Photo of the Week: 26 April – 2 May

Goosander by Ian Dickey

I loved Ian Dickey's photo of a female Goosander as soon as I saw it, as it breaks virtually all the usual rules of bird photography.

It is beautifully framed, with the flowing water that surrounds the bird emphasised by using a slow shutter speed of 1/50th second, f20 aperture and ISO 100. Shooting at a 'normal' exposure of around 1/1000th second would have frozen the rushing water, meaning a lack of any sort of motion in the image. The low angle has helped with the shot; you're almost looking through the torrent in the foreground to see the bird.

The problem at this shutter speed would be keeping the Goosander just sharp enough among the waves. It's been achieved here, but I imagine there were a lot of blurred images on Ian's camera straight after the session!

The bird, habitat, photographer and his technique have all combined to provide a memorable image. Congratulations to Ian, who used a 600 mm lens to take this week's winning photo.