Clapper Rail After Downpour
After taking photos of wood storks in the rain, found this clapper rail in the middle of the dirt road at Brazoria NWR. As soon as my car moved, he ran into the grass next to the road. Slowly moved forward while watching the spot where he went in. Pulled closer and turned my car perpendicular to the road to be able to photograph him out my window. Changed to a small single focus point while trying to spot him in the grass with no luck.
Waited patiently for a few minutes when he started moving through the grass towards the road. He eventually came out onto the road to dry off from the rain. Was very cool to see as they are usually hanging out in the weeds and not in the open.
1/2500 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm, hand held out my car window
1/4000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm, hand held out my car window
1/4000 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm, hand held out my car window
Clapper Rail
While taking photos of some Willets, this Clapper Rail came out from the weeds and surprised us. He then walked straight towards us and turned left right while coming very close to where we were lying, which resulted in only minor cropping on the last two shots. Helped to prove the point that birds don’t recognize you as a person while lying down with a ground pod.
These Rails usually stay close to the weeds for cover so it was very cool to see this one out in the open.
Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II with 1.4X III teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head
Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F11, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/800 sec @ F11, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F9, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Clapper Rail
While taking photos of a Great Blue Heron out the car window at Brazoria NWR, I saw movement out of my left eye. I try to keep both eyes open when shooting just for such an occasion. A Clapper Rail had jumped up on a platform right in front of me. I changed the lens to its minimum focusing distance, changed the aperture to F9 and cranked up the exposure compensation another notch to +1. Ended up getting this full framed photo. Had a hard time seeing him as the morning sun was coming up behind me and shining into the view finder with my glasses preventing a tight seal on the eye piece. Was thrilled to get any shots in focus with 1/100 sec shutter speed. Gotta love the IS on the new 500mm lens. Would have been good to crank up the ISO but I couldn’t see the setting in the view finder. He only stayed around for about 20 seconds but it was a fun 20 seconds.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II, 1.4x III teleconverter, hand-held out the car window
1/100 sec @ F9, ISO 400, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm
Tim Timmis Photography 