I was at Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY shooting in hot fog. At the end of my shoot I was walking out when I reached a tidal pool with a lot of birds enjoying the calm water. There were many black skimmers there with the young ones and some adults practicing skimming. I set up my tripod kneeling behind it allowing me enough elevation to clear the birds in front of me yet get nice eye level views. The heat and humidity had tired me yet I welcomed the opportunity to take these photos and shot till I was confident that I had some good images. For those of you that don't know, the younger ones are gray and the adults have black wings.
Comments and suggestions welcome,
Morris
1)
X-H2SNIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens500mmf/5.61/2900s400 ISO+0.7 EV
2)
X-H2SNIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens500mmf/5.61/3000s400 ISO+0.3 EV
3)
X-H2SNIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens500mmf/5.61/3000s400 ISO0.0 EV
4)
X-H2SNIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens500mmf/5.61/3000s400 ISO0.0 EV
5)
X-H2SNIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens500mmf/5.61/2700s400 ISO0.0 EV
6) Pulling up after a skim
X-H2SNIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens500mmf/5.61/2500s400 ISO0.0 EV
Killing it Morris! Every set gets more unique. Way to dial in your technique.
Wish I could find more shore birds in my area. Even when I head over to Lake Saint Clair with
all that shore real-estate I'm hard pressed to find them.
Wow, Morris! You're the 'Skimmermeister'! These are all excellent -- I like the close up (#2) a lot. I assume you shot these in Aperture Priority? Whatever mode, the shutter speeds were just right for freezing the action, and the lighting and exposures are perfect.
Tyr-Sog wrote:
Killing it Morris! Every set gets more unique. Way to dial in your technique.
Wish I could find more shore birds in my area. Even when I head over to Lake Saint Clair with
all that shore real-estate I'm hard pressed to find them.
Thank you for sharing!]
Justin
Thank you Justin,
I'm lucky to live near this amazing place.
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csinseattle wrote:
Morris,
Excellent set, very nice
Chris S.
Thank you Chris
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JAM11 wrote:
Excellent series Morris! #2 for me.
Thank you,
It's festinating to see what is happening that close
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gmccroskery wrote:
Wow, Morris! You're the 'Skimmermeister'! These are all excellent -- I like the close up (#2) a lot. I assume you shot these in Aperture Priority? Whatever mode, the shutter speeds were just right for freezing the action, and the lighting and exposures are perfect.
Greg
Thank you Greg,
Yes I used aperture priority. I like a fast shutter speed when they are skimming yet in the air I like to blur the wings some.
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B Benson wrote:
Wow again Morris, outstanding images of a difficult subject. Well done. Bruce
Thank you Bruce,
It's taken me years to learn how to photograph the skimmers.
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DivineFocus wrote:
Nice set, Morris. Shooting them skimming is a bucket list item for me.
Thank you Dan,
They are hear from June through September. If you do make the trip plan to be on the beach for a week as conditions vary so some days are much better than others. If there is heavy rain or unusually high tides, that's when you can photograph them in a tidal pool. The set I put up in the very nice light was shot at the ocean's edge and then you need a day with smaller waves.
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George DeCamp wrote:
Really well done Morris! I remember that tidal pool from last week and was hoping the skimmers would do what you saw but it only had gulls in it!
Just another fantastic set of skimmers Morris. You have some of the best skimmer images I have seen and I always enjoy seeing what you do differently.
cheers,
bruce
