Photos of the Week: July 31, 2013

 

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Sometimes the camera captures what our eyes cannot see. This occurs both when we move in very close, as in macrophotography, and when we slow down the shutter speed to trap movement the eye cannot perceive. When the latter happens, with a little luck, you can snare some magic in a bottle.

In the upper photo, I encountered a family of Ibex out for a late-afternoon stroll in the sandy hills above Ein Avdat. This proud male stood undaunted between my camera and the setting sun, which spilled some flare onto my lens. In this case, what I might normally try to avoid actually enhances the mood of the image. The big buck is nearly in silhouette and the bright background helps outline his form and strength as I portray him mid-stride, accented with some unforeseen sparkle.

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In the lower photo, this friendly egret, while eyeing me cautiously, allowed me to very slowly encroach upon his afternoon feeding along the shoreline at Herzliya Beach. Birds are extremely skittish, so having an extended period to observe and then capture a close-up of a wild bird in its habitat was reason enough to celebrate. Add to that the way the setting sun turned the splashing water into flying sparks and I had the making of a unique image. By slowing the shutter just a bit (to 1/100th sec.), I was able to keep my subject in sharp focus yet also elongate the water droplets, adding some enchantment to the shot. Just another afternoon at the office along the Mediterranean coast.

TECHNICAL DATA: Upper photo - Camera: Nikon D700, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f20 at 1/500th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 70-200 zoom at 80 mm. Date: Oct. 28, 2012, 4:05 p.m. Location: On the road from Sde Boker to Ein Avdat, Negev Desert.

Lower photo: Camera: Nikon D300, handheld, manual exposure, center-weighted metering mode, f9 at 1/100th sec., ISO 400. Raw file converted to Jpeg. Lens: Nikon 18-200 zoom at 130mm. Date: July 4, 2011, 6:28 p.m. Location: Herzliya Beach.