Brown Pelicans in a Blur
I’ve been in a major creative funk lately with it being several weeks since I’ve gone out to take wildlife photos. Life gets in the way sometimes with business travel, some dental issues, lots to do around the house and getting a new computer. I’ve been working on a blog post about my journey to find a new computer and will share that later. Also the weather in SE Texas hasn’t been cooperating on weekends for the last 8 weeks or so.
Decided to go to the Texas City Dike a couple of weeks ago to create some abstract wildlife photos with some slow shutter speeds. Made it to the dike before sunrise and waited until I could focus on brown pelicans that were diving for fish.
Used shutter priority to slow the action down while creating some interesting blurs. It’s fun but challenging to try this technique. You won’t get the same photo twice as each shot is dependent on how fast you are panning with the bird and what the bird is doing, which is part of the fun. Went back the following weekend to crank it down even further to 1/10 sec.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter, handheld out my car window
Shutter priority, 1/15 sec @ F5.6, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, +2 exposure compensation
Shutter priority, 1/20 sec @ F11, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation
Shutter priority, 1/20 sec @ F8, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation
Tim Timmis Photography 
These are beautiful! I especially like the first one with the gorgeous blue hue. I purchased a new lens and have been getting out practicing with it quite a bit, trying to get accustomed to it and improve. We have flocks of overwintering snow geese and swans about an hour away from us and have been enjoying them whenever we get a dry day here in the PNW. There is also a leucistic bald eagle in that area that has become my white whale. I’m glad you broke through your funk – enjoy seeing your posts. 🙂
April 1, 2018 at 3:18 pm
Thanks Amanda. It helped to get out again and shoot. The first one was taken about 1/2 hour before sunrise with that being the color out of the camera. What kind of lens did you get? Flocks of snow geese are prime targets for some slow shutter speed action.
April 1, 2018 at 8:01 pm
I got the Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E to use with my Nikon D7500. I’m using it handheld or with a monopod, as my travel tripod isn’t quite up to the task (my spindly arms aren’t really either – haha). I haven’t gotten very creative yet… any blurring is purely accidental as I am currently just trying to get sharp photos. This was my first experience with snow geese – it was exhilarating watching them fly over. I’m using the Aperture or Shutter Priority Modes about 90% of the time, so that’s an improvement, but I still have a lot to learn.
April 2, 2018 at 8:48 pm