If you are in a right place at right time, then creating great photographs is pretty easy. But what about being wrong place at a right time? This was one such situation I faced. I found this juvenile Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) in the act of catching a moth and feasting on it.
Unfortunately the Drongo landed just right above my head on an electric wire. If I were to go slightly away and recompose the scene so that Drongo is at a comfortable natural position, I would have missed the moment. So I decided to photograph the best I could in that fading evening light. Lying in supine position on the ground I could capture this sequence of shots of Drongo feasting on the moth. I was using Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM attached with Canon EF 1.4x II Extender.
Metering this Drongo in low evening light was tricky as the sky behind the bird was brighter. Camera meter will get fooled by the over all brightness of the sky as it averages to 18% grey. Thus Bird will be under exposed. So I gave + 2 stop exposure compensation so that the bird was exposed properly. This resulted in sky blowing out (white and over exposed).
Most animals are photographed best when they are at your eye level. Birds which perch high up in the trees are difficult to photograph this way. One of the method is to go far away from the subject at an angle and use large tele lenses so that it looks as though you are nearly at its eye level. If shot like what I did here, right below the bird then you end up with more of the abdomen of the bird than head and neck.
Hope I will be in a right place at right time next time 😉
With right equipment to register this! 🙂
Nice shots Krishi.