Whiskered Tern

[Jan van Holten]

A few years ago I bought a floating hide. I can hardly use this hide in my own environment and I actually bought it for use in Poland. There, the Biebrza river floods a large part of the delta every year. Unfortunately, due to changing weather conditions, this has not happened much in recent years. By the time I arrived, at the end of April, the water had already largely receded. And now the area is even largely dry, as far as I understand. The shift in a micro-weather system in Europe has its consequences! And although this picture is not perfect, I still look back with pleasure on the few years that I was able to go into the water.

• Canon EOS-1D X
• EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
• ƒ/5.6
• 700mm
• 1/5000s
• ISO 500
• Flash not fired
• Sat, 06 May 2017 8:38 AM
• Jan van Holten
• Capture One Macintosh

 

[Colin Driscoll]

A great angle an nicely lit. Pity they are looking away.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jan, agree with young Colin, the low perspective is great, it creates almost that feeling of being there. The main issue for me is, the subjects are looking away, moving more to your right if possible I think would have been better. Is the OOF vegetation creeping in from the LHS distracting not sure, but I would not crop any more, in fact taking off the 1.4 might have been better, was this cropped?

Colourwise I think you could enrich things a bit more without affecting the subjects, so you have a bit more life in the greens.

Looking forwards to seeing more.

TFS
Steve

 

[Jan van Holten]

Hi Jan, agree with young Colin, the low perspective is great, it creates almost that feeling of being there. The main issue for me is, the subjects are looking away, moving more to your right if possible I think would have been better. Is the OOF vegetation creeping in from the LHS distracting not sure, but I would not crop any more, in fact taking off the 1.4 might have been better, was this cropped?

Colourwise I think you could enrich things a bit more without affecting the subjects, so you have a bit more life in the greens.

Looking forwards to seeing more.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve. Often there are moments when birds are only present for a short time. On this morning it was clear that pairs were being formed and the birds were very active. The moment therefore only lasted a short time. In addition, there is always some wind there and then you have your hands full with keeping the floating hut under control. A bit further back and a bit to the right would have been better, but there was no time for that.
On the other hand, the birds were not supposed to be "concerned with me". But mainly with the courtship!
A very famous French photographer has become well known for it, animals looking away or walking away! By the way, the image is not cropped, only the horizon has been straightened. I keep cropping very limited anyway. I always try to get the image as "finished" as possible in the field. That is the sport for me, even if it is at the expense of the chances of getting a picture!

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Super shot Jan ... just the subjects facing away is not working for me , sadly.,

TFS Andreas