If you have been following this series you have detected a common thread to most of the photos over the last several dates. They were created in California. Today is no exception.
I was at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge (how often have you read that lately?) and photographing the terns diving for food. I wanted to catch a tern with its beak just breaking the water. It was a challenge. The terns fly at 50 mph, then they hover when they spot a minnow, and then they dive under the water, grab a minnow, and explode back out of the water. To get an idea what was involved, set your tripod up by a highway with cars going 50mph or better, pick a road sign, and try and photograph a car with the first half inch of the front bumper even with the road sign.
Two frames superimposed, diving tern. Fremont California. July 18, 2016.
Putting your camera in machine gun mode does not help. My camera can shoot 10 frames per second, but that didn’t help at all. This image is two frames of the same tern shot at 10 frames per second, both frames superimposed. In the first frame the tern is above the water and just beginning to fold its wings back. In the second frame the tern has entered the water with its wings folded back. So capturing the image I wanted was a matter of timing the click on the shutter, not shooting at ten frames per second. Eventually I got my shot.
The diving fern photo is one of my two most favorite images for July 18.
It was a beautiful morning at Bear Lake and the water was unusually calm, creating a nice reflection with a hint of ripples. This is my other most favorite image for this date.
In one of our first photo shoots, Ellie Marie and I went to a local waterfall. She posed in a way that went well with the flow of the waterfall. I wanted the waterfall a little bit blurred so I chose a shutter speed of 1/25 second. This is another favorite photo for this date.
Links
Series: Favorite Photos by Date – all about this series
Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge