GBH w/fish

Gallery: AvianPosted January 1, 2010214 views11 comments

This is the 3rd post of this GBH. After coming back to the fishing pier, it dropped the fish, shook off the water, then proceeded to gulp down it's catch. I took alot of shots of all the action, and probably took well over 100 shots of it eating the 2 fish. My next and last post of this GBH will show it going down it's stretched neck. I tried to keep the fish from getting overexposed by spot metering on it, but still had some blown highlights..

D300 w/sigma 50-500 @500mm
Tripod mounted
f/6.3
1/8000
iso800
EC -1
spot metered on the fish.
90% FF

Thank you for all the past C&Cs, and they are welcomed & appreciated on this post as well.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on January 1, 2010 at 6:33 PM

The blown highlights aren't too big of a deal - the action you have caught here is really great. It's amazing what a bird can eat. The only change I'd try out is actually darkening most of the image a bit as it appears bright overall

- Luke

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Harbour on January 1, 2010 at 6:39 PM

Great action and behavior series. I agree with Luke, the nice action here outweighs a few blown highlilghts.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 113 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on January 1, 2010 at 8:24 PM

I like the angle of the fish you got, as it shows it off nicely.

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by May Haga on January 1, 2010 at 8:35 PM

Now that's a big catch. Do you know if the bird was able to swallow the fish? Nice low perspective and excellent detail.
May

Registered on February 22, 2007, 714 Posts, 8470 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Gilham on January 1, 2010 at 8:59 PM

May, yes the GBH swallows not only this fish but another just as big, all within 15-20 mins. My next post will show it swallowing the fish.

Luke, my previous posts had seemed dark, so I tried to lighten this one and may have gone too far.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 77 Posts, 489 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on January 1, 2010 at 10:59 PM

Doug,

I like the behavior, the pose of the great blue, that huge fish in the bill and how the hercon almost seems bowed under the weight of the fish.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on January 2, 2010 at 12:37 AM

I like the action and the comp, interesting stuff! It's really shocking to think he could swallow all that! I can sure understand that this scene might be tough to expose for with the reflectance off the water and the shiny fish. Spot metering on the rather grey heron body might have been a better bet (nothing like 20:20 hindsight).

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel & Loana on January 2, 2010 at 5:08 AM

Very nice action. The point of view works very well. Maybe some more air at the upper part could be positive. IMHO. The fish seems really too big!

D&L

Registered on October 7, 2008, 166 Posts, 3044 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on January 2, 2010 at 10:41 AM

This is not your average GBH shot. I really really like it. A bit gory, but so is nature. I think your exposure looks right on overall. The bright areas of the fish and birds head don't bother me at all. I just keep looking at the action.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Greg Schneider on January 2, 2010 at 8:15 PM

The whites don't look too bad to me. I'm assuming you tried highlight recovery in CS? It's amazing what they try (and do) get down!

Registered on February 9, 2008, 84 Posts, 138 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 2, 2010 at 10:00 PM

Nice action, Doug. Since the fish isn't the main subject a few blown highlights aren't too big a deal. However, since you had a lot of shots, it would be worthwhile setting your camera up to display the histogram so you can set some exposure compensation. I'm not familiar with the Nikon setup, but on my Canon you can also set it up to flash the blown part of the image in the post shot image it pops onto the screen.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments