Thursday, July 2, 2009

In the Heat of the Battle!

Once in a while, we are out there and something extraordinary happens. A few weeks ago I was hanging around the lakeside park here in Grimsby, Ontario... and a Common Tern was able to snag a large dinner.

The Tern wanted desperately to get the food down on the pier and share it with its young, but this particular gull would always get in the way... a battle was on!!

The tern and the gull circled for at least five minutes until at last, the gull finally snatched the meal form the terns beak.... then another stage of the battle!!

This one didn't last long, the gull quickly devoured the food, and the tern did what it could to ward off the larger opponent. Some kicking and biting, and the gull made off like a bandit!

Tracking and firing frames at these birds was good fun, all hand held, and about 150 shots! My shoulders were sore, and my concentration exhausted, but it was worth the effort. Using the continuous AF focusing, with 9 point matrix, a low ISO, and wide open aperture, there was enough depth of field to get the birds in focus, and enough shutter speed to freeze the action.

Here are the techs from this shot... 1/2500s f/4.0 at 400.0mm ISO250.

Please do me a favour and let me know if your having any trouble viewing this blog., and thanks for stopping by! take good care.

ps.. I did cut off the lower part of the Gulls wing., so I added canvas and recreated the wing extension in photoshop.

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This is great! However, the name of the gull would add value to your post. Your PP on the wing is great.
    I assume you used a D300 and the 200-400 f4.
    Viewing is great, just slow, as I mentioned in my post.
    Regards
    Callie
    Again, the comment below leaves me blind, non comprehende whaT TO CHOOSE.

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