Beautiful shot, Jon. I, too, pine over the shoulda-couldas as a fellow perfectionist, but you made this work nicely. Great that you got close= makes me really appreciate their feathers which I usually just see from afar. Thanks!
Thanks, Jane! I don’t know why I pine, its some kind of innate need I guess. Bit of a curse, too! 😛 It’s rather exciting to be so close to a creature that would normally flee at the first sight of you. After seeing a time-lapse video from Phil Lanoue, I am thinking I might do something similar around the areas where I normally bird watch. It is interesting, seeing the patterns birds follow over a longer, accelerated period of time. It would be interesting to film the shorebirds as they move up and down the shores, interacting with their environment and each other. I wouldn’t have to worry about the lack of resolution then…video is inherently lower res anyway. 😉
Ty. 🙂 I’ve discovered the true value of camo. I don’t know why it works, but if I cover myself and my gear in camo, the birds don’t really seem to care how close you get, so long as you don’t make any sudden moves, and remain low and “small”.
I took my gear out recently without my raincoat on the lens…so it was basically a big white beacon of “Hey, there’s a photographer here!” The birds DEFINITELY noticed it, and the shorebirds would all move faster as they got closer to where I was along the shore…then would slow down once they were comfortably past. Even though the general silhouette is the same, I guess just breaking up the shape, and coloring it so it looks more like the general surroundings, eases their fears.
Hmmm, I dunno! They glare at me all day long! I guess I don’t know how people could miss them, but then again I’m a bit of a perfectionist… ;P (Plus, I usually view this stuff full screen at 2560×1600, and it looks a lot worse at that size…)
Aye, they are pretty “squeaky!” Every so often one would wander by, realize some “thing” was only about six feet from it, and squeak a little flight off until they were about 20 feet away again. Luckily, they never really raised any serious alarms, and most of the other shorebirds would only raise their head a bit, then go back to business.
Nature Photography 
Beautiful shot, Jon. I, too, pine over the shoulda-couldas as a fellow perfectionist, but you made this work nicely. Great that you got close= makes me really appreciate their feathers which I usually just see from afar. Thanks!
Thanks, Jane! I don’t know why I pine, its some kind of innate need I guess. Bit of a curse, too! 😛 It’s rather exciting to be so close to a creature that would normally flee at the first sight of you. After seeing a time-lapse video from Phil Lanoue, I am thinking I might do something similar around the areas where I normally bird watch. It is interesting, seeing the patterns birds follow over a longer, accelerated period of time. It would be interesting to film the shorebirds as they move up and down the shores, interacting with their environment and each other. I wouldn’t have to worry about the lack of resolution then…video is inherently lower res anyway. 😉
Yes, I have always wanted to be so close (or have such a good lens) that I could do a bird head shot. Yea for you!
Ty. 🙂 I’ve discovered the true value of camo. I don’t know why it works, but if I cover myself and my gear in camo, the birds don’t really seem to care how close you get, so long as you don’t make any sudden moves, and remain low and “small”.
I took my gear out recently without my raincoat on the lens…so it was basically a big white beacon of “Hey, there’s a photographer here!” The birds DEFINITELY noticed it, and the shorebirds would all move faster as they got closer to where I was along the shore…then would slow down once they were comfortably past. Even though the general silhouette is the same, I guess just breaking up the shape, and coloring it so it looks more like the general surroundings, eases their fears.
If you didn’t point out the issues 99.9% of the viewers would never see them Jon!
Hmmm, I dunno! They glare at me all day long! I guess I don’t know how people could miss them, but then again I’m a bit of a perfectionist… ;P (Plus, I usually view this stuff full screen at 2560×1600, and it looks a lot worse at that size…)
Terrific portrait of this squeaky guy! Love the willets!
Aye, they are pretty “squeaky!” Every so often one would wander by, realize some “thing” was only about six feet from it, and squeak a little flight off until they were about 20 feet away again. Luckily, they never really raised any serious alarms, and most of the other shorebirds would only raise their head a bit, then go back to business.