{"id":113847,"date":"2022-07-07T05:15:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=113847"},"modified":"2022-07-07T05:15:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:15:50","slug":"drake-mallard-flight-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/07\/drake-mallard-flight-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Mallard Flight Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trying to make lemonade out of… the hand of man.<\/p>\n

As I continue to heal from back surgery I’ve been laying low as a bird photographer so, except for a couple of brief trips to an urban pond near my home, it’s been ten days since I’ve been in the field. Shooting at the pond this time of year is frustrating, for a lack of birds and because at that location pleasing backgrounds in flight shots are darn near impossible to come by.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning’s visit to the pond was par for the course. This drake Mallard in flight was one of only two reasonably good opportunities I had with birds in flight and nearly all of my photos of him were marred by distracting and obviously man-made background elements.<\/p>\n

This series of four consecutive shots in a burst documents what I was dealing with. I like the bird in all four photos but the backgrounds in most of them, not so much.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I can’t even remember what was responsible for the background color at the bottom of the frame and the vertical columns up top but they sure did a number on most of my photos of the Mallard. Photos that I’d otherwise have liked a lot more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally, there’s a tree coming up on the left that might block the unappealing elements and give me a more natural background in the next shot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/1600, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

And for one photo the tree did exactly that but my old friend Murphy stepped in and put a partial kibosh on the photo. The tree, which was significantly darker than the previous background, cut my shutter speed in half (I shoot in aperture priority) so the Mallard isn’t as sharp as he was in the three previous photos.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh well, I may continue to visit the pond occasionally for the next couple of weeks until I’m officially over the six weeks recovery time required for bone to heal sufficiently. At least it puts me amongst a few birds and keeps my flight shot skills from getting rusty.<\/p>\n

And who knows, I might even get lucky.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to make lemonade out of… the hand of man. (4 photos)<\/p>\n

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