Galapagos Day 12/July 17, Afternoon, South Plaza Island « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
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Galapagos Day 12/July 17, Afternoon, South Plaza Island

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This pan-blurred image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/15 sec. at f/25 in Tv Mode. I panned from side to side and made many exposures; I wound up keeping two including this one. “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs” co-written with Denise Ippolito was released today. I will post the details here tomorrow. If you can’t wait, e-mail me here.

Galapagos Day 12/July 17, Afternoon, South Plaza Island

Because of itinerary restrictions put in place by the national park service to punish the local boats and crews, I had not visited South Plaza Island since my very first Galapagos Cruise in June of 2005. I knew that it was a great place but had forgotten just how spectacular it is during the dry season. Everywhere you look were large patches of salt tolerant Galapagos Carpetweed (Sesuvium edmonstonei). Most of the time this small fleshy ground cover is green, but during our summer it turns loverly shades of red and orange; it was easy to incorporate the colors in many different types of images.

The weather was pleasingly variable. It ranged from mostly sunny to raining lightly but rarely for more than 10 minutes at a time. Most of the afternoon was cloudy bright with a strong wind that was great for flight photography along the cliffs. There were hundreds of Galapagos Shearwaters banking on the wind and good numbers of Red-billed Tropicbirds flying into their cliff nesting sites. And there were lots of the handsome Swallow-tailed Gulls on the ground with chicks of various sizes and dozens more in the air gliding along the cliffs. All in all we spent more than five hours on the wondrous chunk of rock that is Sante Fe. I can’t wait to get back next summer.

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This image features Prickly Pear Cactus paddles set against a background of Galapagos Carpetweed. To isolate the cactus I used the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens along with the EOS-1D Mark IV. I moved the tripod left and right and up and down several times to come up with a richly colored background. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/11.

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When the sun would break through the large Land Iguanas appeared almost magically. As soon as a cloud covered the sun I advised the group to make lots of images. Again I used the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens along with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/8 set manually.

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This is a vertical original image of a Galapagos Shearwater was captured with the hand held Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2 stops off the ocean: 1/1000 sec. at f/4 set manually. If you are holding your lens horizontally and the birds get too large in the frame when they bank, turn your camera on end and go for the gusto: vertical bank shots.

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South Plaza is the best place in the world to photograph this species. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the ocean: 1/1000 sec. at f/5.6.

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This image was made in late afternoon. When the wind died down most of the flight photography was over. This roosting flock of Swallow-tailed Gulls was photographed with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6 set manually.

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This Swallow-tailed Gull chick was begging for a meal. Its nest was close to a big (and I mean big) Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia). The chick is standing in front of the trunk of the cactus. The image was made with the 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/100 sec. at f/5.6 set manually. I got really lucky here making a sharp image at only 1/100 sec. The four stop IS helped, but so did the bird (by remaining relatively still at just the right instant).

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I photographed this Swallow-tailed Gull as it stood preening atop the edge of the cliff. I used the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/320 sec. at f/5.6 set manually. I got just enough of the eye here to allow for a successful image. The carpetweed background added some nice color to the image.

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This was the last image that I made on South Plaza, by far the most beautiful island in the archipelago. I used the hand held Canon 24-105mm IS L lens (at 35mm) and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/30 sec. at f/14 set manually. The IS on this versatile lens allows you to work at slow shutter speeds while hand holding and enjoying some extra depth-of-field.

Shopper’s Guide

Here is the gear that I used on our wonderful afternoon on Sante Fe:

Canon 24-105mm IS L lens
Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO lens
Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod
Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head

If you are considering the purchase of a major piece of photographic gear be it a new camera, a long lens, a tripod or a head, or some accessories be sure to check out our complete Shopper’s Guide.

September 27th, 2010 | Category: 2010, Galapagos 2010

7 comments to Galapagos Day 12/July 17, Afternoon, South Plaza Island

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