Muted Colours

ONE OF MY HOBBYHORSES

I won’t write much about my activities last month. I was very busy with family celebrations, and alterations to the new flat (involving multiple trips to the tip, more to buy new stuff and hours of painting). The only things that have kept me approximately sane are my family and the repeats of ‘Round the Horne’ on Radio 4 Extra.*

But I have done a little more reworking of some old images. One of my favourite websites is The Online Photographer (http://www.theonlinephotographer.com/), although it doesn’t include much nature photography, the regular writers have some great insights into photography and the comments of the readers are well worth reading too. Mike Johnston, the site's editor (and a very experienced writer about photography), is proposing to publish a book of photographs contributed by members. It is intended that this will be a high quality production based loosely on the theme of muted colours.

I like this idea, indeed it is a hobbyhorse of mine. I do not like oversaturated images – maybe I don’t have saturated eyes or maybe my brain is already saturated by silly ideas. I distrust garish colours, is someone trying to dazzle me? Have they got something to hide?
Of course a shot a kingfisher or a tropical butterfly has to have saturated colours for the subject, but a plainer background is important too. I think that subtle colours encourage the brain to study an image and so to search out the details and nuances that it contains. Of course this is important in nature photography, but also in portraiture, street photography, architectural photography and so on.

Anyway, one evening while the paint was drying, I went back to my old files to find some favourite subtle colour shots which I could contribute. The first was one in my first blog post, a black-necked grebe in winter plumage as the sun was burning through the mist at Dawlish Warren. The only saturated colour is the red of its eye.

The second is a bull grey seal hauled out on the sandbar at Donna Nook NNR, Lincolnshire, just before the 2009 breeding season: the sand and the wind seem to be alien environment for him, but he looks totally contented. I love the way that seals' whiskers curl when they dry out completely.

In the end, I didn’t submit my third choice, which was taken in 2005 with my first digital camera (a D70). It is a young great crested grebe on one of the lodges at Moses Gate country park near Bolton. The remarkable pattern of ripples is entirely natural. The photo was taken as a front came in from the west, so that the sky behind me was bright, but the sky behind the grebe and overhead was a mass of dark clouds, and there was enough breeze to produce a few ripples. I do like this image, but I wish that the grebe was a little closer and that I had crouched to get a lower viewpoint. Because it was taken some time ago, it has a lower pixel count than the others and the quality is a little lower.

I don’t expect that either of my images will be selected for the final publication. I am absolutely sure that many better photographers will have submitted better images. But I feel that they are images which get much of their strength from their muted colours. And I like them.

I have lined up something new for tomorrow, so if things work out my next post will be a little different.

  

^*Rambling Sid Rumpo lives!

Note added 9th October, Mike has received over 2100 photos from 941 photographers. The resulting book should be really special.

More Fun with Grebes - Cue Dabchick Action!

11th December 2012

My second morning with the grebes also dawned bright and clear, but rather cold. Most of the surface of the pond at Dawlish Warren was covered by ice, leaving a strip of clear water about a metre wide along the northern edge. This was lucky for me as the black-necked grebe was confined to diving in this area, so I just had to wait as it worked its way towards me, although it couldn't come quite as close as the previous day. By the time it was in position the sunlight was slightly diffused by a thin veil of cloud, which was ideal for the showing the texture of its feathers. As previously I had my 500mm lens and converter on my monopod and I composed my shots to include all the bird's reflection, but I had set up my camera with a single focus point above the centre of the frame to hold focus on that fiery red eye.

The ice also constrained two of the dabchicks (little grebes) that I had only seen at a distance before. As my photos show they have similar proportions to the black-necked grebe although they are slightly smaller. Both species have wonderfully fluffy plumage when they take a rest from diving.

I love the old name of dabchick, because there is something rather like a day-old chick about the feathering and proportions of this bird, which is emphasised by their pale winter plumage. As it happened the one that came closest to me was more or less in breeding plumage. I was delighted because dabchicks can be quite elusive although they are common (unlike the black neck).

I knew I was really in luck when this dabchick came to the surface near me with a long pink object wriggling in its beak. I thought was that it was an earthworm for a moment, but I realised that was a silly idea - anyway I had to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. The grebe had quite a struggle and gave its meal a good shaking, which attracted the attention of its companion (perhaps its mate or offspring) which rushed out the reeds, presumably hoping for a free lunch. My grebe was not interested in this idea and swam towards me before making quick work of its meal near the edge of the ice.

I couldn't keep the dabchick in focus throughout the action, but I got enough shots to make this short sequence. I had my shutter speed set at 1/500s to capture the bird diving and surfacing; consequently the aperture was f/5.6, the maximum for this lens and converter combination, as I always try to maintain the minimum ISO setting of 200 to get the best colour and tonal quality in my images. In spite of the narrow depth of field I think I made the right choices here although the action was far faster and better than I could have reasonably expected. My first view of these photos revealed that the dabchick's meal was a newt, probably a palmate newt. This is an interesting observation as I don't think newts are often recorded as part of a grebe's diet and the textbooks say that they generally spend the winter on land too. It seems this newt was either unwise or unlucky, on the other hand the dabchick was lucky and of course I was lucky too!
I have been back to the pond a couple of times subsequently, all the grebes are still there but I  haven't been able to improve on these photos. 

Fun with Grebes, my first Black-necked Grebe

10th December 2012 

Nature photography can be a frustrating hobby; there are just so many things that can go wrong. The first problem is usually finding a subject: you need information, skill as a naturalist and often a touch of luck too. Then you need reasonable weather and decent light: which can be problematic in the UK. You also hope for an attractive setting which shows your subject's habitat. Obviously you need the right camera gear for the situation and the skill to use it properly (we all fail at that sooner or later). Of course your subject may not show up or it may appear and then disappear immediately or hide or go to sleep, so you have to be glad of one or two nice poses and any interesting behaviour is a real bonus.
I had never seen a black-necked grebe, so when I read about one on the Dawlish Warren website, I decided to go there at the first opportunity. December 10th dawned bright and clear and I spotted the grebe immediately I reached the pond. There are three vantage points where the vegetation has been cut back at the water's edge, but two were under water because of recent heavy rain. I waited quietly at the third point at the southern end of the pond, while the grebe was busy at the northern end and the sun rose in the sky. 
I knew that I needed my 500mm lens and 1.4 converter for good results, and when the grebe came to the middle of the pond I got a few record shots. I saw immediately that the bird was so small that I needed it to come closer. Checking these images and their histograms made it clear that there was no point in shooting unless the bright red eye was illuminated by the sun.
Then the magic happened. Everything just fell into place. That wonderful little bird came closer and closer, swimming across the smooth water and diving in front of the reeds where the light was brightest. I knew that I could have no excuses; if my photos were no good, it could only be my own fault. That's the final challenge of nature photography - are the photos as interesting  and as beautiful as they ought to be? You can judge for yourselves.

As I was taking the photos I kept telling myself to keep the camera as low as possible, although I was shooting over a low fence and some pruned willows and to watch the reflection as well as the bird. I think the reflection gives the photo a sense of the environment and adds greatly to the aesthetic effect. Unfortunately I missed it on the last shot because the little guy just came too close! This is not a common problem for bird photographers.
Technically speaking, I was disappointed that I had not got the focus exactly right on many of my photos. It took me some time to understand why. The basic rule is to focus on the eye, but I had my focus set on a single central point, But because I was including the reflection in each shot, this put the focus point on the bird's 'waterline'. Normally this wouldn't matter much, but this small grebe has a very broad beam, so my point of focus tended to be just in front of its eye and there was not enough depth of field as I was shooting at about 1/400s at f/7.1 with a 700mm focal length. I should have realised this while I was shooting, but the grebe was diving and surfacing so frequently and coming so close that I had to work hard to focus and compose each photo and I didn't have time to think things through 
I wanted to try again using a focus point above the centre of the image and ready to remove the converter if the grebe came very close.