Waders on Assateague Island
Sep, 2015Views
749
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Awards
Chatter Award
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
People's Choice in The Beauty in ORANGE Photo Challenge
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
All Star
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Impressed
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Top 30 rank
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Top 10 rankTop 30 rank week 1
Platinum
michellehansenburgess
March 31, 2017
Congratulations for winning People's Choice in "Beauty in Orange" Photo Challenge, this was one of my favorites all along. Out of 6,328 entries the majority voted for your photo, so you should be proud! A Magnificent capture!!!
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken on the southern (Virginia) end of Assateague Island, one of the premier birding locations on the east coast of the U.S. My favorite places there at twilight and sunrise sometimes present literally hundreds and hundreds of wading birds and shore birds. The morning I took this image was one of those mornings.Time
August 3, 2015 at 6:35AM. If I can get the rising sun to present wonderful silhouettes like these during golden hour I try to take every advantage I can.Lighting
The beautiful light we get during the golden hour at this location requires shooting toward the sun and sometimes almost directly at it. Silhouettes are a natural consequence so I shoot low ISO, fast shutter speeds, and well stopped down most of the time.Equipment
For birds I use a Nikon D800E and a Sigma 300-800 f5.6 zoom on a Gitzo 5500 series tripod with a Wimberly gimbal head. No flash or filtration was used.Inspiration
Birdscapes on Assateague Island are spectacular. Sometime a small group like this will catch my attention, especially in the golden hour. I use my longest lens to isolate them and keep the image simple and graphic. I am not a minimalist exactly but I do try to keep my pictures simple.Editing
I try not to do too much post-processing. I like to keep that down to what one might do in a darkroom during the days of film. This image was a golden yellow overall with the egrets and a few odd water grasses in silhouette. I was experimenting with the color saturation and decided on this orange. I cleaned up the odd spots of vegetation to simplify the image.In my camera bag
I carry two bodies, a Nikon D800 and a D800E. The first lens packed is either a Nikkor 14/24 f2.8 or a Sigma 12-24 f4-5.6. Next is a Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 and the venerable Nikkor VR II 70-200 f2.8. I have a nice mix of polarizers and neutral density filters. Finally, the monster Sigma 300-800 f5.6 goes into its own bag. If I think I need a macro lens or a nice prime I'll take the Sigma 150 f2.8 or 180 f2.8 macro along. Aside from the usual odds and ends we all have my kit is pretty simple.Feedback
Look for opportunities to force a subject into silhouette. Experiment, if time permits, with exposure compensation, f-stop, shutter speed, and composition to get the exposure your mind's eye sees. Images like mine here are simple but not necessarily easy until you done a few and trained yourself on what to expect when nature presents you with these gifts.
