Silhouette
Shadows
Shadows
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Sep, 2014Views
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Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
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Peer Award
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken on a small recreational fishing lake that's close to where I live. It has a fairly sizable population of waterfowl year-round - mostly mallards and Canadian geese. They're used to people being around, so you can usually get really close to them. It's become my go-to spot when I just want to putter around without any real objective.Time
This was probably taken a bit before sunset in September 2014.Lighting
I mainly do concert photography so I don't have to work much with lighting. We can't use on-camera flashes in the photography pit at gigs, so you basically learn to work with and around the lighting you have. This was just basically one of those moments when the photography gods smiled and allowed this light to occur.Equipment
Nikon D-3100. Nikon 70-300 mm lens. No tripod.Inspiration
These three were the only ducks who were separated from the big glob of ducks and geese that are probably just a few feet away from the left edge of the frame. They were just going about and doing their own thing. There was a soft enough breeze to get some light ripples in the water. I don't think the picture would work as good if it was still. A friend of mine who lives on the other side of the country had gone missing when this was taken. A lot of shots from that day were about isolation and sadness as no one knew where he had gone, what was going on, or if he'd come back. So I guess this was my way of dealing with his absence and the possibility that we'd never know what happened. Thankfully he came back two weeks later.Editing
This one was pretty much straight out of the camera. The only thing I remember doing was minor adjustments to get the ducks to be a complete silhouette so as to match their reflection in the water. It didn't look "right" to have a black reflection on the water when you could faintly see some of the details on the ducks. I wanted a mirror image, top and bottom. I really don't like heavy post-editing - I rarely put a lot of editing into my work. I'd rather be known for my photography skills as opposed to my Photoshop skills.In my camera bag
Oh that d-3100! I got that camera back in April of 2014 and outgrew it really fast. About a month or two after that shot I added a Nikon D-700 because while the d-3100 is a good all-purpose starter camera it doesn't work well in low light, which is usually what I'm working with. I recently added the new Nikon D-500 to my kit and I am very impressed. I have a lot of glass; for concerts my go-to's are the Tamron 24-70 and the Tamron 70-200. I also have a 70-300, 35-70, 50, 24-80, 80, and several others. I do a lot of traveling for shows and vacations - so I have a huge Think-Tank backpack.Feedback
Thanks to another photographer friend, I've become a firm believer in Henri Cartier-Bresson's theory of the decisive moment - "that split second of genius and inspiration that you have to capture a moment that tells a picture story. According to Bresson, "We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back. . . . The writer has time to reflect. . . . But for the photographers, what has gone, has gone forever. . . . We cannot do our story over again, once we get back to the hotel." Many times we catch ourselves waiting for the perfect moment and by the time we figure out that perfect moment isn't going to come, we've lost what we had. I get upset and lose patience with people who stand in front of me and fiddle with their cameras and take for ever-loving ever to take a shot. Don't wait for it. Take. The. Shot. If your final product lacks the element of a picture-story, all you've got at best is a snap-shot because you waited too long. Prime example, I was walking down a street in Paris last year when I came across an elderly man bent over and having a chat with a cat sitting in a window. I spent so much time worried about composition, angle, etc., that by the time I was ready the take the shot the man was finished talking to the cat and was moving away. Forever gone. Bresson's "The Decisive Moment has recently been re-issued. It's a bit pricey, but well-worth it.
