More duck action from the Botanical Gardens… As mentioned in my previous post, it was not easy getting close up to the ducks with the maximum 200mm-reach I could get on my lens (even after factoring in the additional 1.6x crop factor on my DSLR). Luckily, there were people feeding them by the pond-side. This drew them close enough for the occasional closer-up shot. I like this particular one for the gleam of catchlight in the duck’s eyes.
Despite the recent worries about bird flu, lots of people were seen feeding the ducks at the Botanical Gardens. Whereas it was duck (feeding) season for them, it was duck (photography) season for us! 😛 But getting them in nice and interesting compositions wasn’t that easy. You need a super-zoom / telephoto lens to get real close, and the closer you get, the more difficult it gets to frame and squeeze off the shot at the correct moment. Given the 200mm reach of my 70-200mm f/4L, I couldn’t get that close too. In the end, I decided to spot for interesting arrangements within the brood of ducks. By the time I took this, the sun was almost overhead. I decided on a silhouette approach for a change instead. I was lucky to capture this particular picture where the ducks (and their reflections) were just nicely seperated and arranged. I have added a sepia / b&w tone effect to the original shot (which was almost monochromatic to start with anyway!).
Catching the appropriate lighting at the right time can be all that is needed sometimes for a nice picture. This lilac bloom was just so appropriately lit in the morning light when I took it… and for just a transient two to three minutes! I metered the exposure on the flower, throwing the background lake into underexposure on purpose so that the flower stands out apart from the rest of the frame.
If you have not been visiting for the last couple of days, do check out on my recent posts: here and here and leave me your comments!