Well the New Year has started with the gloom that afflicted most of December. That puts paid to most wildlife photography, but I decided to head over to Rottingdean Beach in the hope that there would be a smidgen more light by the coast. There wasn't, so for most of the time I kept the camera in the bag. The tide was in which also doesn't help. So no oystercatchers or egrets to catch the eye, and the cormorants were staying a distance from the shoreline.
I took a few shots of the sea, and of pigeons up against the cliff face, but it was only when I was heading back to the car that I saw something worthwhile. A small flock of ringed plovers were flying in to the shore. They barely paused before flying back out again, but it was sufficient for a few shots. I had the camera set at ISO 1000, and the aperture wide open at f/5.6. Even so, the shutter speed was dire. All these shots are at between 1/100s and 1/160s. That, plus the high ISO, meant that getting anything sharp was unlikely (particularly of a fast moving flock of small birds). So these shots are more atmospheric and impressionistic than usual, though possibly closer to what you actually see when these things fly by at speed.
Incoming plovers
All the shots have been brightened in Photoshop and been submitted to noise reduction (and moderate sharpening) settings in Neat Image. The rest of the sequence is in the January Birds album (try the slide show setting 😉 )
And as it's the New Year, I'll add one picture from last night. It would seem odd to start 2009 without at least one photo of a fox.
Nicked-ear vixen on New Year's Eve
Camera note: the plovers were all taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The fox was captured with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM and Canon 430EX flash unit, set on half power manual setting.
cakkleberrylane
2 Jan 2009Wonderful shots of the plovers. I wish I could get such great pictures of our bats. They arrive in swarms at 6:45 am and again at 6:30 pm, but the trees do a lot to hide them.
Flying Red Fox Blog
2 Jan 2009Nice first post for 2009 😀 Hopefully we get more sunnier weather soon!
SittingFox
2 Jan 2009I like the impressionist angle of these pictures. And the Nicked Ear Vixen looks as dainty as ever 🙂
As for the general gloom at the moment… 😥
Ukwildlife
2 Jan 2009great photos.
As for thje gloom, I was planning to go out when I saw the sun this morning, but it soon clouded over…
Flying Red Fox Blog
2 Jan 2009Its gone sunny now yay! 😀 Think i will go and visit Worthing Pier tomorrow….. with my Fuji because i need to wait until Monday to insure my Canon 1000D, best to be insured before i go out using it. 🙂
Words
2 Jan 2009Mark, thanks. The weather was a touch better today, but by the time I got out a vast cloud was hovering just in front of the sun.
Words
2 Jan 2009Lois, thanks. Plovers are fast, but they fly in straight lines, and in daylight. I've never even managed so much as a blur when the occasional bats round here fly over. Unbelievably difficult to capture in flight. From what I've read you need a fast camera, a 'light trap', powerful flash, a fixed focal point and a huge amount of luck. And that's before you get into specialist equipment 😉 I've had better luck photographing gnats in flight (seriously).
Words
2 Jan 2009Mark, yes worth insuring you gear. The weekend looks pretty good. Cold, but clear (hopefully).
Words
2 Jan 2009Neil, round here we had one cloud in the sky. But it was HUGE!
Words
2 Jan 2009Adele, thanks. Something of a rescue job, but one of my better efforts. Nicked-ear was as elegant as she gets 😉