Point Camera at Light, Trip Shutter

[NorthernFocus]

As a general rule I don't shoot photos of your common gull species. But interesting light is interesting light regardless of what it falls on.

Best viewed full size in the light box.

This guy was in the morning light with a shaded cliff as BG.



Than an eagle swooped in and stole the fish that the gull was after . BG wasn't quite as dark plus the water came into view.

[lovelife65]

Fantastic!

[george013]

Wonderful pictures.

I couldn't open them because of stat.g.doubleclick.net. Finaly I found out the ad-blocker in ff caused the problem.

George

[Shadowman]

Nice ones.

[JBW]

Seagull is good. The Eagle is incredible. The colour of the water, light through the feathers and the shaded cliff.

[Donald]

Two very different subjects (apart from that they are both birds) and two wonderful images. Firing into the light is a particular skill and to do so for this sort of moving subject must be quite a demand. The fact that the images are so good speaks volumes for your ability as a photographer. Very well done.

[Manfred M]

Lovely rim lighting Dan. One doesn't get that look outside of a studio situation very often. Well done!

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for commenting, folks. Glad you enjoyed the shots.

...Firing into the light is a particular skill and to do so for this sort of moving subject must be quite a demand...

Donald, it's not nearly as difficult/complicated in this situation as it is shooting landscapes. For landscapes you're concerned about all the subtleties of light, pulling details out of the shadows, etc. All I care about is properly exposing the bird. It suites my purposes for the BG to disappear completely as in the gull shot. Plus with birds in flight I don't know what the BG is even going to be because I'm not sure where the bird will fly. So in this case I simply set my exposure to "sunny 16"(modified for Alaska) to properly expose the bird. The rest will be what it will be. In this case the birds cooperated and stayed between me and the shaded cliff face. It also helps immensely that these modern DSLRs have such wide dynamic range which gives a lot of latitude for processing as necessary. Though in this case the processing was fairly straight forward.

Lovely rim lighting Dan. One doesn't get that look outside of a studio situation very often...

Indeed, Manfred. That's why the title of the thread. When the opportunity presents itself you just have to shoot something

[Tom Barry]

Superb, both.

[FootLoose]

I like the gull shot for the light too, but that eagle is stunning. Well timed to capture its head above the horizon line.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed the shots.

...Well timed to capture its head above the horizon line.

Shutter tripping every 150ms. Just pick the frame that works best

[george013]

Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed the shots.


Shutter tripping every 15ms. Just pick the frame that works best

The more I read about it, the less I understand it. What did you do? What is shutter tripping?

George

[NorthernFocus]

The more I read about it, the less I understand it. What did you do? What is shutter tripping

Sorry for the terminology, George. Maybe that's an American term. The shutter "tripping" simply means firing/actuating/clicking/etc. I was shooting in burst mode at 7fps so basically the shutter tripped/fired/actuated every (roughly)150ms. Sorry I made a typo in the previous post 15 vs 150ms.

[george013]

Sorry for the terminology, George. Maybe that's an American term. The shutter "tripping" simply means firing/actuating/clicking/etc. I was shooting in burst mode at 7fps so basically the shutter tripped/fired/actuated every (roughly)150ms. Sorry I made a typo in the previous post 15 vs 150ms.

Manual in burst mode. That I understand
Thanks.

George

[tbob]

Quite impressive. I will go against the grain and say I prefer the gull. Fantastic light and contrast

A question. As a predominantly static landscape photography I have a problem culling the two or three not quite right shots I take of a subject (not the best composition, light not right, sharpness off, etc) How on earth do you withstand the stress of throwing out a couple of hundred (I assume) "not quite the best" shots? Or do you have a million shots on your hard drive?

[NorthernFocus]

...I will go against the grain and say I prefer the gull. Fantastic light and contrast...

Purely from a photography standpoint I also think it is the better photo. But on the whole people seem to be prejudiced against that which is common.

...How on earth do you withstand the stress of throwing out a couple of hundred (I assume) "not quite the best" shots? Or do you have a million shots on your hard drive?

After a while one's sense of survival kicks in and you become disciplined at culling. I still find it difficult to cull shots of a new species that I've never captured before. But once I get hundreds of shots of a given species on file it gets much easier. For that matter for some species now I don't even shoot unless conditions are extraordinary. And after all sometimes it's more enjoyable to just watch

[JBW]

Purely from a photography standpoint I also think it is the better photo. But on the whole people seem to be prejudiced against that which is common.


After a while one's sense of survival kicks in and you become disciplined at culling. I still find it difficult to cull shots of a new species that I've never captured before. But once I get hundreds of shots of a given species on file it gets much easier. For that matter for some species now I don't even shoot unless conditions are extraordinary. And after all sometimes it's more enjoyable to just watch

People do seem to be prejudiced against common sense. Dan you know I only shoot flowers and bugs so critiquing your genre isn't really my bailiwick. Could you explain why the seagull shot is technically superior? To my way of thinking the Eagle shot is technically superior because of the number of objects that all come together so beautifully.

Brian

[NorthernFocus]

...Could you explain why the seagull shot is technically superior? To my way of thinking the Eagle shot is technically superior because of the number of objects that all come together so beautifully.

Rather than explain my reasoning, I'll ask a question. If the first image was also an eagle with the same pose, lighting angle, and totally blacked out BG, would you like it better than the second image? Conversely if the second image was another gull which image would you prefer? And why?

[JBW]

Rather than explain my reasoning, I'll ask a question. If the first image was also an eagle with the same pose, lighting angle, and totally blacked out BG, would you like it better than the second image? Conversely if the second image was another gull which image would you prefer? And why?

In both cases the second shot.

(1) #2 is a powerful dramatic shot.
(2) #2 has the incredibly colored water
(3) #2 with the brighter chunkier cliff poses a great juxtaposition for the finely detailed feathers and water droplets
(4) #2 has a complexity that works well with my senses

Those are my top 4 reasons.

(5) the colour and texture of the water.

At about age 26 I moved to Ivory Island Lightstation as the junior keeper. For the first time in my life I lived in a clean environment surrounded by trees, animals, birds, creatures of the sea and colors and scents I never knew existed. The water around the island changed by the day, the hour the minute. The water in your second shots reaches back to powerful memories in a seminal time of my life.

Brian

[rpcrowe]

Absolutely beautiful - both of them.

One of my "I'm gonna shoot it someday" images is of the seagulls following a fishing boat. The gulls are attracted by the remnants of the fish which are usually cleaned on the way home with the waste being recycled into the sea. The gulls are almost always backlit because the sun sets in the West and we are traveling East back to shore (if we are not traveling East - we will be in big trouble).

The birds fly so close that they will snatch an anchovy held up in the air...

The reason that I have not shot this is because I don't like to take a good camera on a fishing trip. Usually by the time I am coming home - I am totally wet and my hands are gunky from handling the live bait and the fish I catch...