An afternoon with the terns

jeff lapoint

Bird Man Photographer wrote:

Nice series of action captures, Jeff. I do like the last one....but would have liked to see the head sharper. Some interesting birds.

Thanks Mike. The terns will have to do until we can negociate the release of our osprey from your clutches. Lemme sift through the images--I may have one with the head in sharper focus for ya:D

jeff lapoint

erich6 wrote:

Jeff,

These pictures are awesome. I was there that afternoon also. I think I saw you taking these shots and I thought to myself "I bet this guy is a Dgrinner". How 'bout that? Were you the one sitting/laying on the rocks? I was the one with the not-so-impressive small telephoto lens (and towing along my 8-yr old son). Some of the shots I got are posted here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=36103.

Cheers,

Erich

Love your shots there Erich and thanks for the nice words. Looks like your "not-so-impressive small telephoto lens" pumped out some pretty impressive shots to me Hope to see you there again sometime!

jeff lapoint

BigAl wrote:

Great action shots Jeff - even if you clipped some wings

Thanks Al! I'm cool with the wing clippage, but we have some real sticklers on the forum here man

jeff lapoint

gluwater wrote:

Beautiful shots Jeff! It look like you were out in the water with them. Your exposures look really good. Did you have trouble exposing for the light birds against the dark water or did you shoot in manual? The light in the last couple is really nice. You did good Jeff, get as much shooting in as you can while your still there .

Thanks Nick! I used a touch of negative exposure compensation for the light birds in the bright sun and make sure to check the histogram often. Sometimes I make the mistake of underexposing too much and I lose the detail in their head/eye. I dont worry about the water too much 'cause the only water detail I really care about is in the splash and that part is usually light/white. In other words, I've been trying to expose for the bird and shoot in RAW while checking the histo/blinkies often and keep my fingers grossed
Dude, you're starting to scare me with all this "shoot while you can" jazz:uhoh

ginger_55

wonderful shots, Jeff!

you have done a good job of capturing a theme, there!

Yes, on different views of the same subject: I am having that problem with the birds around here: egrets, egret babies...............and some others. They looked the same last year, smile! And others with better equipment get them better anyway.

Sometimes I revisit and photograph them again: gets me out of the house!

Maybe we should change places! I would be proud to get some tern shots like that!

ginger

raptorcaptor

jeff lapoint wrote:

Heh, ya it can get a bit crowded. Nothing like at San Joaquin though:uhoh...

So you were there Sat, Erich and I were shooting next to each other on
Sun and didnt even know it, Saurora was driving by on Sun, and William and Russ were there on Tues We need to get organized and have a SoCal Dgrin Bolsa shoot!

Yes! We'll have to have a Dgrin day at Bolsa! :

erich6

jeff lapoint wrote:

Heh, ya it can get a bit crowded. Nothing like at San Joaquin though:uhoh...

So you were there Sat, Erich and I were shooting next to each other on
Sun and didnt even know it, Saurora was driving by on Sun, and William and Russ were there on Tues We need to get organized and have a SoCal Dgrin Bolsa shoot!

I'm all for it! Just need some advance notice. I'm out of town a lot so weekends work best for me except for 30 Jun-4 Jul and 21-23 Jul.

Erich

jwear

WHAT no fish hope you took them to dinner when you were done nice stuff Doc sorry but i worked again :cry

gluwater

jeff lapoint wrote:

Dude, you're starting to scare me with all this "shoot while you can" jazz:uhoh

You know I'm just giving you a hard time. There is stuff to shoot here but not like this, at least that I can find. I'm still checking new places out to find you somewhere nice to shoot. I think the resident Black Crowned Night Heron will still be here when you arive and we should be getting a lot of migrating birds going back through the area. And you know you will have to get a Cardinal in the Snow shot while you are here, that one is mandatory.

jeff lapoint

Paavo wrote:

Fantastic shots! Very sharp!!

Thanks Kevin!

jeff lapoint

riddim_maker wrote:

Lots of respect! I think it takes good observation, patience and perseverance in order to capture this action. You seem to have mastered all three.

Thanks so much Russ! I certainly haven't mastered anything yet...wait, my wife was looking over my shoulder and says I've mastered being a real PITArofl