I took this shot while visiting Arundel’s Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in West Sussex, England. There are many beautiful birds there to photograph but one of my favourite images from the day was of this mallard, a very common duck in England. I love how this shot has captured the movement of the water as it passes over the wings with a shower of water droplets hanging in mid-air.
Photography Tip – Freezing movement
To freeze movement like this you’ll need a really fast shutter speed. This shot was taken with a 200 mm fixed lens, with the camera set on shutter priority and 1/1600 shutter speed. A short, fast shutter speed needs more light so a lens with a large aperture setting is perfect (the smaller the f stop the larger the aperture). Fixed lenses are ones that you can’t zoom in and out with and are less common these days, however, they tend to have larger aperture settings available and are sometimes referred to as fast lenses. Professional photographers love them for the high quality images they can produce. My favourite brand is Nikon
If your camera doesn’t give you this option try using the sport mode if you have one.
Photography Tip – Get Low
As well as needing a very fast shutter speed to freeze the movement, rather than looking down on the duck you’ll get a better shot if you get to their eye level, right down, lying on the ground with you camera balanced on a bean bag.
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Nice, nice, very nice!
Thank you Russel, much appreciated.
That’s a fantastic shot, and you can’t go wrong with a nice duck.
Indeed! 🙂
Great shot, Kat!
Thanks!
Lovely 🙂
Thank you!
Gorgeous photo, love the movement of the water in this picture. @ailsapm on Twitter – If you click my name it’ll take you to my travel blog, but if you’re a nature fan like me, you might enjoy my nature blog too http://ailsapm.wordpress.com Nice to find you on WordPress as well as Twitter. 🙂
Thanks. Just checked out both your blogs. I never get enough time to keep up to date with all the blogs I follow but I’ll pop by when I can.:-)
Me too, there’s so much great stuff out there. Thanks for following. xx
Brilliant! Love the movement of water and how crystal clear it looks!
Thanks Madhu. It’s fascinating to see the pictures capture the movement that just looks a blur while you are actually watching the ducks. I don’t usually take wildlife shots so it was a great change of subject.