Pintail Silhouette

Pintail Silhouettes
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A flock of Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) takes flight into backlit ground fog. Dawn. Bosque del Apache NWR, New Mexico.

Sometimes, nature photography is just about being in the right place at the right time. As I’ve posted before, I had the great pleasure of shooting in backlit ground fog (“fire in the mist”) conditions at Bosque del Apache for four days this winter. I made more great images in a few morning hours at Bosque than I’ve made in the prior year.

This flock of Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) kept lifting off into the mist (probably scared by the resident bald eagle) wheeling around, landing, and then doing it again.  Spectacular.  To capture this image I carefully checked the exposure, composed for a strong line at the bottom of the frame to ground the image, and tried to give the birds a bit of space to fly into.1

Check out the ducks in the water at right — I love the rows of roosting ducks receding into the mist. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

  1. I may also have been saying “wow” and “ooh” somewhat loudly. That is not strictly required for image making.

Trees in Morning Fog

Trees in Morning Fog (Image# 091224_1000651)
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Trees in Morning Fog (Image# 091224_1000651)

I got up very early on Christmas Eve to shoot at my favorite spot.  It was so cold that I couldn’t find many animals to photograph, but the sun playing through the mist from Clear Creek more than made up for the lack of animate subjects.   The first image is a straight-from-the camera image.  The second is a monochrome image that I toned using a custom tone curve.

Trees in Fog (Image# 091224_1000653)
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Trees in Fog (Image# 091224_1000653)

I tent to prefer the first image, mostly because I think the composition is stronger, though (obviously) I liked the second enough to post it.  Please post a comment and let me know which you prefer.