All rights to this photograph is reserved the photographer
This picture was a joy and a pain to take, it is probably why I enjoy it so much. This huge bird just came and landed about 50 feet from me. A woman walking down the beach walked about 10 feet away from the bird and I was ready to take a picture of its departure, however, it didn’t budge. I had my 50mm Summicron on my M8, so I knew I had to get close. I walked slowly until I was about 10 feet from the bird, however, it was just not close enough or the right angle to include the pier in the background. So I literally inched forward for about 10 minutes until I was in the perfect position. I opened the lens to f2 and put the shutter at f/2, to isolate the bird. This has minimal post processing with a little added vignetting and a touch of saturation. This shot was taken at Balboa peninsula with the Balboa pier in the background, near Newport Beach, California.
Why I use a Leica:
I use Leica because I enjoy the simplicity. I don’t have to fiddle with menus, it didn’t beep and scare away the bird, it simply did its job magnificently. Also, the lenses are suburb wide open, which allows me to have the creative control I need. In addition, I do enjoy the 1/8000 on the m8, it allows me to shoot wide open in the bright sunlight without an ND filter.
Jonathan Geach lives outside Los Angeles. Take a look at his Flickr photostream for more of his M8 shots.
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excllent
Nice colors
Marvellous colours but the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus seems very sudden, especially behind the bird. Did you add blur in pp?
Nice one, great color and dof…
Ingles,
I did not add any blur in post. The picture actually has almost no post, I think the reason the DOF looks sudden, is that I used the 1/8000 at f/2 when I was only about 5 feet away, giving a very shallow DOF.
I also took a few with more DOF, but I liked the dramatic effect.
Thanks for the clarification, Jonathan.
Very nice shot!! )