Some friends I met on the river

[Holmes]

Did a 23 mile stretch on the North Platte yesterday and got to try out my new photography kayak. This one is a 27" wide very stable boat, much different from my other long and narrow performance boats.

I quickly gained a healthy respect for those folks at the Cafe that regularly turn in beautiful captures from their kayaks... it ain't easy! I blew highlights right and left, jumped the VR, missed focus a gazillion times, used too slow shutter speeds, and... well, you get it

And the bureau opened the reservoirs a bit so instead of my anticipated 3 mph drift I was going along at 5.1 mph. That made things interesting!

I've much to learn yet doing this from a boat on a river but I did manage a few that weren't toal washouts. All taken with the 70-300 VR:

Dignified observer of the kingdom:

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Wing stretch on a cold 37 F morning:

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Hot and soft - get a new photographer!:

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A natural model:

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Bump the SS, dummy!:
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Can you hear me now?:
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Once around the park, please:

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And finally, a critter of my persuasion and it doesn't fly!:
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The rest of the gallery is here - no snickering allowed!:http://holmes.zenfolio.com/p446731309

Going to add flash fill in the future and set my EC function to the wheel only - two button adjustment just isn't fast enough on the river. Gotta remember to mash that camera to the face, really makes a difference in a kayak.

Trials and tribulations of an amateur :biggrin:

 

[russowl]

The best kind of friends to have ,, great shots ....

 

[Ron S]

Man what a variety, great shots, love that first eagle one especially!

 

[Cameron]

From a kayak, wow.
Really nice shots. I have a hard enough time on dry land. :tongue:

 

[AgilityIG]

Excellent - I would be too worried about being on water to worry about shooting!! LOL

Love the dragonfly!

 

[Louis Champan]

Great set.

 

[Holmes]

The best kind of friends to have ,, great shots ....

Thank you, it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

Man what a variety, great shots, love that first eagle one especially!

Thanks. I saw more eagles on this trip than any previous venture this year. Couldn't come up with an otter to save my life though!

From a kayak, wow.
Really nice shots. I have a hard enough time on dry land. :tongue:

Thank you. I'm pleased for a first time effort but there's some really impressive kayak shooters here at the Cafe and they've set the bar rather high!

Excellent - I would be too worried about being on water to worry about shooting!! LOL

Love the dragonfly!

Thanks. It was a concern and I continually caught myself armholding the camera when turning at extreme angles. Got a lot of softies doing that! Gotta remember to keep it mashed to the face :smile:

That was the only dragonfly I could get close enough to! It rode with me on and off for a few miles.

Great set.

Thank you, Louis. You'll probably spot the substitutions since I originally posted the thread. I re-worked the images a bit trying to improve them with suggestions from some folks over at FM.

 

[spalding12]

very nice images
thanks for sharing them with us

 

[Holmes]

very nice images
thanks for sharing them with us

Thank you, Greg. And you're most welcome.