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The Waterskiing DuckMaybe it was some kind of omen. The fact that this all started on April Fool's Day might have frightened off someone wiser. But then you could argue that wise people don't believe in omens. You see, this is the kind of logic that ties me in knots and I haven't even made it to the ducks yet. I'll add that I'm not a huge fan of feeding wild birds but understand that other people are. So I didn't lure any of these birds by feeding them. Instead, I went to a pond where waterbirds hang out, and waited. In some cases, people turned up to feed the birds but I didn't get any more shots than normal on those occasions. |
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This was never meant to be a blog, but it just turned out that way |
NOVEMBER 8, 2008After an inspiring effort by a pair of Pacific Blacks on October 3, I thought my chances of nailing the holy grail shot were improving. But I've been disappointed by some of the most wimpy waterskiing efforts I've seen by any bird on any pond. That's why I haven't posted anything for a while.
The picture shown above shows you what I'm talking about. The trail of spray behind this White-eyed Duck is no longer than, well, no longer than a White-eyed Duck. And the bird is already settling into the pond. It's not even trying. It's been a month of this kind of thing and I'm here to tell you, I'm not happy. |
OCTOBER 3, 2008
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Just when you start having your doubts about ducks they surprise you. They put on an awesome show this week and I had my camera ready. First up was the fine specimen shown skiing from the right side of the frame to the left. This guy demonstrates the sort of form that got me into this pursuit in the first place. I salute this duck for its technique, length of ski run and of course the sheer speed it's going. And then the planets aligned, the sun appeared through a gap in the clouds and a Pacific Black demonstrated blistering form on a glassy surface. This is approaching my holy-grail shot. Seen directly above this text is the uncropped photo. At full resolution (10 megapixels) the clarity and detail are amazing.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2008The worrying trend continues. I'm looking for a duck that can waterski the length of an Olympic pool and instead, all I'm seeing now are belly-landings. It was only a year ago that ducks would majestically ski to a stop when they landed on water. Well, okay, not the length of above-mentioned pool, but at least a couple of meters. Which is what led to this photographic pursuit. Now they all seem to want to land on their stomachs. So I pointed the long lens at some more ducks to see what was going on. What I discovered kind of surprised me.
At first, I'm thinking I'm seeing some real style. A one-footed landing makes for a worthy duck and a one-foot ski over several meters sounds even better than my holy-grail shot. But how long can he maintain it? Here's a close-up of the feet:
Less than a sixth of second later he's already lowering himself into the water. I was hoping for some serious skiing action on this glassy pond. Instead I'm about to disappointed by the mother of all belly flops.
So here in this next frame, the size and extent of the spray gives an idea of how fast this guy was moving. This could have been a lovely shot (although the light's too intense for the kind of photography I like doing).
And it's now half a second later and it's using its belly to slow down. Look at that wake he's leaving behind to get an idea of its speed. This could have been a long ski. I'm not happy.
In this last frame (above) you'd almost believe the duck was fitted with an outboard motor, due to the enormous wave he's making. But it's not waterskiiing is it? I don't understand this and would like scientists to explain what's happening here. Forget about Large Hadron Colliders costing billions of euros. This is where the real science is.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2008
More shots today, and every one of them a belly landing. And I'm not happy. This shot had everything going for it - nice light, distance and focus, and this duck had a bit of speed too. But look at that appalling technique. You'll see by the size of its bow wave that it's using its chest against the water to slow itself down, when it could be skiing. It's an outrage.
AUGUST 30, 2008Okay, now I'm just plain confused. I've had plenty of trips to the pond lately and have seen an abundance of avian wildlife, much of it performing water-landings. I've photographed quite a few. And not a single decent display of skiing among them. There seems to be a real shift in technique going on here. I'm tempted to offer two reasons (neither of which would stand up in court) and they are:
I'll submit the following shots as evidence.
This poultry, or should I say, paltry effort hardly qualifies as skiing by any reputable definition of the word. My camera fires off frames at the rate of about six per second. So that means this wimpy little fowl barely had the fortitude to stand up for even a sixth of a second. No sooner has it touched the water and it settles down into a belly landing. Blagh. The birds are also slowing themselves down a lot in the air before they touch down and that's a trend I don't like at all. I prefer a bird which hits the water at something approaching warp nine. But for the last month every bird I've seen at the pond has brought itself almost to almost a stop before getting its feet wet, meaning it wouldn't be able to ski any sort of distance even if it wanted to. This does not bode well for my holy-grail ambition, or for this blog. I'm hoping this is just some sort of avian aberration and look forward to nailing that perfect shot some time soon. Maybe the ducks will regain their form as we head into spring.
AUGUST 10, 2008It's been a while since my last update but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I was able to get this pic - part of a nice sequence of half a dozen shots - of a swan showing impressive waterskiing form. Full marks to this bird for technique and length of ski run.
I just wish I could offer the same praise to the ducks. Maybe I'm imagining things, but the ducks just don't waterski like they used to. They're all now doing belly-landings, with feet being lifted the moment they touch the water. It's a worrying sign.
JULY 11, 2008First responses to the levitating duck photo (see July 10, below) suggest I faked it. Some argued that I stuck those angelic wings on in Photoshop. Needless to say, I'm outraged. So I'll show the full sequence of shots that included the levitating duck shot. This should settle any disputes once and for all.
This sequence illustrates a disturbing trend I'm seeing a lot of lately with these guys: an appalling lack of waterskiing endurance. No sooner do their feet touch the water before they're settling down. Whatever happened to the spirit of the true standing-up waterskiing duck like the one I saw when this all started? I'm not about to give up, but a bunch of photos of unimpressive avian waterskiing displays is filling up my hard drive and leaving me no closer to my holy grail. Now I've got my photographic technique sorted out the birds are refusing to do their part.
JULY 10, 2008Sometimes the worst days are the best days. I was standing beside the pond in the worst light you could imagine. Well okay, I admit that night time would have been trickier, but for daytime it was the worst light you could imagine. The sky was grey. The water was grey. The grass, people and ducks were grey. Even if a duck did a 25-foot waterski right in front of me it would be no use because I'd never be able to get decent colour out of the shot. And then two things happened: the sun appeared in a gap in the clouds, and I managed to get a pic of something especially elusive - the levitating duck.
Even the other ducks are impressed by this guy. That duck on the left looks like he's studying some technique. Checking out the shot at 100% resolution (below) the levitating duck looks like he's in some kind of trance, although to be honest ducks' expressions seem to always look pretty much the same. But right now it suits my argument to say this looks like a trance:
In the few minutes that the sun was out I got a whole bunch of lucky shots. All of them nice and sharp. The sun coming from behind me is lighting up the ducks and the grey sky ahead of me is reflecting off the water, which kind of adds some nice contrast. Here's a sequence showing a White-eyed Duck coming in for a landing and then doing a short ski run.
JULY 6, 2008
I was back at the pond this week but the ducks were keeping their distance. Maybe they're aware of this blog. To make things worse the wind was gusting up to about 15 knots, meaning that the ducks were landing into a headwind. Which meant they didn't have to waterski to slow down. In the really strong gusts the ducks were wobbling a bit in the air and then doing a sort of vertical landing, Harrier Jump Jet style. Fun to watch but not the best for realising my ambition. However I got one nice shot on the day. This female White-eyed Duck is about to touch down and her posture simply screams concentration.
JUNE 30, 2008Okay, now it's getting personal.
I was at the pond again today, pointing the lens at a bunch of cormorants. They're not ducks but they are still kind of cool. The sun was out, water calm, not much breeze. Perfect avian waterskiing conditions. And I'm concentrating on those cormorants and then out of the corner of my eye I see not one, but two Pacific Blacks approaching in the last stages of a high-speed landing. So I swing around and just manage to fire off a few shots taking in the end of the run. It was a good ski too - one of the best - at least 6 feet before it kneeled down, with nice technique and poise, but I was so late I only caught the aftermath. I tell you, this was the perfect shot - the holy grail shot I've been waiting for. The light was perfect. Focus was pin-sharp. Ski length brilliant. Distance to the duck was perfect for framing the bird and a good length of trail.
It's like they're teasing me now. Waiting until I'm not looking, and then when I'm engrossed in some cormorants they shoot in from the side and rain down in pairs. I'm taking it pretty well. No, actually I'm not. Who am I kidding? I'm really peeved. I'm more determined than ever now. It's me versus them and I have a hunch it's going to get harder now because I think they're onto me. Yeah, the more I think about it, the more logical that sounds. I bet this was the duck that flew in front of my swan shot on June 23. Like I said earlier, now it's personal.
JUNE 27, 2008I love this shot of a duck looking like he's about to wipe out. Is that fear we can see in his eyes? Hard to say - ducks' eyes always seem to look the same.
His wings are all over the place, and if you look at his feet, they're clearly not set for a clean landing. Here's a closer view (below) and I'm sure most pilots would think this scenario would end in tears.
The next frame taken one sixth of a second later shows how he somehow managed to pull it off. Personally I would have written him off, perhaps awarded him a point for courage or maybe degree of difficulty. But these ducks should not be underestimated. They know what they are doing. And they are all around us...
JUNE 23, 2008Sydney's getting some decent light at last. The light is weak but at least the sun's out and there was some serious duck action down at the pond. I had the camera set back up to 1000th second and got some of my best shots so far.
This shot (above) is possibly the best one I've got so far for showing how these guys pull their toes up to avoid tripping over and landing face-down on the water. Here's a closer view of those toes. The duck obviously know's what he's doing.
At full resolution almost all of the images are pin-sharp so I'm very happy with these pics.
The ducks were coming down like rain and then a swan came down. I got a nice sequence that included the shot shown below. This pic is my favourite so far and at full resolution it's nice and sharp too. I'll include a 50% and a 100% resolution crop to give you an idea about how these pics look nice and big.
And now, to show you the kind of thing that happens in nature photography, here's another shot from that sequence on the swan. This shot was just possibly the best one in the sequence, except some bird flew past the lens at that exact moment
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