Shooting at 5 degrees Celsius Photo Gallery by romy ocon at pbase.com

Shooting at 5 degrees Celsius

Curious on how cold it gets at 7200 feet this time of the year, I made a quick visit to Bauko (Mountain Province) just after Christmas day. As I was shooting the highland half-moon just before midnight of December 27, the mercury fell to 5 degrees Celsius. Seeing conditions at 7200 feet was unusually good that night, without any trace of clouds in the pollution-free sky, nor a hint of fog in the air. I stacked 2.8x worth of TCs on the 500 f4 L IS to squeeze out the maximum amount of detail I can get under these ideal mooning conditions.

I reckon it went down to about 3 degrees Celsius at dawn. The locals tell me that it regularly goes below freezing point at dawn in January, and I certainly have no doubt it does. I'll do another sortie here in a few weeks to experience first hand how to bird with frozen dew cracking under each step in the morning...:)

Shooting in cold weather has its own set of problems - battery life is drastically shortened, all metal surfaces are a pain to touch, and I had trouble getting up early morning to bird. But all these are worth it, as I got more detailed photos of the Mountain Shrike (not yet aesthetically perfect though), plus documentary captures of a couple of photo lifers: Olive Tree-Pipit and Brown-Headed Thrush.

IMG_4391-1000x750.jpg Mountain Shrike (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Lanius validirostris Habitat - Uncommon in montane forest (clearings and edge) above 1000 m. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, hand held]	IMG_4437-800x600.jpg Olive Tree-Pipit Scientific name - Anthos hodgsoni Habitat - Uncommon in forest and edge, usually at high elevations. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, hand held]	IMG_4462-640x480.jpg Brown-headed Thrush (female) Scientific name - Turdus chrysolaus Habitat - Uncommon in all forest levels at all altitudes. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, hand held, shot through dirty vehicle windshield and light fog]	IMG_4449-800x600.jpg Scaly Ground-Thrush Scientific name - Zootera dauma Habitat - Uncommon on or near the ground in forest and clearings at all elevations. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, bean bag]	IMG_4375-800x600.jpg Mountain Shrike (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Lanius validirostris Habitat - Uncommon in montane forest (clearings and edge) above 1000 m. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, hand held]
IMG_4419-800x600.jpg Olive Tree-Pipit Scientific name - Anthos hodgsoni Habitat - Uncommon in forest and edge, usually at high elevations. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, hand held]	IMG_4473-800x600.jpg Grey Wagtail Scientific name - Motacilla cinerea Habitat - Streams and forest roads at all elevations. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, hand held ]	IMG_4250-50crop.jpg Moon at 7200 feet, Bauko (Mountain Province, Philippines) [50% view - 20D + 500 f4 L IS + stacked Canon 2x and 1.4x TCs, 1400 mm]

comment |

Vick Soulios		30-Dec-2006 03:44
I really like the detail in these photos. Good work. Vick

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