Two Cormarants courting-6657
Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
We have a colony of protected African penguins in a town called Bettie's Bay. With the protection of the penguins the natural habitat for these Cape Cormorant has flourished. They all live together in harmony. Every year the cormorants have their breeding cycle around the same time. They all seem to be building nests at the same time and courting at the same time. It very often ends in stealing sticks from your neighbour's nest and then the inevitable fights to follow. The females are not easily impressed either. The males have to perform quite a ritual before the females warm towards them. This is like paradise for photographers.Time
We spent the morning whale watching when we saw cormorants in their hundreds flying in an easterly direction. We also knew they had their nesting sites close to the penguins and started heading in that direction. I did not have my tripod with me but decided to take photos in any case. It was not the ideal time of day because the sun was still fairly high but the direction was away from the sun which provided better lighting.Lighting
The lighting was fairly tricky. The sun was still fairly high and the almost white rocks caused a glare to be reckoned with. Having the pitch black birds on the white rocks meant that I underexposed at -0.7. This worked well with my 600mm lens.Equipment
I used my Nikon 810 with a 600mm lens. Although you get close to the animals, I always find it worthwhile to shoot with my 600mm lens. It is also important to try and keep your aperture as low as possible. In this way the nearby rocks melt away in the photo and does not compete with your subject. I used the fence to stabilise my camera. In this case it worked well but it is not advisable. You just might end up loosing your camera....Inspiration
I have in previous seasons taken excellent photos of cormorants in flight at this exact spot. I needed to be reminded of the good opportunities at this colony. When I saw the hundreds of birds flying east, I knew that chances were very good for photos of cormorants building nests. It was a beautiful surprise to find the birds already into mating season. The males perform beautifully to impress the females.Editing
Although I am hard at work trying to get post processing mastered, I know that I am still far off the mark. Some photos ,like this one is easy because it needs a bit of tweaking of colours and sharpness. I also do a bit of cropping.In my camera bag
I pack my lenses according to where I plan to take photos. If I just go for a walk in the bush it would normally be wide angle 24-120mm as well as a macro lens. If I plan to shoot action and animals my first choice would be my 300mm lens with 2x converter and 1.4 converter. I normally pack two camera bodies eg.Nikon D4 and Nikon 810.For special colour I use the Nikon 810 and for speed I use the Nikon D4.Feedback
Patience is of the essence with photography. This is even more true with wildlife photography. When shooting wild birds like the cormarants,it is important to study the patterns and behaviour of the birds while taking photos. Soon you will get to know the directions of flight, the light, etc. This will give you the opportunity of doing a fairly similar photo more than once. Be sure you learn from every photo taken and applying the knowledge for the next.
