These wonderful nocturnal birds are critically endangered in the state in which I live – Many things have lead to a decline in their numbers including predation and habitat loss.
Everywhere that is except for my home town – we generally have 5-6 pairs that are resident in our area – provides for lots of photo opportunities. Being nocturnal though means they do not tend to get up too much during the day. They tend to sulk around under tree’s seeking refuge from the attention of noisy miners and magpies that are only to happy to harass them mercilessly.
F8 1/125TH 1600 ISO -0.7EV
I like to get my images as close as possible in-camera as doing so means you do not need to spend hours in front of the computer processing, with this one all that was done was some selective sharpening to the bird and a little noise reduction.
A little knowledge about your subject will go a long way to helping you get good images – These guys are really skittish around people, very hard to get within 50-100 feet of them before they are off and running (they do fly but only when they really have to) or if threatened will lay on the ground and freeze, blending in with the environment and hopefully avoiding detection.
When Threatened
However they are not in the least concerned about cars – Can drive right up to them, within 10 feet and they could not care less. Of course with the 800mm lens this requires the use of a 36MM extension tube to enable focussing at this distance (Downside of course is the loss of a little light due to the extension tubes). The D3S produces great results at high ISO’S so this is a worthwhile trade off.
Shot on foot, about 60 feet away - clearly aware of my presence
They have been at this site for about 8 weeks now and hopefully might nest here – they tend to feed on insects on the croquet lawns especially during or after rain, which we have had a lot of lately. I visit them every couple of days to see what they are up to – they are very predictable in precisely the same spot every day, does make them easy to find.
Bath-time or Territorial display
