Catching salmon
Here’s an action shot that I liked from Katmai, photographed at Geographic Harbor. The importance of high shutter speeds really hit home on this trip, and the benefits of high ISO capabilities in cameras. This one is ISO 1250 on my D700, which yielded a 1/1250 sec shutter speed for me at f5.6. Nearly every water drop in this shot pops. I would have blown it at a slower shutter speed – which I did plenty of in the early days of the trip.
If you look at the larger version, you will also see a lot of little red dots. On first examination, I thought these were blood – but each one is nearly a perfect sphere. I am now tending to believe these are actually salmon eggs bursting from the fish’s belly – which were a highly sought after delicacy for the bears.
As much of a nuisance the gulls were in getting into nearly every shot where you didn’t want them – this is one where I thought it added to the story, revealing a bit more about this environment.
See more bear photos in my gallery.
Tags: bear pictures, brown bear photos, coastal brown bears, fishing, grizzly bear, Katmai National Park, salmon, wildlife
http://t.co/1xjuh7fT - posted on 22 hours ago
Wonderful detail. Let’s hear it for higher ISO and adequate shutter speeds. I’m glad you clarified the red dots. I find the appearance of the gull rather poetic. It definitely adds to the story in my mind. The timing is perfect.
Great action shot Mark!
So dynamic! The faster shutter speed and accompanying adjustments in iso were well worth it. Awesome wildlife image.
Hey Mark,
I hear you on the higher ISO .. the D300s worked well for me, but I’d really have liked the D700 or D3 on my trip.
I love the gull in this frame – though typically they just get in the way .. there’s no love for gulls amongst bear photographers, eh?
The salmon eggs make the story. I’m sure a larger version really works well.
The touch of green at the top really makes a difference.
Great stuff.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Carl – I don’t even want to think about the number of shots ruined by a gull flying in front of the bear’s face shot I have. (err… used to have.)
Nice, Mark! I like the gull, too – as Anita said, I think it adds to the story.
How’s the noise to clean up at ISO 1250 on the D700?
I’m not positive, but there might be a dust spot in the upper-left quadrant, or maybe it just looks like it at this resolution. I’ve spent so much time cleaning dust spots from my images, I might be seeing them where none exist…
- Jack
I didn’t do any cleanup of noise on this shot Jack – but apparently I needed to pay better attention to dust specs. That will be gone soon.
Great shot! Like Jack, I’m wondering about the noise at that high of ISO.
WOW! What an amazing shot here. Absolutely masterfully done. I shoot with a D700 as well and the low noise performance at high ISO settings is absolutely amazing.
Mark, another wonderful shot–you captured the feeling of energy and action with this photo. In this case I’d also vote the gull is a plus–those gulls are fearless pest aren’t they.
From my experience with the D700 I’d say there was relatively no noise at ISO 1250 but I wouldn’t have thought about that high of shutter speed to stop this action. I’ll file that bit of information away in case I get up there sometime.
Thanks folks, I am glad you enjoyed this one.
@ Earl – Initially I wasn’t thinking I needed to be that high either – but in the water like this – seems like 1/1000 is near the minimum you want to be around. I have plenty of shots that I thought would be ok at 1/250 or 1/500 and they weren’t. They just don’t have the pop.
@ Roberta; re: noise – see my reply to Jack above – noise performance is quite good on the D700, as I imagine it is on other full frame cameras. But I expect it would also be good on the newer crop cameras as well. Much of the to do about noise always seems to be as it appears on screen, but doesn’t have nearly the objection when printed.
Hi, Mark -
That’s pretty impressive noise performance (which is what I’ve heard about the newer Nikons) – I don’t think I could do that with shots above ISO 800 or so on my 5D Mk ii – and even then I think I’d need good light to avoid noise. I love my 5D-2, but it isn’t a noise-free camera by any stretch…
As for dust specks – I’ve spent more time cleaning the 5D-2′s sensor than all my other cameras combined, and I still find spots all the time… I think the 5D-2 spontaneously generates sensor dust… Or maybe it’s some sort of observer effect, and the act of looking for dust spots in my images causes them to appear… :^D
- Jack
That dust spot snuck past me – but now gone!
I was actually shooting the D700 at ISO 2500 on some dreary days, and think I could go higher, but was being conservative. I quickly came to the conclusion that a bit of noise and reduction of dynamic range is an acceptable tradeoff for sharpness. The first two can be fixed, but little you can do with the latter if it isn’t there.
Because I pretty much started photography taking pictures of horses in action, I learned early on that 1/1000 is the bottom line. Anything slower than that is asking for trouble. It certainly limits the choices with ISO and aperture, but there’s no getting around it.
Hey, Mark -
Hey, presto – the spot is gone! :^D
I agree about the noise. The 5D2 can have some pretty ridiculous chroma noise at times, but the luma noise is often grain-like, which can work well for many images.
- Jack
You said it right mark,that’s what a hight shutter is speed is about.Each and every drop is visible in this photograph.
Just amazing work Mark, not much I can add !!