Wigeon and Wood Duck, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with one of (if not the) world’s premier photographic educators at one of his very favorite locations on the planet. Top-notch Photoshop instruction. This will make 19 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for me. Nobody knows the place better than I do. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home applying what you learned will prove to be invaluable. Includes all lunches and the Thanksgiving Buffet at the Crowne Plaza in Albuquerque. I hope that you can join me for what will be an unparalleled learning experience.
Click here for registration info and the complete IPT schedule. Scroll down for complete Bosque IPT info.
Typos
On all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or leave a comment regarding any typos, wrong words, misspellings, omissions, or grammatical errors. Just be right. 🙂
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I like both photos. Both are beautiful as always. I think I like the first one a little better…the OOF bird is a little distracting, but I think much less so than the OOF bird in the second photo. It really seems to compete for attention as its more defined, more recognizable as a bird, than in the first photo.
I do like the foreground/beach and background in the second photo a little more…if it wasn’t for the OOF bird, I think it would make for a more flattering photo overall, as the lighter surroundings seem to help bring out the bird a little more.
A sentence is as sentence whatever side of the pond, but at least you are good at writing run-on sentences. And do post a link to your blog so that folks can see your images. You’ve never said a word here but decide to show up and tell the world that both of the images I posted suck. You want to see poor manners and a total lack of respect, look in the mirror. It seems pretty obvious that you don’t know anything about what makes a good image. As I wrote in today’s blog post, what the heck do I know?
Funny that I like them both and consider the 1st image a better image than the second one. With honesty being key, I must say that you might wish to consult your old school teacher and learn how to write a sentence…. And just so you know, nobody tries harder than me. And you might want to brush up on your spelling too, honety….
I like them both, but what I’m thinking is…black & white! I think converting to B&W would really show off the bones of these photos and produce exceptionally elegant images.
Good suggestion; thanks Bill.
I think the first image the OOF bird is distracting, still a very nice image of the main subject. The second I feel beautifully illustrates a possible nesting pair with a more pleasing OOF juxtaposition. I like how the main subject’s crouching position fits well over the top of the OOF bird behind. I also like the details of the shells in the ridge foreground that the Avocet’s pointing to. It’s a lovely image that clearly illustrated your “ridges” post quite well. As always thanks for the Lesson Artie.
Thanks and YAW. I do like the first image better than the 2nd one. Go figure.
From the perspective of this fan of yours I prefer the eye of the bird in a third of the frame. The first image uses the rules well excluding that note. The second image is much preferred for the proximity of the primary subject. The legs of the bird in the second image are not considered a distraction to the well placed secondary subject. Wise makes Publix chips. As good as the national brand or better. I miss Charles Chips.
Bob, Pretty much everything that you wrote is confusing…. Except for the important part, the part about the potato chips.
In my view there’s a place for a bird by itself, generally to show its sheer beauty, but there’s also a the larger view where you see the bird in its environment which includes other birds behaving differently as here – sitting rather than standing or foraging as the bird in full focus. The other birds are out of focus and imply differing behavior without being obvious which I like. If they were dynamically and significantly doing something else, perhaps in-focus would have been appropriate, but here it works delightfully because they’re static.
Thanks Barry. With a pretty good distance between the birds in both images you would need about f/10,280 to get them both sharp. That is just not a reality with super-telephoto lenses…. DOF is measured in small fractions of an inch unless you are way back from the subject, that even with relatively small apertures. The only time that they help is when the birds are maybe an inch or two apart at most.
The OOF bird in the first image is a bit too OOF and small for me. It’s so nebulous it becomes a distraction to me eye.
LOVE the second shot, though a bit more space between the foreground bird’s left leg and the nesting bird’s head would work for me. The deal breaker would have been the leg crossing the head so it’s good to go!
I agree with David. Print it and put it on the wall.
I like them both but prefer the first one. Good point on the near-merge.