Captured by Moose Peterson

Author:Moose Peterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780132118460
Publisher: New Riders

Horned puffin. Photo captured by Nikon F5 & AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with TC-14E on Agfa RSX 100.

Where’s one place I want to revisit and shoot so bad it hurts? The tundra marshes of Churchill, Canada.

Gotta shoot; gotta shoot; gotta make an image! The frustration of not having even an ounce of nice light has me bouncing around like a mad man in a very dangerous spot. The birds aren’t holding still; the shutter speed is so slow; the light is so blue and gray—yuck! There are hundreds upon hundreds of birds in sight, but only a couple can be photographed. Only a few are within reach of my flash. I’m with my good friend Artie Morris, and despite just getting zapped with 510v from his flash (Canon units don’t like rain), he’s trying to get in position to shoot down the cliff face as I am, looking for targets close enough to work.

You might think that 1/30 of a second is fast enough for perched bird photography, and in normal conditions I would agree, but these conditions are anything but normal. The heavy fog has the color temp well above the 5500K of the Agfa film. Photographing a black-and-white bird with an orange bill in this light will return an image of gray sludge.

The Nikon SB-26 Speedlight, with the SD-8 battery pack connected to it, is dripping wet and, after what just happened to Artie, I’m very nervous every time I touch it. But I have to hold it to wipe off the moisture on the Fresnel to shoot. Without wiping the Fresnel, the light is cut down two stops, rendering it useless in these conditions. With every click of the shutter, I look at the ready light in the viewfinder, hoping it will just go on and off.

The SB-26 might be plugged into a Quantum battery, but it’s working really hard to get light to the subject. With each confirmation there is enough light hitting the subject, I fire, but I have doubts in my head. Finally, I get a horned puffin within distance with no obvious fog between it and the lens. I wait, making each blast of flash count, because each could be the last from either moisture killing the unit or the batteries going dead. Finally I see the gesture in the viewfinder, I hit the shutter and the ready light says all is good.

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