We had gorgeous weather last weekend here in Iowa and I thought it was time to have a look how the Trumpeter Swans that I discovered in April were doing (see my earlier posts). Knowing the location much better now, I knew the late afternoon sun would illuminate their usual spot. Too make a long story short, the light was perfect and they were much closer to the shore than I had ever seen them before.
During the first half hour their heads were mostly in the water in search for food. You can see the mud on their necks and heads and the water gave their dark bills a nice glare. I used the short moment in between and shot in 'continuous high speed mode' with five frames per second.
As the sun sunk deeper both swans moved toward a little island in the reeds, where I had seen them before resting at other times. They started an intensive cleaning procedure. And then it happened again. One was beating its wings in order to dry them. The wing span of the Trumpeter Swan is incredibly big, and it is so much fun to watch these majestic birds in the wild.
All images: Nikon D200, Sigma 50-500, shutter priority 1/800s, spot metering, ISO100
I used spot metering for almost all shots and I'm much more pleased with the results. This time I also had many more pictures in focus. I believe this is due to the fact that I used a gimbal head mounted on the tripod. What kind of gimbal head did I choose? I will talk about this in one of my next posts, so please stay tuned….