Posted by Colin Crowdey on June 25, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Hello
For a number of years now I have been trying to get to Scotland to photograph the Ospreys at the salmon farm in Aviemore, finally I had a free date in the diary and so booked last Saturday, drove up on Friday and came back down on Sunday - long trip, but I was excited about seeing these birds close up fishing and I had the shot I wanted in mind, head on, emerging from the lake, surrounded by spray, full frame.
Got up at 3am on Saturday - dull & grey and then it started to rain
Spent around 5 hours at the site and in the whole time 4 Osprey caught five fish in total - this shot was taken at around 6am, it was so dark I was using ISO 3200 to get my shutter speed up enough!
I got three successful (IMHO) fishing shots, same bird, sequence of three, this is shot two, have cropped a tad off the bottom to remove the reflection, but other wise full frame.
Run through DXO for noise reduction, which did a pretty good job.
Techs,
D300 + 300 2.8 1/1000 sec @ f2.8 ISO 3200
The 720 pixel version above does not really do the shot justice, larger version here:
http://lcc-images.com/photos/571819420_pxXG4-X2.jpg
cheers for looking
Colin
Posted by Scott Tilley on June 25, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Hi Colin, I think you've done really well with the situation you where presented with. Congrats on getting any shots at all.
As an action shot this works well for me and love the splash of water and rain. Your never going to get the award winner because of the conditions but I bet it's wetted your apetite for more.
Great action, and the larger version is definitely worth a view! Looks like the conditions were pretty limiting and you did really well under the circumstances. I don't know how you feel about selective adjustments, but it might be worth selectively reducing contrast on the background, as it grabs the eye a little at the moment.
Discussion
5 repliesFor a number of years now I have been trying to get to Scotland to photograph the Ospreys at the salmon farm in Aviemore, finally I had a free date in the diary and so booked last Saturday, drove up on Friday and came back down on Sunday - long trip, but I was excited about seeing these birds close up fishing and I had the shot I wanted in mind, head on, emerging from the lake, surrounded by spray, full frame.
Got up at 3am on Saturday - dull & grey and then it started to rain
Spent around 5 hours at the site and in the whole time 4 Osprey caught five fish in total - this shot was taken at around 6am, it was so dark I was using ISO 3200 to get my shutter speed up enough!
I got three successful (IMHO) fishing shots, same bird, sequence of three, this is shot two, have cropped a tad off the bottom to remove the reflection, but other wise full frame.
Run through DXO for noise reduction, which did a pretty good job.
Techs,
D300 + 300 2.8 1/1000 sec @ f2.8 ISO 3200
The 720 pixel version above does not really do the shot justice, larger version here:
http://lcc-images.com/photos/571819420_pxXG4-X2.jpg
cheers for looking
Colin
As an action shot this works well for me and love the splash of water and rain. Your never going to get the award winner because of the conditions but I bet it's wetted your apetite for more.
Great action, and the larger version is definitely worth a view! Looks like the conditions were pretty limiting and you did really well under the circumstances. I don't know how you feel about selective adjustments, but it might be worth selectively reducing contrast on the background, as it grabs the eye a little at the moment.
Lovely shot
Danny
Where you using the new pond or the older ponds. I ask as I am due there in about 2 weeks. T
Sent you a PM
cheers
Colin