![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/western-sandpiper-5823-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWhen birds rouse (erecting, then shaking their\u00a0feathers) the effect can be interesting and visually appealing but the action is fast and requires a fairly fast shutter speed to stop the motion. Using slower shutter speeds than this (1\/2500 sec) often makes the rapidly moving feathers a blurry mess. Since birds usually don’t signal a rouse soon enough to allow the photographer to make adjustments, appropriate camera settings must be dialed in from the start.\u00a0 In this image, taken three days ago at Farmington Bay, I really like the play of light on feather shapes and textures and for my tastes the fact that those feathers are sharp (instead of having motion blur) is a big plus.<\/p>\n
But there’s something else of interest going on in this image. What happened to the tip of the bill in the reflection? Most of the reflection is\u00a0nearly as sharp and detailed as the bird itself\u00a0but the end of the bill almost\u00a0looks like it has exploded. I think that detracts from the image so I was about to delete it when my curiosity got the best of me so I tried to figure out\u00a0the cause of the distortion.<\/p>\n
Typically it would be a disturbance of the calm water where the bill is in the reflection that would cause the distortion but here that water is perfectly flat and mirror-like. I believe that the water droplet on the end of the bill is the culprit. As light from the sun struck the bill-tip its\u00a0path was disrupted and distorted\u00a0by the water drop (acting somewhat like an imperfect lens)\u00a0before it reflected back to the water surface and then bounced up to my lens and that effect obliterated the\u00a0end of the bill. I don’t fully understand the physics of it but\u00a0I’m convinced that the water drop was the\u00a0cause.<\/p>\n
Much ado about nothing I suppose but sometimes I have to clear up things like this in my mind before I can go on to something else…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Note: Reflections can be quite interesting (and vexing) in their own right. About six weeks ago I addressed some of their quirks in a blog post – here’s the link<\/a> in case you missed it and have the interest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s another reason I like to use relatively fast shutter speeds when photographing birds..<\/p>\n