Low and wide Pied Wagtail

A Pied Wagtail taken with the remote control set-up, its a full height vertical crop from a landscape format shot, (in the full frame it has more space behind than in front of the bird) I also had a Cuckoo visit the pool to drink but not in a good position for remotely photographing it, and this stroppy Wagtail saw it off quite quickly too.

Yesterday I had a bad time with a stray dog that just appeared from nowhere whilst I was getting set up, it jumped in my new car, scoffed my sandwiches, spread mud and snott on the seats, growled and bared its teeth at me and would not allow me near, I had to jam my spade handle in its mouth so I could get hold of its collar (no owner details) and throw it out, I dont blame the dog and I'm not a violent person, but this is one irresponsible owner who is really lucky they were not there!

Breeze and CS3

2008:06:29 16:13:39
Canon EOS 1Ds MkII Canon 20-35mm @ 35mm
1/1250 sec, f/8 ( I was working for higher shutter speeds rather than DOF as the Wag was hovering looking at its reflection in the lens, I did get shots of that!)
Mode: Av
Metering: Evaluative
ISO: 400
AF mode: One-shot AF
Drive: Continuous: frame 1
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off
File size: 14.5MB
Image size: 4992 x 3328
Color matrix 4: Adobe RGB
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Contrast: -1
Sharpness level: 0
Tone: Normal
Custom Functions:
CFn 17: Expand AF activation area to 7 AF points

He looks like he's strutting his stuff for the camera Nigel - another cracking addition to the collection

Be very interesting to see the hovering images too

But most of all I'd like to have seen the fun with the dog

Curious as to why you carry a spade in a new car in the middle of summer is there something we don't know Nigel

Nothing untoward Andy, the boots too full of hides tripods and other paraphenalia for bodies!! I was digging a slightly deeper section in the pool for the Lapwing to bathe in as well as setting another polyester coated concrete pot in the ground as a second remote camera position, the tilt pan head has to go below ground/water level to get the low POV. I was also moving and replanting some vegetation so the BG looked different to previous shots.
Edit hovering shot on my blog now.

I too would have loved to be a fly on the wall.
Visions of steam coming out from every orrifice.
Its another fine one Nigel and what a pity you didnt get on the Cuckoo as well.
On a personal note I might be inclined to blur that BG more than it is.

Major.

Nigel,

You are getting some fine shots from your pool set up, have just looked through your blog, some of the images are stunning.....

Look forward to more.

Very nice and surprisingly picture Indeed a pitty that you did not get the Cuckoo as well.

This is great-loving this series-they are getting better and better-hope the cuckoo revisits

Dave

Nigel,

Really interesting series of shots. I like this one very much. Well done.

Rob

Interesting pose and POV!
Well done!
Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Another fascinating image. The head looks just a tad soft to me on this one. There was an interesting debate about wide angle bird shots in response to an image on the avian forum - I posted a link to one of your shots to illustrate that it was very possible! Hope you don't mind.

Another superb shot!! Fantastic pose!

Just had a look on your blog and you've got some amazing shots! The hovering/flying ones are great - brilliant work!

Thankyou to all who have commented, glad you've enjoyed the posted images as well as the blog ones.
Have you got a link to the debate you mention Ian?