Figure 1 – Common tern hovering, Wood Neck Beach, Falmouth, MA, July 9, 2016. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Last weekend I was marveling at the common terns – Sterna hirundo – at Wood Neck Beach in Falmouth, Massachusetts. These birds are agile fliers and have this incredible ability to hover above the surf and then in an instant to dive down for some morsel (preferably a small fish). I took the image of Figure 1 of such a hovering maneuver.

Here there is the standard flying bird on a cloudy day problem. You are shooting a white bird against a grey sky. there is precious little dynamic range, causing graininess. The photograph is further complicated by the fact that one is shooting with a telephoto through a highly scattering atmosphere. Here the solution is to use the fuzziness to advantage. Don’t call it “fuzzy.” Call the quality of the image “diaphanous” – light, delicate, and translucent. That’s the ticket and the objective all along!

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 168 mm, ISO 160, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/4000th sec at f/11.0 with no exposure compensation.