Last week Saturday the 22nd, while my way back from Oak Hammock Marsh, I spotted a giant bald eagle feeding on its pray. I puled the car a side, and in a moment I got ready with my camera, it flew far away. Considering the low light conditions, had decided to come back again to the location.
Exactly a week after I went again this time with Stephanie in search of Eagle. My bad luck, it wasn’t seen even after waiting long time, may be it went to another territory. But I had plenty of time, so we started hiking through various short- trails (Click) around and took various bird pictures including American coot, Geese, Mallard duck, Yellow headed Black bird, Red winged Black bird and Grackle (Click here for picture feed). Along with aforementioned birds we also spotted the the bird with most interesting behavior called “Tree Swallow” this post is all about it.
Well, long story short, these birds follow certain pattern, may be for every 5 minutes they fly away from the tree, and comes back after some time and again after 5 minutes they fly away. They are very fast moving and hard to capture individual bird, so, I almost spent about 20-30 minutes to get the below picture of birds sitting on the tree branches, it almost look like leaves all along from far distance. The same picture was also became editor`s favorite in National Geographic Your shot (Click here for picture). Though I went for Eagle with open mind and curiosity of exploring things around could able to create one nice picture.
Photography technique
Tree swallow birds on branches of dried tree
Lighting: It was sunset and getting beautiful golden hour light to get that light on tree and in sky, I positioned myself in a way that my camera facing south.
Camera & settings: I used Canon 7D-MarkII coupled with Tamron 150-600 lens. The focal length was 150mm at F8 with shutter speed 1/2500 and ISO-800. It was hand held shot in AI-Servo shooting mode. To capture warm colors, I had cloudy white balance setting in evaluative metering mode.
Post production: Picture was captured in RAW and processed in Light room with basic adjustment of White-Black balance, shadow and highlight. This is original composition picture was not cropped.
Notes or Tips
In my experience, when you are in field always look around for nice moments
Consider light and its angle before you take picture
Always check your camera setting before you start shooting (specially WB and ISO)
Play with white balance and always get multiple pictures, to make sure one would have better focus among
Try to use tripod for better quality pictures.
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What is that first thing comes to your mind, as soon as you hear the word #spring ? If I’m not wrong most of us think sprouting buds, cherry blossoms, chirping birds, flower blooming & green all around.
Have you seen or documented how this transition happens from #wintertospring ? I’m going to post some of such pictures for you guys from my recent trip to Nopiming provincial park, MB, Canada.
This part of Manitoba I have not explored so far, but I found out that, it is very huge park with lot of scope for #bird and #wildlifephotography. I am sure, if you spend some time and do scouting, you also get very interesting #landscape pictures. Lets check some of my pictures.
Tiny Yellow bellied Sapsucker bird found near bird lake
As a bird/wildlife photographer with big lenses, I always notice birds. This is one among many birds I have spotted, the brilliant colored birdy were seen around bird lake of park.
Melting ice on Bird lake, Nopiming park.
This is view of Bird lake from the low angle, shot this picture with polarizer to add little silky water touch & to show how clear was the #water. Friends as I mentioned “The transition” melting ice is one among them, however part of ice look thick like someone threw ice blocks on lake. This location also has campground near by and benches around grills for BBQ; very nice place for camping or even for picnicking.
Tulbi falls yurt with scenic Lakeview
Who don’t want to stay in yurt with scenic view ?
These yurts are still under construction, I am already started to find availability to reserve in this location for the scenic view from yurt click here.
Waiting for right time
The above picture has many elements of transitionofseason. The fallen #pine cones, idle boat, thawing lake, melted ice to water this landscape moment I composed from one of the cabin house on lake. For picture with similar moment click here and also from the other part of the lake you can see how this ice is Melting (click the link).
Finally with last picture I took on our way back to Winnipeg I’ll end this blog. This picture is of very beautiful town/village I saw, sunset was added third dimension to this picture.
Beauty of village in golden hour
How you seen or took pictures if seasonal transition? If yes please feel free to share your picture with others using this link here or use hashtag #lookingthroughlens. Finally if you liked my pictures and story please hit like and share with your friends. For any questions related to photography, contact me using links from below wedges.
Looking Through Lens 