Part One of my Macleay Valley birding adventure begins in the surfing village of Crescent Head on the mid-north coast of NSW.
Perched at the edge of the Killick Creek Estuary, I've been to Crescent Head several times. It's a favourite destination for the stunning birds of prey and great variety of species in readily accessible places. An easy place to visit with a friendly vibe, a caravan park right on the estuary and a handful of places to eat and drink within walking distance.
The weather and light conditions were challenging on this trip. It was very windy and alternated between cloudless windy days and dull overcast windy days! Even with getting up before dawn each day I didn't have long before the wind set in.
On the sunny days the light was very strong, narrowing the time I could realistically shoot. On the dull days it was hard to get enough light to shoot in the mornings and then when the light picked up, the strong winds made it difficult to find any birds!
I can't complain though, I still had plenty of memorable birding moments. Here's some of my favourite shots, with the settings and a few notes here and there:
500mm (using my built-in teleconverter) ISO 2000, 1/3200th, f/7.1
Taken on a bright day in the late afternoon, deep shadows were appearing but the last rays of sun were highlighting small areas in the mangroves. This Egret was hiding from the wind in a sheltered but dark part of the estuary. He briefly stepped out into a beam of light and I quickly snapped off a couple of shots.
In my haste I did underexpose the shot, but it worked out in nicely in the end.
I added 2 full stops of exposure in Lightroom, also trimming back the highlights and bringing up the shadows. He turned a bit yellow in the process, so I corrected the white balance, adding more blue to get back to a clean but warm white. A noise reduction filter was also added.
The end result is 'Chiaroscuro', a technique I discussed in a recent blog post. I like the sense of drama the dark background brings, and the little bit of feather detail in the breeding plumage.
360mm ISO 1600, 1/3200th, f/7.1
Shooting into the sun, it was overcast, which gave me the opportunity to to turn this beautiful Brahminy Kite into a 'High Key' image. I love the light filtering through the feathers, showing off the symmetry and colour. Looking at it again after uploading, I probably could have cooled it down a tad, but I do love the warm orangey tones and grey background.
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500mm ISO 1600, 1/6400th, f/7.1
I decided on a hard crop of this image, bringing forward the strong eye as I'd cut the top off the wing, capturing the action. Although I had the whole wing in other photos in the sequence, I liked this shot for the expression and the deadly hooked talon through the fish.
Editing was reducing contrast (that strong sun again!), trimming highlights and bringing up shadows, plus noise reduction and a little bit of haze removal. Under 30 seconds work - like most of my editing.
500mm (using built-in teleconverter) ISO 2000, 1/5000th f/6.3
A classic habitat shot, this little Red-back Fairy Wren was making his way through the Banksias looking for bugs in the early morning, taken just after 6.30am. Even that early, the bright sun was already making exposure difficult on the black feathers. Overexposing by half to one stop with black plumage is my standard practice. I like to see some details, but it's a fine line with full sun before it all turns into a too-shiny-too-much-contrast mess!
Technically, the shot is a little bit busy and I don't love the blue in the background, which is actually the ocean not blue sky. But it does balance the warm tones somewhat. A firm favourite shot from the trip, but that's largely to do with the subject!
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