2016 BBC Wildlife Photographer Of The Year: 3 images in the birds final round

First off, congratulations to Tim Laman for his remarkable Orangutan image creation!! Quite stunning, with a very tough vantage point… I improved my performance at the yearly BBC Wildlife Photographer Of The Year in 2016 by having 3 images qualified for the final round instead of 2 in 2015 🙂 Not too shabby!! See below the images. Note that all three images were created the exact same overcast day at the Tampa Bay Spoonbill rookery during the March 2015 tour. The images are available as high end metal prints in the Fine Art Bird Collections.

“Hands Up” – Tampa Bay Spoonbill rookery, Florida
ISO 1000 | f/4 | 1/2500 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

The day was overcast and while some participants were disappointed not to have beautiful warm lighting, I had reminded them that overcast days can be quite magical when properly exposing to the right of the histogram. As it also was a very low tide morning, many Spoonbills were landing further away from the mangrove trees, giving a splendid opportunity for striking high key creations.

“Wings Up” – Tampa Bay Spoonbill rookery, Florida
ISO 1000 | f/4 | 1/2500 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

That day, I also spent quite some time trying to have multiple subjects in one frame and I was quite happy when the two birds above aligned themselves nicely in the 600mm lens narrow depth of field zone.

“Wings Up Style” – Tampa Bay Spoonbill rookery, Florida
ISO 1000 | f/4 | 1/2500 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

The black and white conversion of the latter image got noticed as well!!! 🙂

Florida Spoonbills photography tour – $1150

March 25th-26th 2017 / limit 6 people – FULL

3 boat rides to the Spoonbill rookery and 2 working lunch sessions with lunch included. The tour is now full but contact me at steven.blandin@gmail.com to be put on the waiting list in case of cancellation or for 2018.

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Steven