A Bird in the Hand
A pleasant family weekend away to the Finlake resort set in woodland in Devon, England, presented many lovely wildlife photo opportunities with the recently pur...
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A pleasant family weekend away to the Finlake resort set in woodland in Devon, England, presented many lovely wildlife photo opportunities with the recently purchased Canon 100-400mm II L lens. I'm absolutely delighted with the lens which has opened up a most welcome new dimension to my photography. To cap it all, this Brambling flew into the lodge window. Mercifully, it recovered and took flight soon after a number of once in a lifetime photos.
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Dec, 2017Views
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Contest Finalist in In My Hand Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken during a pre-Christmas family getaway to the Finlake Holiday Resort in Devon, England on the balcony of our woodland lodge.Time
The shot was taken on December 16, 2017 at 10:10 in the morning.Lighting
It was a dull winters morning presenting very challenging low light, especially with the trees overhanging our lodge blocking even more of what little light there was coming through the canopy. Particularly given the long lens as well, it was a significant trade off between shutter speed and ISO (I was already set for lowest aperture). I could perhaps have got away with dropping the shutter speed a little further to lower the ISO another stop. However, the Brambling was rapidly recovering from having flown into the lodge window and so the once in a lifetime opportunity for such a shot had to be taken quickly. With a small amount of noise reduction in post, I think the shot still worked out pretty well.Equipment
Having loaded with food the previous night on our arrival, the local birds were having a field day on the feeders. Desiring to give my new Canon EF 100-400mm II lens a good workout on my Canon 7D II on it's first outing, I sat at the opposite end of the decking snapping away, handheld.Inspiration
Having heard the loud 'thwack' of the poor Brambling flying into one our the lodge windows whilst photographing his contemporaries, I picked him up and held him in my hands, hoping he was just stunned and that the added warmth would help him recover. Seeing his eyes start to open again after a few minutes the approach was clearly working and I realised it was a perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity for "a bird in the hand" photo. I consequently called my ten year old lad to take over holding him in his hands whilst I took a few photos. As it happened, I only managed a handful before his eyes were again fully open and he was ready to take to the skies once more.Editing
I always shoot in RAW and process my images in Adobe Lightroom. However, aside from the usual lens corrections and a small amount of noise reduction, I felt this shot did not need any additional processing.In my camera bag
Until recently upgrading to full frame, I shot the simply outstanding Canon EOS 7D II, having upgraded from the first version of the Camera two years previous. My main lenses at the time of this shot were the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-f4.5 for wide angle, EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS for general purpose, indoor shots and portraiture and the Canon 100-400mm f4-f5.6 IS II L for wildlife and my children's sports. All three lenses shared the same 77mm filter size, cutting the amount of kit I need to carry by sharing the same Circular Polarizer (Hoya Pro 1) and ND Filters (B+M 2-stop, 6-stop, 10-stop). My equipment was and still largely is, carried in the very well designed Manfrotto Advanced Travel Backpack, which also contains A Manfrotto Befree Travel Tripod and third party remote shutter release.Feedback
Good fortune is clearly hard to replicate. When it happens one just needs to work quickly to capture the shot. Knowing ones equipment is therefore absolutely key as is being able to visualise and apply settings quickly. I was extremely fortunate in this instance, time only allowing me to set camera settings. In my haste, I forget about switching the lens from 3m to Infinity focus to Minimum Focus Distance (~1m) to Infinity. Since the Brambling and my lads hand were only around a meter from the end of the lens, I got very lucky that the lens/camera locked auto focus accurately, despite being set to focus from 3m to Infinity!
