vivijo

Pina's canoe trip

Canon PowerShot G5

settings

Aperture 40/10 Shutter 1/100 Focal Length 230/32

upload_date

Jun, 2018

Views

Likes

Awards

Winner in Pet babe Photo Challenge

Top Choice

Peer Award

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken while in my canoe on the Bellinger River, northern New South Wales, Australia. You may see more photographs from this series on ViewBug, with the flying foxes skimming the river to collect a drink.

Time

The air is still summer hot just after sunset. I sit in my canoe with my favourite dog and hold a camera at the ready. Thirsty flying-foxes fly all around and skim the river to collect a drink. Their bellies make a sharp sound as they swish through the water, then they fly to a tree nearby. They land and lick up their drink from dripping belly fur. The dog and I watch and I think that Heaven couldn't be more wonderful than this.

Lighting

This is a composite photograph, with the dog photographed slightly earlier when there was more light. The river with flying foxes is about quarter of an hour later. No extra lighting is added to the available light.

Equipment

Camera is a Canon EOS 5D, Canon lens 28-103, hand held with no flash. It is important that I'm in a canoe because it allows me to get into a good position, where most of the animals are drinking, and also the animals come closer to me in a canoe than they would if I were standing up. I've tried wading in the river then bobbing as low as possible to hide in the water but this doesn't allow me to go into the best parts of the river.

Inspiration

This is part of a twenty year project of attempting to photograph everything that flying foxes do. Much of their social behaviour goes on in daylight so night time photographs are the smaller part of my project. If the weather is very hot and dry the animals will come out to drink in daylight which makes them much easier to photograph but doesn't capture the same atmosphere.

Editing

As I said, this is a composite photograph, with about fifteen minutes between the two shots.

In my camera bag

I don't carry a bag because I have as little equipment with me as possible. Usually this will be one camera with one lens, plus on camera flash in case of need.

Feedback

The most important thing is to know how the animals behave, where they do what they do, and when (in this case, the flying foxes). The light coloured dog is a bonus. I like to use available light when ever possible but for more detail of the flying foxes, specially when they collect their drink, a flash is useful. I don't use a tripod or monopod perhaps out of laziness but also either would be difficult to manage in the canoe. So I depend upon a camera that works in low light.

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Pina's canoe trip

Behind The Lens

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