Marine Lake, West Kirby - 16.12.18
As a former Scuba Diver you always...PLAN THE DIVE - DIVE THE PLAN, and that's something what I was expecting would happen today, that the Sunday sailing club would occupy the centre of the lake moving the diver closer in and at one end of the lake.
I'm optimistic about getting some better images of the diver, the wind has dropped and the sun's doing its best endeavours to make an appearance. Grabbing the bins a quick scan I can see a group of about ten Brent Geese usually out on the estuary at one end of the lake, just in front of me cruising up and down is a male Red-breasted Merganser with it's punk straggly feathered head diving for fish so close in fact that I decide to grab the camera and get some images before getting down to the serious business.
The light, oh the light is so flat and grey making the water almost mirror like lacking any colour, I shoot a couple of test shots eventually settling for one and a third stops of over exposure, I change the white balance from auto to cloudy and even push my luck in lowering the shutter speed to improve iso-image quality, any other adjustments will have to be down to the magic of Lightroom.
As on my two previous visits the diver keeps to the centre of the lake but that doesn't last long as around 10.0am Sunday sailors start appearing at the south end of the lake, sails are flapping in the wind, shouts of excitement and a RIB charges up and down the lake. An air horn can be heard blasting out the start of a race which untimely is all too much for the diver and it moves off out the way of the circulating flotilla relocating to the Hilbre end. I like it when a plan come together.
Over the next couple of hours its cat and mouse anticipating where the divers is likely to appear eventually deciding the best course of action is just to sit on one of the pontoons and wait for the diver to come to you.
You never know where the diver will appear next, diving in the distance only to appear meters away just out of eye shot, swing the camera round just as the diver disappears again. To add to my woes the diver appears close by just as I'm changing the media card, then on another occasion when I'm changing the battery...hey ho !
Its been a good morning with some close encounters and images...but oh the light !
As a foot note. It's now the 20.12.18 and the last date the diver was reported was the 16.12.18 so possible its now departed.
Great Northern Diver
I'm optimistic about getting some better images of the diver, the wind has dropped and the sun's doing its best endeavours to make an appearance. Grabbing the bins a quick scan I can see a group of about ten Brent Geese usually out on the estuary at one end of the lake, just in front of me cruising up and down is a male Red-breasted Merganser with it's punk straggly feathered head diving for fish so close in fact that I decide to grab the camera and get some images before getting down to the serious business.
The light, oh the light is so flat and grey making the water almost mirror like lacking any colour, I shoot a couple of test shots eventually settling for one and a third stops of over exposure, I change the white balance from auto to cloudy and even push my luck in lowering the shutter speed to improve iso-image quality, any other adjustments will have to be down to the magic of Lightroom.
As on my two previous visits the diver keeps to the centre of the lake but that doesn't last long as around 10.0am Sunday sailors start appearing at the south end of the lake, sails are flapping in the wind, shouts of excitement and a RIB charges up and down the lake. An air horn can be heard blasting out the start of a race which untimely is all too much for the diver and it moves off out the way of the circulating flotilla relocating to the Hilbre end. I like it when a plan come together.
Over the next couple of hours its cat and mouse anticipating where the divers is likely to appear eventually deciding the best course of action is just to sit on one of the pontoons and wait for the diver to come to you.
You never know where the diver will appear next, diving in the distance only to appear meters away just out of eye shot, swing the camera round just as the diver disappears again. To add to my woes the diver appears close by just as I'm changing the media card, then on another occasion when I'm changing the battery...hey ho !
Its been a good morning with some close encounters and images...but oh the light !
As a foot note. It's now the 20.12.18 and the last date the diver was reported was the 16.12.18 so possible its now departed.
Great Northern Diver
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