Post by Clemn A. Macasiano Jr. on Jun 23, 2012 4:23:35 GMT
I was in Bohol last May for the frogmouth and the rest of the nesting species at that time. After two weeks from my first trip I went back for the nesting Silvery Kingfisher that we saw crossing our path from the river bank towards the forest. We always wonder, where does this little fellow go in the dark forest towards the hill. We always encounter the bird on our way back after birding, we suspected that it's nesting in the foliage below the hill. It's a bit dark and thick forested area facing towards the river bank. Majority of the report I heard is that, Silvery Kingfisher nest on the river bank area. But on this particular fellow, it goes inside the forest frequently. So, I requested the guide to verify and observe the status of the said bird. After two weeks I received a SMS from the guide that they discovered that it was nesting inside the thick forested hill with 3 chick. Mmmmh it's peculiar in nature and it intrigues me ...
So, I traveled from Bacolod City to Bohol to investigate. I've been longing to capture a dynamic image of birds. Maybe getting bored of Bird on a stick as they say .... So, I pre-visualized an image of a Kingfisher flying with food on it's beak towards the nesting whole.
On the first day upon my arrival, we went directly to the site to investigate and plan the shooting scenario of the site. I never thought of crossing the thick forest with no trail on this particular sortie. The guide made a diversion trail in order not to disturb the site. The trail was about 45 degrees going up and 50-60- feet above the river bank. I can't believe how the guide can manage to find the 2 inches whole in the middle of the forest . My goodness , the guy was just amazing ...
Upon reaching the site I have to establish my balance on a decline footing and study the site through observing the pattern of the bird in delivering the food to their chicks by interviewing the guide when and where they usually perch. During our inspection of the site we saw a green snake about a 1.5 meters long resting on the branch, strategically positioned ready for ambush in the usual perch of the parent SKF. We decided to interfere with nature by disturbing the snake for the welfare of the parent SKF and their chicks. Thank God we saw it, I'm pretty sure the snakes's intentions was to savour both the adult and the chicks SKF.
We eventually set up the hide and leave it there for 3 hours and came back to the site after lunch. Sad to say upon our way back I can see the dark clouds moving towards the site. By the look of it , the situation was not on our side, so I aborted the sortie and leave the set up with nature.
Back view from the site. It's the trail where we came from. My tripod bag laying on the ground
Our set-up and the only solid ground footing is the tree on my knee and my behind that stops me from rolling towards the cliff about 60 feet down.
On the second day we continued our sortie. Oh , I forgot to mention on day one we've crossed a river and it's the same one on the second day except the water was waist high compared to day one , which was below the knee level. The water was high with a gushing current due to the rain from the previous day and up to present, with light shower. I was a bit worried of the flush flood coming from the mountain. The guide tested the current for safety and it seems tolerable to their standard and to mine.
So, I sent my gears first across through the guide and then I followed after him. In spite of the high waist water level and current, I did manage to cross the river with the assistance of my mono pod which comes handy on this situation. Thank God I didn't hitch a ride at the back on the guide like an Emperor on mossy oak / real tree royal attire.
I was soaking wet but we still proceeded to the site and set up all the gears for my pre-visualized image of SKF in flight towards it's nesting hole. The pre-visualized image keeps me going in spite of the obstacles ahead of me.
At the site it's humid with lots of insects . I didn't realize I had lots of bites in my ankles and knees as I was so focused and my undivided concentration on how my set -up will work on this particular situation.
Here's a photo of my blueish , soaking wet , cold feet and insect bites:
To be continued ....
Setting up the gears was a kind of tough due to the terrain and the wet ground. It's impossible to set up a tripod because of the location of the nests in the cliff. I mounted the 1D mkIV with 24-70 2.8L lens on a mono pod and use a cord to tie the monopod on a small tree. In addition I used a wired ETTL cord mounted on the hot shoe with a 580EXII on the other end. Tied it in the vine, positioned the flash to lit the flight path and the nest area. It's kind of tough coz all the pillars I used for the set up is either small or just a vine. It's difficult to let the gear set in one position. I pre-focused the lens in the flight path and set to manual focus. Used a Phottix wireless remote trigger. My target was to shoot 10 fps from take off to the nesting hole. We did some test shot and soon after we ball park our exposure and focusing we then left the area to clear the site. I must say " enough acrobatic cliff hanger stunt it's 60 feet down, brother " It's not worth it ha ha ha.
We settled down behind the hide , had some liquids and make ourselves comfortable at the edge of the cliff. It was an uncomfortable position, humid and insect bites was a bonus.
The SKF with food in it's beak arrived after an hour but perched a bit far from our site behind the thick shrub in front of us. A pair arrived in alternate manner but were very skittish in approaching the site because of our presence. We sat quietly and observed each others movement. Then finally after another hour it perched nearer to our site and I slowly took a static shot of the the bird with a caterpillar on it's beak. The other bird come after the other one with a small fish ready to feed their chicks.
What a wonderful site. . ..
It's a test between me and the bird " waiting game ". The remote camera ( 2nd Camera ) is ready for it's fly-by subject, waiting for the SKF to dive from it's perch to the nest whole. Ka " Boom " 10fps won't miss anything !
On the first fly-by my gears and set up failed me .... I just realized even though I set my camera at 10fps it will be dependent on the max burst of the remote shutter. Wireless shutter max burst is only 4 fps. When I checked the results I only captured the end of the frame where in the SKF had already landed at the edge of the hole. I missed the opportunity of my pre-visualized image of the SKF.
Here is the last frame from the multi burst shot of the SKF fly-by:
I tried capturing the fly-by from the nest out to the woods.... But I failed . The SKF is a fast flyer and flies like a dart. If I had my pocket wizard wireless trigger with me at that moment I could have not missed the shot as my camera will burst at 10 fps...... No way the SKF can escape from my set up neither not freeze in the frame.
to be continue ....
Sorry for the delay as I was out of the country for a week and the material for the thread was not with. Yes , I failed to capture my pre-visualize dynamic image of the SKF on this sortie, but I will pursue my vision in capturing this particular dynamic shot on my third attempt the soonest.
I waited for an hour for the next opportunity but nature took it way. We can hear the rumbling and saw the clouds getting dark and we're loosing the light. So, I decided to pack our set up and we did manage finish and reach the bottom of the hill when the rain poured on us. In the next 20 minutes of trail we have to face another obstacle, the river with gushing current. Good we made it across, before the gushing current turn to a flush flood.
If I'm lucky, hope to share my third attempt in the future.
As they say " Luck " is when opportunity meets preparation.
So, I traveled from Bacolod City to Bohol to investigate. I've been longing to capture a dynamic image of birds. Maybe getting bored of Bird on a stick as they say .... So, I pre-visualized an image of a Kingfisher flying with food on it's beak towards the nesting whole.
On the first day upon my arrival, we went directly to the site to investigate and plan the shooting scenario of the site. I never thought of crossing the thick forest with no trail on this particular sortie. The guide made a diversion trail in order not to disturb the site. The trail was about 45 degrees going up and 50-60- feet above the river bank. I can't believe how the guide can manage to find the 2 inches whole in the middle of the forest . My goodness , the guy was just amazing ...
Upon reaching the site I have to establish my balance on a decline footing and study the site through observing the pattern of the bird in delivering the food to their chicks by interviewing the guide when and where they usually perch. During our inspection of the site we saw a green snake about a 1.5 meters long resting on the branch, strategically positioned ready for ambush in the usual perch of the parent SKF. We decided to interfere with nature by disturbing the snake for the welfare of the parent SKF and their chicks. Thank God we saw it, I'm pretty sure the snakes's intentions was to savour both the adult and the chicks SKF.
We eventually set up the hide and leave it there for 3 hours and came back to the site after lunch. Sad to say upon our way back I can see the dark clouds moving towards the site. By the look of it , the situation was not on our side, so I aborted the sortie and leave the set up with nature.
Back view from the site. It's the trail where we came from. My tripod bag laying on the ground
The nest located on the right facing up front.
The green snake labeled with white line
The green snake labeled with white line
Our set-up and the only solid ground footing is the tree on my knee and my behind that stops me from rolling towards the cliff about 60 feet down.
This is looking down ...... a 60 feet drop if your not lucky.
Sorry for the quality of the photos. I was using Samsung Note to document the sortie.
[/color]This is the end of Day ONE of the sortie. I will continue the Day TWO in few hours. Sorry about that . . .
On the second day we continued our sortie. Oh , I forgot to mention on day one we've crossed a river and it's the same one on the second day except the water was waist high compared to day one , which was below the knee level. The water was high with a gushing current due to the rain from the previous day and up to present, with light shower. I was a bit worried of the flush flood coming from the mountain. The guide tested the current for safety and it seems tolerable to their standard and to mine.
So, I sent my gears first across through the guide and then I followed after him. In spite of the high waist water level and current, I did manage to cross the river with the assistance of my mono pod which comes handy on this situation. Thank God I didn't hitch a ride at the back on the guide like an Emperor on mossy oak / real tree royal attire. I was soaking wet but we still proceeded to the site and set up all the gears for my pre-visualized image of SKF in flight towards it's nesting hole. The pre-visualized image keeps me going in spite of the obstacles ahead of me.
At the site it's humid with lots of insects . I didn't realize I had lots of bites in my ankles and knees as I was so focused and my undivided concentration on how my set -up will work on this particular situation.
Here's a photo of my blueish , soaking wet , cold feet and insect bites:
Warning PG
To be continued ....
Setting up the gears was a kind of tough due to the terrain and the wet ground. It's impossible to set up a tripod because of the location of the nests in the cliff. I mounted the 1D mkIV with 24-70 2.8L lens on a mono pod and use a cord to tie the monopod on a small tree. In addition I used a wired ETTL cord mounted on the hot shoe with a 580EXII on the other end. Tied it in the vine, positioned the flash to lit the flight path and the nest area. It's kind of tough coz all the pillars I used for the set up is either small or just a vine. It's difficult to let the gear set in one position. I pre-focused the lens in the flight path and set to manual focus. Used a Phottix wireless remote trigger. My target was to shoot 10 fps from take off to the nesting hole. We did some test shot and soon after we ball park our exposure and focusing we then left the area to clear the site. I must say " enough acrobatic cliff hanger stunt it's 60 feet down, brother " It's not worth it ha ha ha.
We settled down behind the hide , had some liquids and make ourselves comfortable at the edge of the cliff. It was an uncomfortable position, humid and insect bites was a bonus.
The SKF with food in it's beak arrived after an hour but perched a bit far from our site behind the thick shrub in front of us. A pair arrived in alternate manner but were very skittish in approaching the site because of our presence. We sat quietly and observed each others movement. Then finally after another hour it perched nearer to our site and I slowly took a static shot of the the bird with a caterpillar on it's beak. The other bird come after the other one with a small fish ready to feed their chicks.
What a wonderful site. . ..
It's a test between me and the bird " waiting game ". The remote camera ( 2nd Camera ) is ready for it's fly-by subject, waiting for the SKF to dive from it's perch to the nest whole. Ka " Boom " 10fps won't miss anything !
On the first fly-by my gears and set up failed me .... I just realized even though I set my camera at 10fps it will be dependent on the max burst of the remote shutter. Wireless shutter max burst is only 4 fps. When I checked the results I only captured the end of the frame where in the SKF had already landed at the edge of the hole. I missed the opportunity of my pre-visualized image of the SKF.
Here is the last frame from the multi burst shot of the SKF fly-by:
I tried capturing the fly-by from the nest out to the woods.... But I failed . The SKF is a fast flyer and flies like a dart. If I had my pocket wizard wireless trigger with me at that moment I could have not missed the shot as my camera will burst at 10 fps...... No way the SKF can escape from my set up neither not freeze in the frame.
to be continue ....
Sorry for the delay as I was out of the country for a week and the material for the thread was not with. Yes , I failed to capture my pre-visualize dynamic image of the SKF on this sortie, but I will pursue my vision in capturing this particular dynamic shot on my third attempt the soonest.
I waited for an hour for the next opportunity but nature took it way. We can hear the rumbling and saw the clouds getting dark and we're loosing the light. So, I decided to pack our set up and we did manage finish and reach the bottom of the hill when the rain poured on us. In the next 20 minutes of trail we have to face another obstacle, the river with gushing current. Good we made it across, before the gushing current turn to a flush flood.
If I'm lucky, hope to share my third attempt in the future.
As they say " Luck " is when opportunity meets preparation.
