Male Bufflehead

[FlyingSquirrel]

The weather was supposed to be horrible this weekend, and it was. However, during a lull in the rain and clouds, I drove down to a little hidden pond I found. I hadn't been there in a few months and wanted to see how it looked and what the photo opps were.

I brought my 400 5.6L lens because it is a delight to pack and carry (unlike the 500 f4 IS). I wore my camo jacket, camo hat and gloves. Normally I'd wear camo pants too, but today I wore blue jeans since it was more of a relaxed, scouting trip.

On location, I slowly meandered around the area, using binocs to watch the wildlife from a distance. Seeing a male and female bufflehead was a nice gift. The location actually is a series of several man-made pond, in a cascade with a small damn, and shrubs, between each. The great thing about this is that you can set up at one of the dams, with your lens on the log/rocks wall, and have your angle of view just above the water, and you are low in profile so less of a threat in the eyes of the animals. The bad thing about it, is that the wall is only a couple feet high, on a slope, with boulders and mud, and the water running over it and into the spot you are in. This requires you to get dirty.

I crawled through the bushes and into this gem of a shooting spot. I actually hadn't planned on doing this, hence the blue jeans. I tried every way possible to stay clean and dry, holding myself off the ground in different ways. With my lens on the log, in a lenscoat raincover, I waited silently. The bufflehead were too far for the 400mm, and seemed happy to be diving where they were. I waited for probably 30-40 minutes. The light was dreary, and then it started to rain. The ducks disappeared. I became exhausted and decided to give in to the dirt, so I let myself sink into the mud and water running down the dam. I decided I could wash the worms, leaches, and microscopic skin parasites off later. The boulders were not too comfortable either. The rain stopped, the light got a little better, and the bufflehead reappeared. This time, they worked their way toward me. I stayed low, in the mud, freezing, my body aching from the unnatural position. I fired some shots when the moments and distances were decent, making movements and checking the histogram while the ducks were diving underwater for a few seconds each time.

They moved off, and then a kingfisher flew in. Too far away for any kind of decent shot, but a snapped some frames for the heck of it, and then stayed to enjoy watching the bird clean itself as it rained again.

During all of this, I planned out some ideas for better shooting from this location. Aside from better days / better light, and of course using my 500f4 IS with 1.4x, I might try a waterproof camping foam pad on the ground, not that the boulders won't make it difficult still.

I decided I was done, so I backed out of my mudhole, and realized I was in a tad of trouble. I had been laying in the cold water for about an hour at the least, and my entire lower half was soaked in water, all the way through. My jacket was wet as well, and I was shivering a little. I hadn't realized how long I was there, and couldn't feel my legs very well. Not hypothermic, but not good. Luckily the car wasn't far, and home wasn't more than 5 minutes. With the car heater on full blast, I headed home, jumped into a hot shower for 15 minutes to warm up, then loaded the pics onto the computer.

Not a lot of good shots, most were too far, or blurry. The light was just too dim. I had to use ISO 2000, which, on the 7D, is too high for my comfort, but I wanted to get something for all the effort I put in. At ISO 2000, even with NR, you lose a ton of detail simply due to how much noise there is, and the lowered dynamic range. Couple that with cropping into a feathered bird, which has the highest dynamic range from black to white, and you are kind of screwed.

Here, I share with you the "best" shot of the day. Being a "perfectionist" I have to mention that this image is not up to my standards. I find the bg slightly annoying. The light is lousy. The reflections on the water are ugly. The ISO was high and the photo is cropped, so there is not the type of detail and sharpness I want. However, given the conditions I was working in and with, the tricky exposure and dynamic range for this species, as well as the ISO used, I think I did pretty well. Honestly, I want to share it because the Bufflehead is such a stunningly gorgeous creature, I wanted you all to get to enjoy it- as well as hear a bit of the story behind the image.

[Shadowman]

Nice.

[John 2]

Interesting story Matt and when I can produce something as good as this I might start to sympathise with your problems over background, reflection and ISO. It's a very nice image. I particularly like the low viewpoint.

[gregj1763]

That's dedication Matt,
Love the photo. What distance was the subject from you when you took the shot

[chauncey]

Matt...I went back to your story thinking that I missed something because IMHO, you gotta be nuts.
Aside from that...I would hang that picture my friend.

[bnnrcn]

Matt it is a lovely creature,thanks for sharing and take care...

[Nancy Moran G]

I think we should have a category for most outrageous treks for a photo and appoint Matt he first award!
Wow, Matt, the only thing left off was your cell phone was out of range if you needed help.
Besides that, if you don't want ownership of the 'terrible' photo, I would be very happy to take it off your hands. Love the water droplet on its tail.
Beautiful bird, photo, story.
Nancy

[Wavelength]

Simply awesome... it is very interesting how the water body merges with the background leaving no choice to guess where it is ....
a humble feeling is to make it off center by trimming a little bit from left

[mknittle]

Nice shot Matt, funny thing is we saw a couple of these guys Saturday. I hadn't seen them before and It was cloudy. I only had a short lens so I took a couple (snap shots) so my wife could ID them later.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Greg, I'm not great at estimating distance, but if I was forced to guess, maybe 30-40 feet from the bird

[ShootRaw]

It is good....with all the effort you put in this the results speaks for itself.

[jamn4ex]

This is great if you go back with the 500 I can only imagine what you will get. The stealth to me is just as fun as capturing the shot!! Be careful in cold waters though.