- Long-billed Curlew
You may wonder why non of my shots from the Bolsa Chica Wetlands is made on eye level with the birds. It would quite often make for a better, less distracting background and sometimes for a more interesting image. Like almost all ecological preserves or areas that have a protected status Bolsa Chica has rules to protect the sensitive vegetation and the habitat of the critters. One of them is to stay on the trail and to respect closed areas. No problem, the trails are real wide enough to leave enough room for everybody, walkers, runners, bird watchers, and of course photographers with their tripods. The reason you can't go down to water level with your camera is that all trails around the laguna are a few feet elevated above the water and nobody is supposed to go down to the water. Signs are everywhere. The laguna has plenty of photo opportunities and I can't see any reason why not to obey the rules and risk the well being of the animals and vegetation. The protection of our nature is more important than any shutter click that someone could have made. I know, there is always a small percentage of people that say, one time doesn't hurt anything, or those who don't give a damn at all. I will not keep my mouth shut if I see people being ignorant towards the nature or just don't know any better. I may not always make friends this way but I have earned a few thank you's in the past for making them aware of existing restrictions. And this is why my pictures from Bolsa Chica, including this one of a Long-billed Curlew, are all made from slightly above. By the way, if you just stay in the parking lot along the Pacific Coast Highway, you may get some good low level shots, especially in the evening. The parking lot is only slightly above the water level. Unfortunately this time, as already reported, the rain stopped all shooting at 10AM.