A Golden Morning : greater flamingo colony
A Golden Morning with Flamingos an fine art presentation. Shot at Al Wathbha wetland reserve, Abu Dhabi, UAE
A Golden Morning with Flamingos an fine art presentation. Shot at Al Wathbha wetland reserve, Abu Dhabi, UAE
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Nov, 2020Views
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People's Choice in Flocks Photo Challenge
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Behind The Lens
Location
I am a self taught Wildlife & nature photographer. This Photo was captured in Al Wathbha Wetland Reserve, Abu Dhabi. Al Wathba Wetland Reserve is the first area in the Emirate designated for protection by law and was declared a Ramsar site in 2013.Once a coastal salt flat (sabkha), it has now flourished into natural and man-made lakes that enable many of Abu Dhabi's species to thrive. In 2018, the reserve was placed on the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas making it the first site in the region to receive this recognition. It a migratory site as well as home to the colonies of greater flamingosTime
This is one of my favorite images which was taken during an early winter morning (at the time of sunrise). It was bit foggy that day and the sun rise was bit late which coincided with the opening of Wetland Reserve. The timing of shot was possible due to assistance of nature coupled with early morning visit to place.Lighting
Winters in Abu Dhabi (at times) get very Foggy with Sun rays taking time to clear the sky. During the Early Winter Morning the Light is Soft and makes it a perfect lighting condition to capture the nature at its best. Being Early hours lighting coupled with misty mornings created a magical spell of lighting.Equipment
I Shoot my Images Handheld. This image was captured using Nikon D500 coupled with Tamaron 150-600 /G2 Telephoto Lenses. It was captured using a Shutter speed of 1/1600 with a aperture of 1/F6.3 and at a Focal Length of 600MM. Given that Nikon D500 being a crop sensor camera of 1.5X. The effective focal length was 900mm. The combination of crop body with telephoto helped me to frame the pic which i wanted to.Inspiration
I wanted to capture the magic of light that morning and to portray the beautiful colorful flamingoes in their natural habitat. Its always tough to capture multiple subjects in a photograph which is pleasing to eye unless they are in sync or create a specific pattern. Given the lighting was amazing, and spotting these colony of Flamingoes inspired me to present their true behavior as a single following in a single frame. 1. Flamingoes behavior of living in a Colony 2. Given Lighting was good mostly (side lite) presented opportunity to capture reflection of colony in water presenting a symmetry, making the frame appealing 3. Most of Flamingoes in the Frame are in sync with each other cleaning their feathers with their legs tucked in and hanging in air, which is a behavior pattern. 4. Overall Image was composed to give an illusion of a Triangle or a cone with Tip being first flamingo others stacked up along with reflection and the base being ending of frame. There was lot of inspiration from image namely Lighting, geometry, symmetry and behavior which made this image possible.Editing
I do basic post processing of all my wildlife and nature images using the Adobe Lightroom Classic. Post Processing is an essential part of my work flow to make good images to look even better. For this image i have enhanced the temperate / White balance to reflect the scene i saw and also to bring the warmth in Image. I have also enhanced the shadows and reduced highlights. In addition i have enhanced the textures and sharping. Last but not the least i have reduced the noise /grains of image. Given that image was shot on ISO of 100, it was an easy fix in terms of noise as image was mostly noise or grain less.In my camera bag
I am still a DSLR shooter. I own Nikon D500 and Nikon D850. The first thing which i always carry or pack my bag for any wildlife and nature photography id Nikon D500. Given its fast focus acquisition and faster frame rate this is my go to camera for capturing nature & wildlife. I prefer Nikon D850 for capture of Wildlife & nature show casing the landscape and their natural habitat and for portrait shots given high resolution of sensor. I use Nikkor 200-500/F5.6 which is my go to lense of Wildlife Photography, which always finds place in my bag. In addition my bag consists of 300 PF/4 ( Mostly for low light & close up portraits) Lense and 18-140 MM F3.5 -5.6 kit lense for capturing wildlife landscapes. If i am going for birding photography i substitute 200-500/F5.6 with Tamaron 150-600 Mm for better reach to subject.Feedback
My advice for capturing something similar is to rise early and go the place. One of key for wildlife photography is to go out early hours at Sunrise and couple of hours before sunset as the wildlife is most active at these times. Usually 2 hours after Sunrise and 2 hours before sunset are perfect timing to capture wildlife. In addition understanding the light and play of light makes an interesting photograph. Patience is key virtue for wildlife photography as animals don't pose for you. You need to wait looking through your view finder for right moment to capture the action. So be prepared for it. Observe and understand the behavior and capture the behavior, patterns in nature and paint them with beautiful light of nature. Last but not least dont disturb wildlife and be mind of fact that your an intruder into their habitat. Respect it and give the required space.
