B&W Splash
While walking back to my car, saw this Redding Egret fishing near the shoreline. Almost kept walking as I was worn out from an active early morning shoot but decided to lay down one more time. Glad that I did as he cooperated with some good feeding shots.
One way to get action shots with shorebirds is to start shooting a burst of shots when their head starts moving down towards the water. Was able to capture a nice see-through splash as his head dove into the water. The high shutter speed froze the action when the splash was at its peak.
With the light being harsh around 9:00 a.m., the colors were very muted so decided to use B&W on this one.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head
1/2000 sec @ F11, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation
Tim Timmis Photography 
Sweet water action. I guess you have been tearing it up every weekend on the Avocets at Bolivar?
February 1, 2015 at 10:20 am
Nice! Love the splash. Amazing how wrong the weather forecast for today was…went yesterday.
February 1, 2015 at 11:22 am
I like how you captured the motion of the bird and the splash. I also like how water looks like a crown around bird’s head.
February 1, 2015 at 11:38 am
Thanks Doug. Haven’t been there every weekend but several. It’s prime time at Bolivar with low tide at sunrise in the winter. Have to take advantage of it while I can.
February 1, 2015 at 3:31 pm
Thanks Matt. Took this shot the day that we met out there right before we got to the parking area. I skipped this weekend. Tried to catch up on my sleep for once.
February 1, 2015 at 3:34 pm
Thanks Cornel. It’s always good when the splash is that large.
February 1, 2015 at 3:36 pm
B&W works, hitting your mark!
February 21, 2015 at 2:49 pm
Thanks David. I don’t use B&W very often but sometime it works well. I need to try it more.
February 22, 2015 at 9:39 am