I tend to ignore the ducks when I visit Falmer Pond but there was little going on today and the ducks were being unusually cooperative (i.e. flying the length of the pond rather than dabbling).
Duck at Falmer Pond
Duck at Falmer Pond
Duck at Falmer Pond
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 1DX Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
All sorts of bits and pieces today. It’s probably not quite #234 in a series, but it’s the kind of post I haven’t done for a while. I’ll start with an old friend from Falmer Pond, taken yesterday. It’s a duck (not a rat in case you were hoping.)
Duck reflected in Falmer pond
Also from yesterday a shy lizard (the green one again)
Common lizard campus
And a rude lizard!
Common lizard showing forked tongue
This morning took me down to Brighton seafront (I’m all over the place at the moment for work). These were taken around 8.30am in foggy conditions. The first is the latest iconic Brighton structure, the incomparably dreadful i360.
i360 (i-Sore) tower in the mist on Brighton seafront
Much more to my taste are the stunning ruins of the old West Pier. I never tire of them.
The ruins of the iconic West Pier, Brighton
Lastly, something from the garden… one of the badgers.
Badger in the garden at night
Camera note: pier and i-Sore taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF50mm f/1.2L USM lens; the duck with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens; lizards with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens; and the badger with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens.
Don’t worry, there’s nothing too sinister about this post. The title is a reference to camera settings.
There was some fairly bright sunshine early this morning and while taking yet more pictures of the heron, I spotted a cormorant fly over. When photographing a dark bird against a bright sky I tend to slightly under-expose by setting the exposure compensation to a slight positive number. Anyway, the cormorant swept down to the water, where everything is much darker. To retain a usable shutter speed I scrolled the compensation setting into the negative zone. I was aiming at around -1, but doing it on the fly I overshot so these were taken with a setting of -2. This had the effect of keeping a respectable shutter speed (around 1/1600s, keeping things nice and sharp), but leaving everything rather dark. A little bit of adjustment in Lightroom was needed to even things up a bit and bring out the green reflections in the water.
Cormorant at Falmer
I do like deep colours and dark backgrounds, and by lunchtime the clouds had rolled in and there was even a touch of rain. Everything was grey apart from one shaded corner of the pond where some ducks had congregated. The overhanging trees provided deep shade, but that of course kills the shutter. To get anything usable I started at 800 (first shot which had a shutter speed of 1/250s) but then ramped the ISO to 1600 and – against the usual advice – under-exposed by -1. Normally under-exposing at a high ISO is risky as it can increase the noise in the darker areas, but only if the intention is to lighten the photo later on. I wanted to keep the dark areas dark, and just have enough light on the ducks. I have made some minor adjustments (and cropped), but these are very close to how they came out of the camera. If I hadn’t under-exposed the shots would have lost impact and contrast, and frankly the shutter would have crawled. This way I have something sharp. And there really isn’t too much in the way of noise (even in the second shot which is the high ISO one).
Mallard duck at Falmer
[I]Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS Mark II lens.[/I]
