Early Morning Rising

Canon EOS 20D with 70-200L @ 70mm ISO400

As the days get longer and winter marches towards spring, I find with the changing temperatures that my favorite time of day (day-break) brings fog. I had my truck pointed south for a planned run to the town of High River for coffee with the guys from the F.A.R.S. ( Foothills Amateur Radio Society) group. As I made my way down Deerfoot Trail in Calgary and over the Bow River, I realized I would be delayed for the river valley was awash with fog. Being I had to fill up with gas anyway, I exited at Blackfoot Trail and after filling up my very empty fuel tank I made the turn at the Colonel Walker School and made my way over to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary that borders the Bow River. This lead capture I shot on the east side of the Sanctuary overlooking the river. Having left my tripod in the truck I pushed my ISO up to 400 so that I could use a high enough shutter speed to keep my captures sharp. In this first capture I went with a F16 aperture and a shutter speed of 1/350th of a second. I shot the photo a stop over, so not to lose detail in the area of the melting ice. I used a log lying along the river bank as a support for my camera and reminded myself as why to not leave my tripod behind in the truck.

Canon EOS 20D with 70-200L-1.4 extender @ 280mm ISO400

From there I made my way over to the lagoon which lies in the center of the Sanctuary. After popping my 1.4 extender in place, I shot a few photos of the Mallards whom I found quite entertaining. The Mallard in this capture reminded me of a Maestro conducting his orchestra. I also had my electronic flash mounted on my camera for this capture with high speed sync being used. I went with a aperture of F4 and a shutter speed of 1/2000th of a second to stop the wing action and keep the main players sharp.

Canon EOS 20D with 70-200L @ 105mm ISO400

Winding my way around the far south end of the lagoon took me past the river once more where I shot this final capture. I was fortunate to find another impromptu support for my camera ( don't forget the tripod ) once more. All that snow was playing havoc with my light meter so I went with spot-metering and decided that I liked the exposure shot a stop over, and exposed more megapixels for this final capture. I went with a aperture of F16 and a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second. After satisfying my desire for early morning fog, I am off for coffee. Later