Birding with a 24mm. And off-camera flash

chromatin64

chromatin64

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Name
Russell
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A few Arctic Terns attacking me on Inner Farne.

Because they came so close as they tried to peck my eyes out, as they do, I was able to use my 24mm f/2.8D. I also used an off-camera SB900 Speedlight in high speed sync mode (so I was able to use flash at 1/1000s to control the sky exposure). I've cropped them a bit too.

Please note that this is normal behaviour for the Inner Farne Arctic Terns and no birds were harmed in the taking of these photographs. I was though. The pecking is really quite painful if they time it right...
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Arctic-Tern by Russell Watkins, on Flickr
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Arctic-Tern by Russell Watkins, on Flickr
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Arctic-Tern by Russell Watkins, on Flickr
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Great set there, putting the 24mm to great use ... well done :)
 
stunning shots
 
I got bomb by a couple of tern recently. Better staying out of there way, there are just protecting there territory and possible chicks, not sure they appreciate the flash in their face too.

So it is a mitigated yes from me. Great shot! But i don't like disturbing wildlife even if they are not harmed.
 
Thanks for the kind comments, all.

Lemaildetom said:
I got bomb by a couple of tern recently. Better staying out of there way, there are just protecting there territory and possible chicks, not sure they appreciate the flash in their face too.

So it is a mitigated yes from me. Great shot! But i don't like disturbing wildlife even if they are not harmed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that Thomas. It's a good point but these things are always trades-off. The money that the NT get when you visit the Farnes helps preserve the habitat for Terns and other seabirds. In other words, they're better off with visitors than without.

I went to Uganda to track mountain gorillas earlier this year. The licence to track them was over £800. Again that money means that the mountain gorilla population gets human help to stave off extinction. The gorillas are habituated and whilst you can't get too close, it seems that they accept their relationship with us. In a perfect World, protecting endangered species by encouraging eco-tourism wouldn't be needed but we're not in a perfect World and conservation costs money. OK it's a different scale to a day trip to the Farne Islands and terns aren't on the endangered species list but the point still stands. Conservation is expensive.

As to getting close their nests, you can't do anything but get close on Inner Farne. All the paths are lined by nesting sites.

When it comes to flash photography and wildlife, there are some situations where I would absolutely not use it. However, bird photography in this environment isn't one of them. Especially as in this case, flash power is extremely low and is only used as fill. If flashing light disturbed them, then they wouldn't use lighthouses around bird colonies. And birds wouldn't set up colonies around lighthouses. The flash certainly didn't seem to change their peck behaviour.

The ethics of flash use in wildlife photography is well-covered on the interwebz. As ever, there are no absolutes but it seems accepted by most that flash use is OK.
 
Always interesting to see the difference in general opinion regarding flash - Brits seem very wary while our American cousins can't seem to get enough of it.

Regardless, you've done an excellent job in balancing the exposure here, and made the most of the blue sky with some spot on poses captured, with the first being the 'classic' tern shot and the second a nice side on effort. Actually, the third ain't to shabby either!
 
Thanks Denis, Kevin and Mike.

Cheffievrs said:
Brilliant shots, would you mind elaborating on the ocf please Russell
Click to expand...

Thanks Jason. I connected the Speedlight to a Nikon cord which meant I could keep the TTL and HSS functions. I held the flash in my left hand in front of me and pointing up with my right hand holding the camera.

When you use HSS on a Nikon, you can use high shutter speeds and the camera controls the flash. But instead of "popping" the flash as normal, it cuts the power and fires/pulses over a longer duration as the shutter slit moves across the sensor.

I'm going up again this Friday but I'm taking my Fuji X100S which has a leaf shutter, rather than a focal plane shutter. So again I can shoot at 1/1000s but this time I'll use manual flash and either a PC sync cord or some wireless flash triggers I have that can sync at those sorts of speeds.
 
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chromatin64 said:
Thanks Denis, Kevin and Mike.



Thanks Jason. I connected the Speedlight to a Nikon cord which meant I could keep the TTL and HSS functions. I held the flash in my left hand in front of me and pointing up with my right hand holding the camera.

When you use HSS on a Nikon, you can use high shutter speeds and the camera controls the flash. But instead of "popping" the flash as normal, it cuts the power and fires/pulses over a longer duration as the shutter slit moves across the sensor.

I'm going up again this Friday but I'm taking my Fuji X100S which has a leaf shutter, rather than a focal plane shutter. So again I can shoot at 1/1000s but this time I'll use manual flash and either a PC sync cord or some wireless flash triggers I have that can sync at those sorts of speeds.
Click to expand...

Oh ok, makes sense, thanks for sharing :)
 
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