Just A Shot That I Like… #12, American Avocet Ballet

Occasionally an image still appeals to me despite significant imperfections.  In this shot the cluttered background is not ideal nor are the specular highlights on the leg of the male’s reflection but I quite like the positions of both birds, their reflections and the good separation between the avocets and the reflections.   

 1/1250, f/10, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

Fighting avocets are very difficult to photograph because typically several male combatants are separated from each other by some distance and you never know which bird is going to go after another one next and when the action begins it is blindingly fast.  There’s also the problem of getting enough shutter speed and depth of field for multiple birds in action.  Shooting these birds fighting is nearly always a “poke and hope” situation.

Setting the scene:  I had been photographing four males fighting over a single female (sexes easily identifiable because the female has a shorter and more strongly recurved bill than does the male) when this male lifted off and attacked two other males just out of frame to the right.   I just happened to catch the male in a good position over the female with reflections I liked.  One of the things that made this shot work is that I had enough light to use f/10 for sufficient depth of field and still get a fast enough (just barely) shutter speed to get both birds relatively sharp. 

Ron