The early morning frost that I anticipated never materialised, despite below zero overnight temperatures. Having made a series of images of Christchurch Priory as the dawn broke I then move on to my secondary location: Christchurch Quay.
It's here that I photographed the swan. It had not been my initial intention to get such an image, as I was shooting other subjects with a fisheye lens, but the swan, only inches from the lens, presented the opportunity, and I took it.
Rather than try getting myself down to ground level I opted to set the lens to minimum distance focus and rested the camera on the grass, taking pot luck with the framing. The onboard flash helped balance the exposure.
The second image, shot at Wick Fields during late afternoon, is of the elusive Little Egret that I tried to photograph yesterday. This time I was equipped with a super-telephoto lens and matched converter. The bird was obviously puzzled as it slipped around on the frozen water, in search of food.
Both images represent the extremes of the focal lengths I have available. While it is the norm to shoot wildlife with long lenses, it's far less common to get results with fisheyes.
Top: 10.5mm f/2.8 Nikkor fisheye. 1/250 second at f/11. -0.67EV. -1.7 stop flash compensation. ISO 320
Bottom: 300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR Nikkor (VR off) and x1.4 TC-14EII converter. 1/1250 second at f/5. -0.67EV. ISO 250. Monopod
© 2009
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