Pic of the Day

   Ruddy Turnstone – Blind Pass; Captiva, Florida: On January 5^th I posted an image of a Snowy Egret that I took using a long lens mouned on a ball head attached to a Frisbee.  I mentioned in the post that I had gotten the idea from a recent book I had read, but could not remember which book at the time of the post.  The book was Captured:  Lessons from Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer, by Moose Peterson.  The book, by the way is well written and worth reading.

   Using the Frisbee mounted ball head I went to Blind Pass on Captiva Island to shoot shorebirds and terns.  The set-up worked well as I crawled across the beach.  The Frisbee allowed me to easily slide the camera forward and backwards as I move over the sand.  As I mentioned in the January 5^th post, the Frisbee is very flexible and has a tendency to cause the camera and lens to awkwardly tilt left, right and forward.  I have since mounted the ball head on a pie pan to see if it will work better than the Frisbee.  Once I have tried the new outfit, I’ll let you know how it works.

   This Ruddy Turnstone was taken with my lens mounted on the ball head/Frisbee combination.  Turnstones were numerous on the beach at Blind Pass and were feeding on Pen Shells that had washed ashore during a recent storm.  The lens mounted on the Frisbee/ball head combination made it easy to slide toward the turnstones as they ran up and down the beach, and backward as the bird ran toward me.  I often found myself backing up rather than moving toward the birds.  It appeared to me that by laying on the beach the turnstones did not see me as a threat, and pretty much ignored me.

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 500mm f4, Digital Capture ISO 200, 1/1250^th second @ f10


Note:  To order Captured, by Moose Peterson go to:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321720598/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1579904823&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1VG509Z91QAZBP5HT8WY