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Remote Imaginings              10/07

An assemblage of eight Wood Ducks — preening, stretching and snoozing — and perched on a log in good light would make a great photo. I "saw" just that in the Seattle Arboretum, a few days ago, while kayaking. I might have tried for the shot with a big lens from a kayak, but I was sure the birds would move off the log before I got close, so I didn't try. A floating blind would work, but I didn't relish the idea of pushing through the two feet of muck that lies beneath the one foot of water, getting hypothermic by the minute while three-fourths immersed in goo. I went for a remote control option instead, after observing that the Wood Ducks didn't occupy the log early, but were generally on it by 9am. So with a rare bright October morning in the offing, I showed up at the pond at 8am. Sunlight streaked through yellowing willows and maples, and a light mist rose from the pond. Not a Wood Duck was in sight.

I hopped in my kayak at a nearby launch, and paddled over to the log. After lining up the background, I sunk a tripod into the muck. On my Canon 5D was a 90mm f/2.8 lens. The other kit for the job is a Canon LC-4 (now LC-5) Wireless Controller. The LC-4 receiver mounts on the hot shoe (or a bracket), with its connecting plug clicked into the camera's (N3) remote socket (note that this works on the EOS 10D and above, not on the Rebel series). I prefocused the lens on the log, set the camera to aperture priority, stopped down to f/5.6, and then, very important, slid a light blocker that's built into the Canon neck strap over the eyepiece. Without the block, light enters the viewfinder, messing up the exposure. I paddled away from the set-up. A ziplock bag in a PDF pocket held the LC-4 transmitter. I birded other regions of the pond by kayak for maybe 40 minutes, then returned to within view of the log. Two Wood Ducks were on it, and two more arrived as I pulled out the transmitter. At 75 yards, the Wood Ducks weren't concerned with me, and they went about

their morning preening, relaxed in the sun. My first shutter release caused heads to turn, but after that they ignored the shutter. I shot a dozen exposures in three or four minutes. Then two of the ducks moved off to forage, so, with diminishing returns, I backed away as well, and again paddled other parts of the pond to see if anything else was developing.

When I returned the log was occupied by Coots and Mallards. I decided to get a kayaker in the scene, so I paddled over and rotated the receiver, and then used myself as an out-of-focus model that I’ll combine with the Wood Ducks in Photoshop, especially easy to do because the images are in the same "frame" or register. One thing about my business: I sell a lot of kayaking images, and not much pure wildlife. I had imagined eight Wood Ducks, but adding the kayaker gives me a marketable shot.

Gary

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