Post #60 - I love Shorebird photography!

Why is shorebird photography my favorite type of photography? A bunch of reasons, let's go!

First and foremost, shorebird photos are difficult if not impossible set-up. Shorebirds cannot be attracted or baited as can so many other species. Fish eaters like seabirds, fruit eaters like tanagers, seed eaters like finches, nectar eaters like orioles and hummingbirds, and even meat eaters like hawks and owls can be attracted to the photographer with food. I love hummingbirds, but just about every really good hummingbird flight photo you're ever going to see is so heavily set up as to render it feeling at least a bit rehearsed or contrived. Many lodges in Central and South America have pre-positioned flash arrays with fake backdrops and baited flowers into which visiting photographers can just plug and shoot! That takes half the fun out of it.Think about it - have you ever been to a shorebird feeding station? Never - if ever! Since they can't realistically be set-up or contrived, good shorebird photograph must be earned.

Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus

Old skool from Revere Beach Boston!

Second, good shorebird photography requires the photographer to get down and get dirty. Generally, the most effective bird photographs are those where the photographer is at eye level with the subject. Since shorebirds rarely come up to our level, it is more often required that we get down to theirs. As far as I am concerned, the only proper way to shoot shorebirds is right in the mud with them, on one's stomach. As this is an effort many photographers are unwilling to make, shorebird photography for me helps separate out who shoots from a position of convenience and who shoots to get the shot. Anyone can sit in a shaded blind a photograph birds as they approach feeders. Far fewer will climb into stinky, bug-infested mud.

Sunrise Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla

Also from Revere Beach!

Third, and to make things even more difficult, shorebirds are usually very spooky. It can be incredibly difficult to get close to them. However, connecting this point to second, one can get quite close if he or she is willing to get low and dirty. Lying and crawling in the mud, I have literally be able to reach out and touch White-rumped sandpipers, Dunlin, and Least Sandpipers. Stand up though and POOF - gone!

March of the Dunlin - Calidris alpina
 Blurred for artistic effect

Lastly, there are so many different species that it would be nearly impossible to exhaust the array of possibilities even in a lifetime of shooting. From oystercatchers to jacanas and from stints to curlews, the there are so many permutations of the shorebird theme that it is almost unimaginable.

Anyway, I bring this up as shorebird photography has been painfully difficult here in SoCal. Between a lack of local estuaries, ever-present beachgoers (and dogs), and military-occupied coastline, there really aren't many places to shoot shorebirds around here. There are lots of shorebirds at Bolsa Chica and San Joaquin, but since you are confined to the dikes at those spots, it doesn't make for pretty pictures when you have to shoot straight down on such tiny birds.

This past weekend, however, I spent some time photographing Surfbirds on a set of local jetties that I did not know existed until the weekend. Late in the day, I basically hd the jetty to myself. For a few brief moments, I actually forgot that I was in crowded SoCal. Wading in thigh deep water in the boat channel, I captured what I think are some very nice frame of these guys as they picked and poked their way around the rocky jetties. In this instance, I dropped to their eye level by wading (and almost swimming when big boat boats created big wakes). Like I said, whatever it takes!

 Surfbird - Aphriza virgata

Canon 500mm f/4 IS on EOS 7D2
1/500 at f/7.1, ISO 400

This past weekend, however, I spent some time photographing Surfbirds on a set of local jetties that I did not know existed until the weekend. Late in the day, I basically hd the jetty to myself. For a few brief moments, I actually forgot that I was in crowded SoCal. Wading in thigh deep water in the boat channel, I captured what I think are some very nice frame of these guys as they picked and poked their way around the rocky jetties. In this instance, I dropped to their eye level by wading (and almost swimming when big boats created big wakes). Like I said, whatever it takes!