Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) - The Fishing Bridge, The Yellowstone River & East Entrance Road (a.k.a. US 14), Yellowstone National Park, Mammoth, Wyoming (44.566967, -110.382739)

Tags:   KH0831 Wyoming Bird Duck Bucephala albeola Bucephala albeola Anseriformes Anatidae 2023YellowstoneTrip YellowstoneNP Day#12 IMG_5388 Nature

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Bufflehead Duck - Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Smyrna, Delaware
View On Black
This guy was swimming in place against the current as the tide washed in bait fish, and repeatedly dove in the same place relative to where I was sitting on the loop road, so I took the opportunity to record the his diving technique.
Amazingly, 7 frames per second was not nearly enough to capture all the positions of a dive so I used 4 or five different bursts to capture the various aspects of the dive mechanics.

Tags:   KH0831 BombayHook bird aquatic bird Bucephala albeola Bucephala albeola Duck Delaware DE Nature

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Bufflehead - Assateague Island, Assateague State Park, Berlin, Maryland

A couple dozen Bufflehead where feeding on the island side of the bridge, and I was just beginning to make some halfway decent captures as they came closer and closer to my car, when a concerned ranger asked me to leave for my own safety. There had only been 3 or 4 cars that had passed in the hour I was there, but I figured he knew best and did as I was told. And then there was that pesky "No Stopping or Standing" sign, but I figure that only applies in the summer when there's actual traffic. :{)
I considered parking the car at the visitor center parking lot, and walking the half mile back to the bridge, but figured these guys and their Bufflehead buddies wouldn't come anywhere near me if I were sitting exposed on the bank. :{(

Exposure and processing tips:
I got my light reading off the white head to get a proper exposure, but even so I had to do multiple raw processing’s (one for the white and a second for the blacks) to compress the full range (captured by the sensor) down to the more limited capability of computer screens.
Papers have a wider dynamic range than monitors,
so a second processing with less compression would be required to make a quality print.

Note: In cases where the Bufflehead is too far away to get a spot reading off its white head,
1 to 2 stops under is the way to go to get detail in the whites,
but even then it’s a good idea to autobracket these guys to cover all possibilities.
And in extreme cases I sometimes steal from the outside edges of a bracket
to get missing detail when the dynamic range of the subject exceeds the capability of the sensor.

Ansell Adams used to deal with dynamic range problems in his B&W images by adjusting his exposure and negative processing to compress (or expand) the dynamic range of his subject to match his medium (in his case, paper). But different strategies are required with digital gear,
and sadly his chemical approach was/is not possible with color film. :{(
Lucky for us, previsualization (i.e. knowing exactly what you're doing before you do it), is no longer required so long as you capture all the necessay information when you make your original capture(s).

Tags:   KH0831 Assateague bird aquatic bird Animal Portrait Bucephala albeola Bucephala albeola Duck Nature

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Bufflehead Duck - Round Valley Recreation Area, Lebanon, New Jersey

These guys are hard to get close to, and usually all I get is a shot of their butts as they swim away as fast as they can (which is pretty fast), so I was quite happy to get a shot of this guy's butt in a more relaxed pose. But even so this is still a 50 yard shot, and I had to stay in a blind (e.g. my car) to get it.

Tags:   KH0831 RoundValley bird 2011 aquatic bird NJ Bucephala albeola Bucephala albeola Duck New Jersey New Jersey Nature

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I sat down on the trail and these guys came just enough closer to make a difference. - DeKorte Park, The Meadowlands, New Jersey
View On Black

Tags:   KH0831 Meadowlands bird aquatic bird NJ Bucephala albeola Bucephala albeola Duck New Jersey New Jersey Nature

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