| For me April is the beginning of the season proper in Finland.
April bird photography along shores was the initial kick that got me into bird photography many years back. Nature is now coming back into life after long silent period, sunny days are dominating again, life is good.
Clear sky before sunrise is the telltale to go for it: I had 1DMKIII attached to EF 500/4L IS with 1.4x teleconverter ready in my back bag. I drove to my chosen place and attached camera on sturdy carbon fiber tripod with gimbal head. As I approach the place I usually set angle finder to camera. This enables lower perspective closer to subjects: Waterfowl, Shorebirds, Gulls, Terns or like.
Today I chose a little pond with lots of birds and usually they are here at closer distances too. My starting point has Sun behind and a little side, as normally with my shoreline bird photography. I love the palette of blue and pink in surroundings, same as how frontlight enhances out feather details of birds. I sat down and set up tripod as low as I can comfortably manage it with angled viewfinder.
Long focal length (700mm) arranges perspective easier than any shorter one, as it is not necessary to lower camera so much for equal framing _and_ equal vertical perspective on water level. Many beginners are shooting from very high position and same time using shorter focal lengths. Result is that in picture perspective is looking down to subject from a viewpoint of a walker. Getting more into level of birds is the key for my approach.
Initially my chosen spot was void of birds but I knew they are moving a lot this time of year. And not surprisingly, several mating and each other chasing groups of waterfowl were passing my location during one hour of shooting. Actual photography is very much about changing settings: manual, aperture priority, back to manual, focusing point to right, middle, forth and back, tilt camera back to horizontal, one shot to servo auto focus, back, check highlights for that new specie, follow subject.... a good birding morning is taking your everyday problems out of your mind in no time.
One Coot has been feeding further away, but now a couple of more joined in and they began to chase each other. One of them was sliding closer and at same time doing some strange looking maneuver. The bill of Coot clips highlights from digital picture very easily, but fortunately close by trees feathered light enough for my shutter time. I moved autofocus point lower and grabbed a short serie of Coot. Only later at computer I saw parallel horizontal ripples, which in my humble opinion makes this picture for me. Together with delicate tones of Coot feathers, bill and eye color of course.
Many photographers let us know they are creating masterpieces in nature by seeing things better than masses. Maybe true but when photographing wildlife one has for most part settle for what nature has to offer. To be prepared and staying peak light at location is the cornerstone of the process, no matter if you are doing artsy fartsy stuff or strictly documenting species.
It would be very easy for me or anyone else to explain that he/she anticipated everything in some particular bird picture. The trick is, at least in my case, opportunism: I determined beforehand the camera setup, peak light for my style and the position where some cool things may happen. And when cool things are happening with wild animals, thinking time is over in seconds anyway.
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