Duck Pond (minus ducks)
Clearly the water was too cold for the local ducks to spend time on this pond!! During the summer, dozens of pairs of ducks can be found enjoying this peaceful ...
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Clearly the water was too cold for the local ducks to spend time on this pond!! During the summer, dozens of pairs of ducks can be found enjoying this peaceful and secluded spot.
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Feb, 2021Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is a pond tucked away between some fields, not too far from where I live in Northamptonshire, England. It's on a favourite circular walk, and during the summer there are multiple pairs of ducks relaxing on the still water or chattering noisily on the grassy verges. On this particularly cold February morning, the ducks clearly had better ideas!Time
The image was taken at around 11:00hrs, but because of the February light, it is always quite warm and complements the landscape. As soon as March arrives, the midday hours are best avoided to avoid the harsh cold of midday light. There was a light breeze, as can be seen from the ripples on the pond surface,Lighting
The lighting is exactly as it looks here. To be honest, it was a handheld shot, kneeling in the wet grass beside the pond which only served to make the breeze even colder. The sunlight is warm, despite the hour, due to the fact that, at my latitude during late December, January and early February, the sun never climbs too high in the sky and the light is thus always fairly warm.Equipment
This was taken with my trusty Nikon D800, which I just love for landscapes, and a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 set to f10. I increased the ISO to 200 to give me a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second as I was kneeling in the wet grass. I hadn't brought my tripod with me on this occasion (rooky error), as it was only supposed to be a quick walk..........lesson learned!!Inspiration
Ironically, it was the absence of ducks that inspired me to take a picture at all. Usually, it is teeming with noisy ducks and I have never photographed the pond in that state. Somehow, the quietness of the pond made me appreciate the pond itself, and the winter light on the surrounding trees seemed to work well to show it off.Editing
Other than a slight increase in contrast and some adjustment of the shadows, I hardly did anything to this shot. Its primary purpose was more a reminder to myself of what the pond looks like without the usual cacophony of duck couples.....it was not really intended to be a photograph as such......although the reflections did appeal to me.In my camera bag
It does depend on what I am doing.....just going for a walk with my camera, going to photograph something specific etc etc. On this occasion, I was just going for a walk and only took my camera with the standard zoom lens mounted. I almost always go with my tripod, but failed on this occasion. Recently, I always carry my tripod!! So, as a minimum, I would normally carry two cameras (D800 and D850), 3 lenses (14-24mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8), a tripod (Benro Mach3 TMA38CL), a variable ND filter (which I rarely use), a 10 stop filter and a Mindshift Backlite 36 to carry it all in. You can see why I just wanted to go for a walk without all that gear!!Feedback
The best advice is not to be lazy, as I was with this shot. I should have taken my tripod, and had I done so, I would have focus stacked this image, only using 2 or 3 shots, in order to get front to back sharpness. My tripod is carbon fibre and is no bother at all to carry around by hand, so I have no excuses really. In my defence, I only took a couple of reference shots, and this was one of those. It was only the reflections and the unusual silence of the pond that made me get my camera out at all. Always take you camera with you; that's a given, but always also take your tripod. A tripod will improve your landscape photography without you even knowing it.
