All Flamingo'd up

ISO 400 200mm at f5.6 1/1250sec

In a recent trip to the National Zoo I had a scene unfold perfectly before me to snag a great shot of a flamingo. Here I will give a quick walk through of how I achieved this image.

I went to the zoo mid day and as it is already December the sun starts setting early, moving "golden hour" up a little bit. This image was a combination of great luck with unblocked sunlight and fortunate positioning of the Flamingo in its enclosure.

I watched the flamingo enclosure for about twenty minutes before a bird finally moved into the position I wanted. Along the right side there was a section of bushes casting a fairly deep shadow but also with a mostly unobstructed pool of light in front of them. After a few test shots to make sure the contrast would turn out as I was hoping, I sat down quietly to wait for a flamingo to get in place.

The main thing with images like this really is patience. You can't make the birds move anywhere they aren't planning on moving, so, you may as well just get comfy and watch their antics while you wait for the shot you want to arrive.

The reason that this shot was able to work is because the sunlight was extremely bright and direct, allowing me to meter for the flamingo with a fast shutter speed even at a smaller aperture but still have the background be underexposed enough to create a natural version of a blacked out studio backdrop. Then, a little tweaking of white balance and color levels in Lightroom and you end up with a wonderfully contrasty photo of a very regal looking flamingo.

Here are a few of the other shots I grabbed while waiting for Mr. Right to sidle into place:

Testing out the light while I waited.

These guys spent a whole lot of time bickering. Highly entertaining to watch though.