Trying to make lemonade out of… the hand of man.
As I continue to heal from back surgery I’ve been laying low as a bird photographer so, except for a couple of brief trips to an urban pond near my home, it’s been ten days since I’ve been in the field. Shooting at the pond this time of year is frustrating, for a lack of birds and because at that location pleasing backgrounds in flight shots are darn near impossible to come by.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning’s visit to the pond was par for the course. This drake Mallard in flight was one of only two reasonably good opportunities I had with birds in flight and nearly all of my photos of him were marred by distracting and obviously man-made background elements.
This series of four consecutive shots in a burst documents what I was dealing with. I like the bird in all four photos but the backgrounds in most of them, not so much.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
I can’t even remember what was responsible for the background color at the bottom of the frame and the vertical columns up top but they sure did a number on most of my photos of the Mallard. Photos that I’d otherwise have liked a lot more.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Finally, there’s a tree coming up on the left that might block the unappealing elements and give me a more natural background in the next shot.
1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
And for one photo the tree did exactly that but my old friend Murphy stepped in and put a partial kibosh on the photo. The tree, which was significantly darker than the previous background, cut my shutter speed in half (I shoot in aperture priority) so the Mallard isn’t as sharp as he was in the three previous photos.
Oh well, I may continue to visit the pond occasionally for the next couple of weeks until I’m officially over the six weeks recovery time required for bone to heal sufficiently. At least it puts me amongst a few birds and keeps my flight shot skills from getting rusty.
And who knows, I might even get lucky.
Ron
Superb flight series
ron
Superb flight series!!
Charlotte Norton
There was a little duck who had a little curl right in the middle of its… Sorry I couldn’t help corrupting a poem I grew up with there.
And I don’t mind the background at all.
Keep healing dear friend.
Thank you, EC.
I do love that little curl of the duck’s tail that Lyle pointed out … takes me back to my brother’s “ducktail” haircut that was the essence of teenage cool in the 1950s! This curl looks better on the duck, who is a very handsome fella with his flashy green head, indeed. Regardless of the background “noise” you disdain. 😎
Chris, I too had one of those ducktail haircuts when I was in jr high. Back then I had hair.
You could have said the vertical columns were trees and the horizontal feature grass or forest floor, my point being is I don’t think they detract from the photos at all. Maybe if I was there it would be different. And who doesn’t get a chuckle from that curl of tail feathers.
I agree with Michael; I’m sure you have tons of photos that most of us have never seen but would like to.
“…lemonade out of… the hand of man.” You have a way with words.
“You have a way with words.”
Thank you, Lyle. Coming from you that means a lot.
A few days ago, a friend of mine actually found one of those curled drake Mallard tail feathers, apparently discarded during molt. Cute feather.
As Ken says don’t be hard on yourself. Remember that to a non photographer viewing these, they are just beautiful photos. You have given me a new challenge here. I will take a photo of a Mallard from time to time, but mostly ignore them, and never have even tried to take a take off or in flight shot.
Make that back healing priority number one.
Everett, I think drake Mallards in flight are beautiful. Give it a try.
Enjoyed the photos!
I agree with Ken. You are a bit hard on yourself. After all, you were working in the urban setting. Ah, but that’s the plight of the artist.
Give yourself time to properly heal. And if you want to dig into the archives to reissue some of your older stuff I, as a relative newbie to your site, would be happy to see whatever you post.
Thanks, Michael. I’ve already been posting images from my archives. Don’t like to do that too often.
Frustrating tho at least you can get out a bit……. 😉 Beautiful drake despite the background being a bit off…… 🙂 R5 serving you well it seems!
Judy, I actually got out on a real birding trip this morning. Found a few birds too.
That R5 is serving you very well, as does aperture priority. I did not mind the bokeh-ish background. You are too hard on yourself. Keep healing and snapping.
Thanks, Ken. The R5 is definitely a gem, despite a few quirks.