How I Shot That - Gulls over Bridges

How I Shot That - Gulls over Bridges

Shot with Sony 50mm f/1.8 - http://amzn.to/2FmZ82E
Camera is Sony a6000 - http://amzn.to/2ELLKIr
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Shot this almost a year ago, I get to take many noon-time walks during my day job. Usually this isn't the time to take a photo, the light is usually so harsh.  

What can you do, but take advantage of a ritual near a location that is always changing.  I've read and learned that many photographers will sit in a location and even camp out for days at a time.  But what I have substituted was ritual.  When I go for a walk at lunch, I'll have about 4 routes I choose from.  Being next to the Mississippi River, 2 of the 4 routes take me along that path.  

Usually, this gives me 2 types of water fouls to shoot... mallards and gulls.  They seem to love this area because... it's easy.  People feed them.  A ton of people feed them.

At this time, the ice had just disappeared from the river and the birds were looking for more food than people were giving them.  And for a moment, it seemed I had cought them lining up as if coming or going over the interstate bridges. 

And a bit of technical luck, I set the camera up for more of a street style aperture of f8.0.  This helped keep the bridges sharper while I focused on the bird.  And because it was broad daylight, I could keep the ISO at 100 with a 1/750 sec shutter.   This is how I kept the noise down and the birds are still in the air.

And in post I really just needed to bring out the contrast and deepen the blacks.  

How I shot that - Baby Owls with a Beginners Camera

How I shot that - Baby Owls with a Beginners Camera

I used the Nikon Coolpix p510 http://amzn.to/2GQZXR8
Current version of this camera: Coolpix p900 http://amzn.to/2F132gM



When I was starting out with my photography, I had what people called a Bridge Camera.  There was one lens that had an effective focal length ranging all the way from 24 mm all the way out to 1000mm equivalent of a 35mm sensor.  Just starting out, I didn't know what to photograph.  That meant I was taking pictures of everything. 

Maybe that was a little much for a starting new photographer, but it was fun.  Some of that fun came from living in an area of western Wisconsin that had easy access to some great wildlife and birding areas.  So many times, it is as simple as walking around.  But for this shot, I had to talk to some people before I knew where to look.

Specifically, I was walking in this city park that is a part of a marsh to the La Crosse River that feeds into the Mississippi River. The city park system has taken ownership of a wetlands area that keeps people in appreciation of the Great River wild life, and has made it mostly enjoyable (minus the summer and fall mosquitos). 

That day, I had my camera on shutter priority.  I wanted to control the speed of the shutter and let this thing think about the ISO and aperture.  I was still relatively new back in September 2015.  For fun, I was walking around this park called Myrick Park Marsh.

It just so happened, that the area Audubon Society was meeting at the shelter here.  I popped in for a little bit and realized every one was way more serious than I was.  I just wasn't prepared and I was here for fun.  But walking outside, I realized most people in the park (even though they weren't at the meeting in the shelter) were birders.  I had to talk to some of them and got a couple of ideas for the day.

But then there was the prize, baby owls.  This marsh was a fantastic place for the owls, because no one was able to get in their face or walk up to the tree they were in.  The tree was surrounded by water.  But I just sat there for a good 20 minutes and found them inside this broken trunk of a tree. 

What a reward.

Talk to people, find a spot, sit there.

Using a point and shoot Nikon P510 bridge camera.

I still feel great about that shot.

Baby Owl peeking out into the world

Baby  Owl peeking out into the world.  Found this guy with the help of some La Crosse area Birders this spring in Myrick Park Marsh.  You had to look really hard or you would miss it.

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