There's a tern nesting ground not two miles from my house, and I've considered going down to make some photographs even though I'm extremely inexperienced with avian photography (using long lenses with moving subjects in general). This makes a nice portrait of what looks like a typical tern behavior (ready do dive at some lunch?). The exposure looks fantastic considering the relatively bright light. I bet in the full-size version, the eye is much more visible, and that would be excellent. Nice work.
Hey Kent
You're right, this is mid-hover and right before a dive. This guy was very cooperative, sometimes hovering perfectly for 10 seconds. Many times, he'd be hovering on the edge of a cloud, but I'd drop to one knee and the cloud would "shift" perspective so there would only be blue sky as a background. This is taken hand held with a 100-400 IS, f/8 and 1/2500" (I think... I don't have access to my exif data - at work). I put the ISO on 640, most shots from this series are razor sharp. This was around 6pm. Lots of fun! I'll probably post more images on our journal page tonight. Take care... Oh hey! When will your site be finished? I'm getting anxious
The website restructure process is a long one for me because I'm horrible with that kind of stuff. Additionally, my computer has been giving me fits (my hunch is the video card is toast), so things are slowing down even more. It has been a step by step process though. I've been finishing about one gallery page per week (up to three now). Each one is posted as I complete it with updates on the News page. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for your tern photo info. Hopefully I'll get a chance to put it to good use before they move on.
I posted an Arctic Tern shot from Yukon Delta NWR to the Avian Forum a little bit back. My experience was the you need a hill side or some elevation to get the eye-level shots; they hover 10-20 feet up, making a shot from ground level tough. And it aggravates the problems of whites against the sky. The shot I posted was from what passes for a hill. Freezing the wings and managing the whites while still getting the black eye in the black hood is another set of challenges.
I have never successfully captured the dive itself or the impact. Not for lack of trying. Much film and zillions of electrons have been sacrificed...
Discussion
4 repliesWhat time of day? What lens? Thanks.
You're right, this is mid-hover and right before a dive. This guy was very cooperative, sometimes hovering perfectly for 10 seconds. Many times, he'd be hovering on the edge of a cloud, but I'd drop to one knee and the cloud would "shift" perspective so there would only be blue sky as a background. This is taken hand held with a 100-400 IS, f/8 and 1/2500" (I think... I don't have access to my exif data - at work). I put the ISO on 640, most shots from this series are razor sharp. This was around 6pm. Lots of fun! I'll probably post more images on our journal page tonight. Take care... Oh hey! When will your site be finished? I'm getting anxious
I have never successfully captured the dive itself or the impact. Not for lack of trying. Much film and zillions of electrons have been sacrificed...