High Island & Low-Light Panning

The Houston Audubon Society owns four bird sanctuaries at High Island, Texas. In March and April each year, the rookery in the Smith Oaks section is a hoppin' place. The nesting areas are cram-packed with Great White Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Neotropic Cormorants, and other shore birds. There are frequent squabbles for space and the noise is incredible.

The trails and viewing platforms near the rookery are equally packed. They are infested with photographers, birders, and thick clouds of mosquitos. Finding enough room to shoot is difficult enough, then you have to worry about getting elbowed or knocked in the head by someone's lens. There's always a bit of tension in the air when groups of photographers attempt to co-exist with groups of birders :-)

Anyway, I've made four trips there in the past two years to photograph the birds. I'm just now wrapping up processing my photos from this year.

click for slightly larger pic

Canon 40D, 400mm f/5.6L
f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 400

I've shot different types of bird scenes at High Island, but the ones I like best (and the ones I've strived to get) take a different approch from the normal shots that photographers usually capture here.

When the light gets dim and the nesting area falls into shadow, almost all photographers and birders leave. The mosquitos get thick and the alligators float like dreadnoughts in the waters below.

click for slightly larger pic

Canon 40D, 400mm f/5.6L
f/5.6, 1/200 sec., ISO 400

I like to shoot in-flight shots in relatively low light (and slow shutter speeds). The subdued colors in the quiet light are quite nice. What I'm really after is getting a little wing blur to imply motion.

The resulting photos have a dream-like quality and offer a different view of High Island from the literal direct-light bird-book type photos usually taken here by others.

click for slightly larger pic

Canon 40D, 400mm f/5.6L
f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 400

Using the Canon 400mm f/5.6 lens is well suited for this type of shooting. The lens is relatively small and light, and it's easier to pan along with the birds when shooting.

The slower maximum aperture (f/5.6) is acceptible because it results in slower shutter speeds (required to get wing blur) and also a little more DOF. Shooting in-flight shots like this is hit-or-miss (mostly near-miss) and the added DOF helps to get the bird's head in acceptable focus even if the focus point is a little off.

In a typical bird-book type shot, the 400mm f/5.6 does not produce beautiful, completely blurred backgrounds like a 500 or 600m f/4 lens will. So, this style of shooting (low-light panning) helps to blur the background more due to motion.