Snowy Egret and Coot

jorj7

Here's some shots of a Snowy Egret at the Berkeley Aquatic Park
taken this Monday (4/16).

1 Take off


2 Landing approach, Coot in the back ground


3 Landing right next to Coot, who doesn't seem to notice


4 Now the Coot seems a little concerned


5 Coot way back while the Egret hunts

jorj7

Bye

ShepsMom

Beautiful shots George!! Love the saturation and your whites look excellent!

Shasoc

Very nice shots, and good job exposing the whites.

riddim_maker

Cool sequence and very well exposed

Swartzy

These are very nice
Love the detail of the white feathers....excellent exposure especially for such a tough subject.

flatheadfisher

Those are awsome! Snowys are one of my favorite birds. I never can seem to catch them when there is enough light. Such detail and perfect balance.

nipprdog

Nice series, George. but it makes a case for shooting in manual. white objects confuse camera meterering systems, especially moving ones with darker backgrounds. when shooting in arperture/shutter priority, it can cause big shifts in exposure settings. your 5 shots were taken over a about 90 seconds, in the same area, but shutter speeds varied from 1/2000 to 1/4000. btw, your exif data says the focal length was 800mm. if I my ask, what lens (converter) did you use on those?

Maestro

Nice series and exposure on that snowy.

Harryb

Excellent set of shots George. Your exposure was on the mark for 1,2 and 5 but you blew some highlights on 3 & 4. Thats because the light was more directly on the egret and tad stronger.

I disagree partly with nipprdog about shooting in manual for these types of shots. Aperture or shutter priority would serve you just as well as long as you make the necessary EV adjustments. This is a lot easier to say than to do when you are shooting a fast moving sequence of shots in changing light. No matter what mode you shoot in the key os to recognize the changing light and to adjust to it.

bfjr

#1 has it going on

jorj7

ShepsMom wrote:

Beautiful shots George!! Love the saturation and your whites look excellent!

Thanks ShepsMom, I appreciate you comments.

jorj7

Shasoc wrote:

Very nice shots, and good job exposing the whites.

Thanks Socrates, I've practiced a lot on Egrets. I'm glad it's paying off.

jorj7

riddim_maker wrote:

Cool sequence and very well exposed

Thanks Russ. One of the advantages of digital over film I really like is
shooting multiple sequence shots.

jorj7

Swartzy wrote:

Love the detail of the white feathers....excellent exposure especially for such a tough subject.

Thanks Swartzy. Moving egrets can be a challenge, especially in direct
sunlight. I'm glad I've had time to practice on these beautiful birds.

jorj7

flatheadfisher wrote:

Those are awsome! Snowys are one of my favorite birds. I never can seem to catch them when there is enough light. Such detail and perfect balance.

Thanks flatheadfisher. Here in the Bay Area we have a lot of these near
the waters. It's one of the perks of living here....

jorj7

nipprdog wrote:

Nice series, George. but it makes a case for shooting in manual. white objects confuse camera meterering systems, especially moving ones with darker backgrounds. when shooting in arperture/shutter priority, it can cause big shifts in exposure settings. your 5 shots were taken over a about 90 seconds, in the same area, but shutter speeds varied from 1/2000 to 1/4000. btw, your exif data says the focal length was 800mm. if I my ask, what lens (converter) did you use on those?

Thanks Nipprdog. I find that with these active birds, I would not be able to
change the exposure values fast enough to capture them correctly if I did
it manually. I used partial metering mode and use the center focus point to
keep the metering and focus where I point the camera. It sometimes means
I don't get optimum framing, but I will get good focus and metering.

The lens I was using is a Sigma EX 800mm HSM, a lens that makes my 500L
seem like a lightweight. It seems to be able to capture some very good
images. I'm still learning to use it to it's full cababilities, but so far have
had positive results.

jorj7

Maestro wrote:

Nice series and exposure on that snowy.

Thanks Maestro, I appreciate your time and your input.

jorj7

Harryb wrote:

Excellent set of shots George. Your exposure was on the mark for 1,2 and 5 but you blew some highlights on 3 & 4. Thats because the light was more directly on the egret and tad stronger.

I disagree partly with nipprdog about shooting in manual for these types of shots. Aperture or shutter priority would serve you just as well as long as you make the necessary EV adjustments. This is a lot easier to say than to do when you are shooting a fast moving sequence of shots in changing light. No matter what mode you shoot in the key os to recognize the changing light and to adjust to it.

Thanks for your comments Harry. You're right it is hard to get all the photos
of a sequence just right when the target is moving quickly and non-predicably,
especially when it's such a highly reflective color.

jorj7

bfjr wrote:

#1 has it going on

Thanks bfjr. That shot has a lot of motion and action in it. I was able
to get the focus and capture the lighting well on that one. I'm glad you
like it.