La Jolla Pelicans

[Retief]

Nancy had been trying to get a Flying Pelican in California so late one afternoon, near Sunset, we made our way to Seal Rock in La Jolla, CA. Pretty neat to watch almost 2 dozen Harbor Seals haul out on the beach here, but we were looking for the Pelicans. We saw a batch flying South, so we set up to catch the next bunch flying South. Of course, what should happen, but a huge bunch flying North.

Wong Way Pelicans...

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

The real pits to watch this many go by when we could not turn around. I had set up the D2H with the 70-200 plus TC-20E on my Gimbal for Nancy to practice with, but she wasn't quite ready to run around the tripod.

But we did get some coming toward us:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

and Nancy was able to track these better, here is one from the sequence:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Strangely enough as they got close she had a tougher time keeping up with them. None of us have ever had that problem, eh :?: :?: :?: But she was getting better as time went on.

Then this guy flew by, pretty close, but Nancy did not want to try, she told me to. I had almost no time to acquire, lock-on and shoot, but I did get 2 frames. The sun is almost directly behind me, I like the coloaration. This is almost full frame, if I'd had the 500 with the 1.4 I would not have seen the whole bird.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[Backdoctor]

nice series of shots Bill.

 

[Gale]

Nice shots Bill and Nancy..

Love the one where he is just hanging up there with a silly look. lolol The last is great. Wonderful color.

 

[mike mac]

Great warm colors on the last one, arent these guys fun to watch

 

[Retief]

nice series of shots Bill.

Thanks, Harris. This was a day where Nancy was trying to learn a bit more about tracking moving birds, and I think she gained a lot of information about why I curse so much when we are out or when I am working in post-processing :lol: :lol: :lol:

Add up all the FOV issues with just finding the danged bird to "bad luck" like the huge flock that flew in the wrong direction and it sure can be frustrating, can't it? But perseverance pays off.

Plus, it was an awfully pretty day and a gorgeous spot.

 

[Retief]

Nice shots Bill and Nancy..

Love the one where he is just hanging up there with a silly look. lolol The last is great. Wonderful color.

Gale, these birds ALWAYS have a "silly look", major part of their charm :lol:

I do like the color from the end of the day, the "golden glow" is rather soothing. But it does make it very tough shooting to the West. I got very lucky with the last bird do to placement.

Thanks,

 

[Retief]

Great warm colors on the last one, arent these guys fun to watch

Thanks, Mike. That last shot was such a great bit of luck. I am actually quite surprised that I was able to focused on it in time as it just suddenly "showed up" from behind a building. And then to have it in the right position with the sun low behind me, I couldn't have planned it that well. I wanted Nancy to take the shot but she didn't think she could acquire and focus quickly enough.

They are a ton of fun to watch, unfortunately we don't see them up here in our part of Washington but there are some further South in Oregon.

Hey, I heard a rumor you have moved to a D2X? If so, drop me a PM as to goods/bads/etc., or jump into my thread in the D2Xtasy forum. I am trying to figure out if this would be a good thing for me to do.

Thanks,

 

[Backdoctor]

nice series of shots Bill.

Thanks, Harris. This was a day where Nancy was trying to learn a bit more about tracking moving birds, and I think she gained a lot of information about why I curse so much when we are out or when I am working in post-processing :lol: :lol: :lol:

Add up all the FOV issues with just finding the danged bird to "bad luck" like the huge flock that flew in the wrong direction and it sure can be frustrating, can't it? But perseverance pays off.

Plus, it was an awfully pretty day and a gorgeous spot.

Mary is trying to track flying birds as well, but with the 70-300. Looks like we'll need to get a 70-200

 

[Retief]

Reply to Lisa

From Lisa: Very nice sequence. I love photographing birds, but have found tracking them to be extremely difficult. Coming towards me has always proven impossible. I think Nancy did a fine job getting that lone pelican coming towards her.

I used to live in La Mesa and made my way to La Jolla a few times. Very lovely place.

Lisa, I don't know how I got the thread going twice, but I'll move my reply to this thread.

First off, thanks, and yes the ones coming straight on can be a challenge. One of the real challenges I find with birds is that they move in 3 dimensions. It is much easier for me to predict where an amimal or person is going versus a bird.

I lived 26 years, and most of my growing up, in Southern California and Nancy is a native. We still try to get back down that way every year or so. It is a very nice part of the country. If they could just remove about 70% of the people it would be perfection :lol: :lol: :lol: , of course I'm the only one who could figure out which 70%...... :wink: