Aquatic Birds In Flight

New Year's Day, I spent the late afternoon at Shelley Lake, practicing photographing birds in flight (as well as a few perched or in the water).  I had not tried anything like this since mid-summer, and hoped that with some effort I might get a few good results.

There were some wonderful colors in the water, due to the sky and the remaining orange tree leaves.  I did a few atmospheric, environmental shots along with the attempts to get close-ups of the birds in flight.

Seagulls are almost as common as ducks in Raleigh now, which is probably not a good thing for them, but they're here, so...

Allowing this duck to be a silhouette meant a dark exposure with intense colors reflected in the water.

A quartet of Canada geese took off from the water and flew in a line for a second or two.

It can be challenging to coax the camera into focusing on a small bird against a "busy", contrasty background of foliage, but I feel it can make for a more interesting picture than just a bird against a uniform sky.  In this case, I was at a fairly high vantage point, and the bird swooped a bit lower than me, also tilting slightly toward me at the moment of this shot.

While hiding in the weeds, I noticed a confluence of twigs that made a nice abstract design.  It gave me a little variety to end my hour and a quarter escape into the wild world.  Even a brief time like that  can make so much difference in our lives!

[All photos with Canon 1D Mk IV, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS II]

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