See the sun

I've been listening to the music of Pete Murray a lot lately, hence the title for this blog entry. It's the title of his second album (2005) and thought it appropriate for this image of a Crested Tit in warm light.

After the very encouraging results from last week, I tried again to create interesting photos of the songbirds at the forest feeder. This time, however, the ambient light levels were simply too high to try for rimlight shots. Given the restriction of the sync speed of my radio triggers (about 1/125s), it was not possible to eliminate the ambient light completely, not even at F16 and ISO100.

So I tried for a different moody effect. By underexposing the ambient light at about two stops and using a gelled flash as a backlight, I could simulate the effect of a nice sunrise. To me, the result resembles on of those sepia colored photos from the old box. I like the effect.

Some people have commented that by using flash, I have crossed the border and have left the realm of nature photography. To me, that is nonsense. Lots of photographers use fillflash to open up shadows. I just chose to place the fill flash behind the subject instead of on-camera. And also: the birds are still completely free to decide if they want to act as a model (well-paid, I must say) or not. If you are of another opinion, please feel free to comment on this blog entry.

Crested Tit; Canon 1D Mark III w. 70-200/4; 1/80s at F16 and ISO 200; Tripod and a single wireless flash.