Shadow Birds

In addition to the unattractive but technically interesting photos of geese on the kaleidoscope water, I got some cool shots of silhouetted birds. My favourites are posted on Images Across The Earth.

The in-flight shots were technically tricky because the light was fading rapidly, the birds were some distance away, and they were moving fast.

Compare the detail below with the second shot in the gallery, which was taken twenty minutes earlier.

F 11 .. 200 mm .. 1/60 sec
(detail)

Technical specs for the gallery shot: F 13 .. 135 mm .. 1/200 sec (detail). The increased shutter speed and different angle captured individual feathers in motion rather than a full-wing blur.

I also got some interesting shots of birds on the water. At a glance the first gallery shot looks as though it is a single bird with its shadow/reflected in the water, but in fact there are two birds:

F 5.6 .. 200 mm .. 1/60 sec
(detail)

Technical specs for the gallery shot: F 5.6 .. 200 mm .. 1/80 sec (detail). The two shots were taken in rapid succession.

Finally, a detail that shows off more of the 18 - 200 lens' capabilities:

F 7.1 .. 170 mm .. 1/60 sec
(detail)

Click the image to see the full-size version. The camera did a fantastic job of capturing the reflected light and texture of the water. Note the concentric ripples around the righthand bird, overlaid on the river's natural weave. This is a full-width version of the original shot, simply cropped to remove the less interesting foreground/background that was out of field.