Plus my worst bad habit as a photographer (I have other bad habits but most of them don’t involve photography).
Prepare yourselves. Today’s post is of the “photo-geek” variety.
1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
I’ve always enjoyed this shot from my archives but I’ve never posted it or done anything else with it because of a self-inflicted flaw. I’m sure that flaw is immediately obvious to most viewers but I’ll explain further a little later in this post.
When the shutter fired the eagle had just snagged a fish from the very shallow water (only 3 or 4″ deep) at Farmington Bay WMA in winter. I cropped the image as I did to include the column of dirty water lifted from the bottom of the pond at lower left as the eagle pulled the carp out of the water. For some reason I’m a little intrigued by the fact that the shape of the dirty water column strongly resembles the curved shape of the fish, including dorsal fin. This is a difficult shot to time well while keeping focus locked on the eagle and I was just lucky that the bird tilted to its left slightly which provided some light and detail on its ventral surfaces.
Ok, now to the problem with the image.
My two worst bad habits as a bird photographer are:
- Not leaving enough room below a perched bird that is close to me so I either cut off its feet or there isn’t enough room below the feet for acceptable composition. That always seems to happen with the best shot in a burst.
- Rotating my camera and lens a little when I’m following a bird in flight (or even a bird moving on the ground when I’m close) so that the image needs obvious rotation to make it level. It’s easy to do when I’m shooting from my pickup window (I rarely use a tripod) unless I concentrate on keeping my lens level. All too often I forget to concentrate on that vital aspect of bird photography.
Of the two the second one has ruined or compromised the most potentially good to excellent shots so I think of it as my worst bad habit involving photography.
And that’s what happened with this photo, it screams for clockwise rotation to level the image.
But when I rotate the image the 4.23° necessary to level the image (I used the most dominant and longest band of ice in the upper background as a leveling guide) I lose significant canvas on all four sides so this is what I’m left with. I’ve cut off four primary feathers of the right wing and the composition is too long and narrow horizontally for my tastes – for this photo I prefer a 5×7 aspect ratio. Unacceptable on both counts!
The only solution of course is to add canvas up top to the original photo and then rotate it to level.
After adding canvas up top and rotating the image to level I think the photo looks pretty darn good considering the less than ideal lighting conditions but all of what you see here isn’t what I saw in my viewfinder. In my view disclosing the added canvas to my viewers mitigates both my error and my manipulation of the photo to some degree but not completely. It would have been far better to have had my lens level in the first place. After all, how much effort would that take!
I’ve been photographing birds for 12 years now and I continue to make this rookie mistake more often than I should. I’m 72 years old now but give me another decade or two and maybe I’ll get it right in camera.
Ron
Note to any pixel peepers out there:
Some may have spotted an apparent zone of disparate bokeh in the background immediately surrounding the six longest primary feathers of the right wing that might appear to be a processing artifact. It isn’t. The only processing I’ve done to all 3 versions of the photo is crop, sharpen globally, rotate, add canvas above the right wing and increase exposure globally very slightly. That wingtip in the RAW file looks the same as it does in these jpegs. Occasionally that just happens…
Am I the only one who feels bad for the fish? Just kidding (sort of; I can hear the groans). I see Bald Eagles here regularly but have never seen one grab a fish. Great catch, Ron. I was immediately drawn to that water bump, too. I wonder if that right foot has some bottom dirt on it.
Lyle, it’s hard for me to feel very sorry for carp, in part because they cause so much damage to the refuge. But we brought them here so whose fault is that…
Nice photo, yes I have this happen often and it pisses me off. I have a great photo but because of hand holding the camera I have unlevel strong horizontal bands somewhere and to straighten those I crop body parts of the birds.
It’s a no-win and very frustrating situation isn’t it, April. We’ve just gotta remember to keep our gear level but that’s easier said than done.
I am not in the slightest bit phased by the wonkiness. After all the bird wasn’t. Its level shifts constantly. And effortlessly. So I see your ‘fatal flaw’ as a bird’s eye view.
On the slow learner front? I was recently given an award after spending over twenty years volunteering on the crisis line. Yes I appreciated the recognition but I also tagged it as a slow learner award.
I know you’ve struggled with the emotional challenges involved in your volunteer work, EC. Who wouldn’t? You deserve that recognition and more.
CONGRATULATIONS, Ellie Baby!!!👏👍❤️
At age 81, Pablo Casals was interviewed by film maker Robert Snyder for a movie short, “A Day in the Life of Pablo Casals.” Snyder asked Casals, the world’s foremost cellist, why he continues to practice four and five hours a day. Casals answered: “Because I think I am making progress.”
I’ve always loved that quote, Martha. It gives me hope…
Good morning Ron: I love all the pictures you posted, yes you want perfection I see that. Yes some day you will get that prefect shot all it takes is time! LOL Don’t worry and stress out, we all love you and your pictures and keep them coming.
That made me smile, Trudy. It didn’t break me of my bad habit but it did make me smile…
Laughing as I have a hell of a time keeping the camera level particularly when following something! 🙂 Always thought perhaps it was because I’m left eye dominant and have a bit of a different bit of a grip on the camera…… 😉 So much for that excuse! Suspect perhaps it’s trying to jockey hanging on and pushing the shutter button……. Love the photo regardless 🙂
I’m far from the only one with that problem, Judy. But over the years I’ve become so sensitive to even slightly tilted images that I probably let it bother me at least a little more than it should.
I couldn’t see anything wrong with the first photo because my mind made the ice angle into a shoreline curving away to the right. Only you know that the lines were not at that angle.
Pamela, that’s possible with the ice and apparent “shore” but the fact that the water is severely tilted just doesn’t work…
Good news in that you’re striving for “level” bad news if it starts to interfere with getting the shot! 😉
You are too hard on yourself!😫 BUT…having said that I understand completely. For some reason ‘wonkiness’ in the horizon is the first thing that hits me. Nothing spoils a fantastic shot more in my weird mind is seeing that something is not level. After looking at the first photo and reading the first sentence I knew immediately what you were refering to! But it was a great shot!
Kathy, I think most serious bird photographers would understand and you’re one of us!
And I’m with you, if a photo needs obvious leveling I usually can’t see past the flaw.
Well Ron, if that’s the worst habits you have as an incredible bird photographer, I’d say you are in great shape 🙂
Thanks Keith, but one of the things that makes it such a bad habit is because I’ve been doing it for so damned long. I used to call folks like me “slow learners”… 🙂