This is an Image from a trip to Fort Desoto, FL about a year ago. I have left it in the hard drive vault waiting for the day that I felt I could finish it in the digital darkroom properly. I’ve recently learned that the best way to treat your critter images is to leave them alone. Leave the critter in its natural environment, don’t touch anything. Shoot a good shot. So I waited a year for the advice that other pro’s will not give you. So this Image is straight from my D3s, I had the 200-400 with a TC1.7 tele-convertor. I was shooting at f/6.7 @ 1/800 second. I spent about an hour with these birds, who flew in to grab a quick meal off of the small fish swimming just under the surface.
When I composed the shot, I wanted to keep the peace bridge in the background level to give some depth and texture, so the tripod I was on was super level, so there was no drifting as I panned. The one thing that you give up in these backlight situation is your retina. These birds walked from left to right thru the rising suns reflections, my eyes we really shot after this. However, I got the Image I wanted after waiting patiently for the critters to do their thing…..
