Elegant but Sad
I really like the elegant curved wing position of this Royal Tern photo but my feelings are tempered by the scene that unfolded before Newton and I on this outing. While lying on the beach at high tide taking photos of Terns and some smaller shore birds, this Royal Tern appeared in front of us flapping his wings in and out of the water trying to make it to shore. He eventually made it to dry land but appeared to have an injured leg. We couldn’t see any obvious reason for his injury. Very sad…
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, 1/2500 sec @ F5.6, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, +1/3 exposure compensation
Tern and Burn
I was watching a small group of Royal Terns close to shore when they started to fly away. Focused on the last one and caught him taking off, flying towards me and making a hard right turn. Got several shots in this sequence. This turn and burn sequence was good practice for the upcoming Wings Over Houston airshow.
Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5.6, ISO 2500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/1600 sec @ F5.6, ISO 2500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/1600 sec @ F5.6, ISO 2500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5.6, ISO 2500, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation
Tern vs. Fish
The fish won this battle as the Tern miscalculated just a tad as his eyes were apparently bigger than his stomach, or throat. He kept trying to swallow the fish to no avail. He finally gave up but it made a cool photo-op.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head
1/1600 sec @ F5.6, ISO 400, evaluative metering, -2/3 exposure compensation
Tim Timmis Photography 