In Texel, I was advised to shoot a Sandwich Tern colony in the evening using front-lighting, but I'd much rather go for back-lighting at dawn. I have great memories of 16 years ago, when shooting Arctic Terns in Finnmark (the northern-most part of Norway) with reddish back-lighting. It was tempting to try this again. I mounted my Nikon 600/4.0 VR with 1.4X tele-extender near the colony 15 minutes before sunrise. I don't use tele-extenders very often, but in this case distance was a factor and it worked out great. Again, my preferred camera is the Nikon D3S, an excellent tool in difficult, low light situations using high ISOs.
The sunrise was just as I had hoped, directly behind the Sandwich Tern colony and I had wonderful light for about 30 minutes, and I set the white balance at 6800K to preserve the reddish hue of the light. I also had many opportunities for panning the birds at 1/80 – 1/160 second shutter speeds.
After an intense hour of in-flight photography, clouds arrived, and a light rain started. This was perfect since I now had soft lighting for the rest of the morning, and I could shoot more birds like the Godwits.
Nikon D3S with 600/4.0 + 1,4X Extender, 1/400 sec, f/5.6 and ISO 1600
Nikon D3S with 600/4.0 + 1,4X Extender, 1/250 sec, f/5.6 and ISO 2000
Nikon D3S with 600/4.0 + 1,4X Extender, 1/80 sec, f/10 and ISO 1600
Nikon D3S with 600/4.0 + 1,4X Extender, 1/125 sec, f/8,0 and ISO 1600
Nikon D3S with 600/4.0 + 1,4X Extender, 1/160 sec, f/5,6 and ISO 1000
OJL
Just great! I like color of light it's amazing. I know that it is not about gear only but it looks that D3s will be very good camera.
what are the weather sealing on the nikon cameras? when are you going to do some weather sealing reviews on your nikons?
Hi
The weather sealing on Nikon cameras seems very good! I will use Nikon D3S, D3X and D300S on 3 photo expeditions to Svalbard this summer, and I´m not worry about using them in arctic conditions.
I have now used Nikon equipment for some months and hope to give you some field reviews soon…
Hi
The weather sealing on Nikon D3S and D3X is great. I´m just back from the first expedition to Svalbard in the high Arctic (81 degree North), and I´ve had no problems.
Hi Michal
YEs, photography is not all about equipment, but I really appreciate good “tools” when working.