![\"black-necked](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black-necked-stilt-6984b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nI found the bird three days ago in a small pond adjacent to a country road in Box Elder County, Utah. There were actually two of them in the pond but the second bird stayed mostly hidden.<\/p>\n
The Black-necked Stilt is a study in contrasts as Birds of North America Online\u00a0describes well:<\/p>\n
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- “Its shiny black wings and back oppose the white breast, and both are accentuated by long, bright red legs. Undisturbed, stilts wade through shallow wetlands and flooded fields with a careful grace. When disturbed during the breeding season, however, all semblance of grace disappears. Agitated stilts yap incessantly, dive at predators, and feign mortal injuries. After a day of field work near breeding stilts, the yapping echoes in one\u2019s head until the next morning when the sound is renewed by the continuing calls of vigilant parents.”<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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![\"black-necked](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black-necked-stilt-7020-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n
I find stilts (and American Avocets) to be somewhat unique and challenging\u00a0as photographic subjects because the reflections of their extremely long legs often make it\u00a0look like you’ve cut off part of the actual bird in photographs unless you include the entire reflection of both\u00a0legs and body. If you’re close enough for good detail this usually means shooting vertically and photographers know how awkward and difficult it is to follow a moving bird up close when shooting vertically.<\/p>\n
So I decided to practice that skill with this stilt (the bird is yawning, not calling).<\/p>\n
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![\"black-necked](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black-necked-stilt-7045-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n
One of the big challenges when shooting birds vertically up close\u00a0(especially from a vehicle) is to keep your camera level. If you don’t then you have to rotate during processing to get it level and that means you have to crop out a significant portion of the image. But often the portion you have to discard is needed for\u00a0pleasing composition.<\/p>\n
That’s what happened here. Before rotation I had plenty of room at the bottom for good composition but after rotation the head of the stilt was too close to the bottom of the frame for my tastes. And to be perfectly honest I had to fudge a little on the rotation to keep from clipping the top of the head in the reflection (the image isn’t quite<\/em> level).<\/p>\n
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![\"black-necked](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/black-necked-stilt-6955-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n1\/1250, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n
I’m including this final image because I find the graphic lines of those pink legs and their reflections interesting.<\/p>\n
I didn’t get any great images of this stilt that morning but I was able to practice\u00a0a difficult\u00a0photography skill and I have hopes that the lesson will pay off in the future.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve seen a few Black-necked Stilts around this spring but this is the first one I’ve photographed.<\/p>\n