ocean – Page 4

June 11, 2013March 25, 2017

A Counter-intuitive Tip To Tack Sharp Photos With A Long Lens

The hues of twilight cast offshore sea stacks in a blue glow as waves wash around them, Crescent City, CA

On my recent trip north up the California coast to photograph redwoods and rhododendrons, I also had an opportunity to shoot sea stacks just offshore in Crescent City, CA. After shooting a bit with my 70-200mm, I really wanted to go for a unique perspective of these rocks and stack them on top of one another. So I grabbed my go-to bird lens, the 800mm f/5.6. Using a Canon 7D with a cropped sensor gave me an equivalent focal length of 1280mm.

I waited until the sun set, giving me photos with the cool blue of dusk, and allowing me to slow my shutter speed to turn the crashing waves into a calming mist. This is the effect I was after – hard, sharp rocks shrouded in a blue fog of moving water. However, as soon as my shutter speed got longer than 1/100th of a second and started creeping toward the 1 and 2 second mark, the results on the back of my LCD were horribly blurry.

In normal shooting conditions with this lens, I never like to let the shutter speed drop below 1/250th of a second, and only if I have a stationary subject do I lock down the gimbal head on my tripod and go for something slower. But usually 1/100th of a second is my slowest usable shutter speed. What to do in this situation? Even by bumping the ISO very high I couldn’t achieve a fast enough shutter speed in these darkening conditions, and doing so would also counteract the effect of the moving water.

The solution seemed counter-intuitive at first. I found that by greatly lengthening my exposures, I was able to achieve much sharper results! The initial blurriness I was seeing was caused by the shutter vibration, amplified by the extremely long focal length (and yes, I was using mirror lockup). When I increased the exposure time, the percentage of time that the mirror shake impacted the overall exposure time was reduced, thus creating a sharper image. Using this principal, I found that by exposing for 30 seconds, I was able to achieve the sharpest results.

A couple things to keep in mind. First, this technique will only work if there is no wind. Even a slight breeze will blow a huge lens like that back and forth, ruining any chance of a long exposure. Second, make sure to check sharpness by zooming in to your resulting photo on the camera’s LCD. Never trust sharpness from a photo displayed 3 inches across – everything looks sharp when it is that small!

So next time you’re out with a giant lens trying to do landscape work (really not a very common combo!), remember to experiment with the slower shutter speeds. You might just find some sharpness in there.

August 27, 2012January 14, 2013

Western Sandpiper In Breeding Plumage

A western sandpiper is reflected in a shallow sheen of water along a beach

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A little while ago I headed out to the edge of the bay to check out some of the shorebirds making their way down south for the winter. I found quite a mixture of species, and because of the busyness of the birds, I was able to creep quite close to them without notice. Suddenly I found myself face to face with one of the tiniest of the peeps – the western sandpiper. While very common, I had never been so close, and had never seen breeding plumage quite so vibrant.

Many western sandpipers huddle together for protection along a crowded beach

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I snapped away, going for shots of many sandpipers crowded together, and also trying to single them out and find compositions with as few distractions as possible. For the shot above, I knew I couldn’t hold focus for all the birds front to back with my long lens, so I picked one bird for critical focus, and then used the rule of thirds to position him well in the frame. I liked the result – a sandpiper’s head in sharp focus, surrounded by a pattern of feathers and colors.

A western sandpiper snoozes with one eye open during a falling tide

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Singling out individual birds was more difficult. Each time one would wander away from the rest, other shore birds would quickly move in front of and behind the bird. In addition, these little guys move quite fast while eating, so much of the action was captured in a run-and-gun style, hoping for the best. It was definitely one of those moments that made me appreciate digital – had I tried that with film I would have soon been broke (not to mention reloading film in the middle of the action)!

Even though this is a very common species, I was happy with the lighting and the close proximity. Sometimes the most common birds get left out of all the fun!

July 2, 2012January 14, 2013

California State Parks Short Term Fix

Waves crash against sandstone headlands, Salt Point State Park, California

In honor of the recent good news that nearly all California State Parks that were slated to close yesterday will be saved (at least temporarily), I have created a new portfolio gallery of a selection of images I have creates at CA state parks over the last few years. Please enjoy this small slice of what CA state parks have to offer.

Even with the good news, the long term outlook of the park department is not good. Please show your support by visiting a CA state park this summer, or joining their facebook page.

April 2, 2011January 14, 2013

Snowy Plover and friends

A snowy plover just coming into breeding plumage rests in the sand. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-7D. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3: 1/1250 sec. at f/8

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When I was in Moss Landing recently, I knew it would be a good opportunity to photograph snowy plovers in the sand, because they nest along the beach at the mouth of the harbor. Snowy plovers nest right in the open sand, which is why their nesting grounds are frequently protected along the California coast. It was still a little too early to see established nest sites, but they should be scoping some out.

After some searching, I found a few of them sitting down in the sand. They were just starting to come into breeding plumage. Not wanting to disturb them, I spend a good ten minutes creeping slowly closer, until I could create frame-filling shots like the one above. My tripod legs were fully splayed out in order to get the lens closer to the ground. I was pretty happy with my position and the fact that I had gotten as close as I needed to without disrupting the birds.

After making some shots, I looked up and saw a surfer emerge from the water a little ways up the beach. I thought he would continue walking toward the road, but then he saw me and starting walking in my direction. Unbelievably, he walked directly toward me fully in my lens’s line of sight. And he didn’t stop until he was standing next to me looking down at my prone form! Needless to see, the birds scattered as he tromped through their would-be nesting area. I was just staring at him (probably with a dropped jaw), incredulous that he would have so little common sense or self awareness.

“Getting some good photographs?” he asked.

“Well, I was,” I relied wryly. As the acclaimed bird photographer Art Morris is fond of saying, you gotta love it!

The scattered plovers were not to be refound, and I had to settle for the photos I already had. However, I spent some more time creeping up on some sanderlings and western sandpipers who were busy poking through shells and seaweed that had been washed up on the beach. These photos can be seen below.

I quick word to the non-photographers out there. If you are in a remote area and see someone concentrating on something with their camera, please please please don’t just walk up to them and interrupt without understanding what they’re photographing. This is especially important with wildlife that you can spook. The photographers of the world thank you.

A sanderling calls out as it walks along the sand. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-7D. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3: 1/2000 sec. at f/8