Lensman’s stunning take-off photo snaps up contest win
Peter has had a lifelong affinity for photography since he first receiving his first ‘real’ camera at the age of 14.
THE winning photograph for March in the Sapphire Coast Tourism (SCT) photo competition is Peter McIntyre, who captured a truly stunning moment in time which showcased a pink-backed pelican take-off at Amanzimtoti Bird Park.
Peter said his image was captured during the group outing held at the bird park on Saturday, 31 March.
“Most people felt the outing was a bit of a washout due to the weather and that’s how it was for most of the outing, despite the efforts of the organising team to find interesting birds for us,” explained Peter.
READ HERE: Dour weather dampens Amanzimtoti Bird Park outing
“Just before I left, I saw an opportunity to get a decent shot. The pink-backed pelican which had been perched in a tree opposite the picnic site throughout our visit decided to fly onto the dam. I missed his landing because I was looking the other way. He swam around for a while and then decided to take off from a dark corner.”
Peter’s excitement mounted.
“This time I was ready for him. He made a messy take-off using his feet to partially run on the water to get airborne and that allowed me to fire off around 30 shots before he flew off. The winning shot came from this sequence.”
The avid lensman said the poor weather conditions saw him shoot with his Nikon D850 at a high ISO in order to get a sufficiently fast shutter speed to freeze the action.
He used a Nikon 300mm lens, with the exposure at 1/1600s @ f5.6 and ISO 5000.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the results and certainly did not expect to get such shots in these conditions.”
Peter has had a lifelong affinity for photography since he first receiving his first ‘real’ camera at the age of 14.
His 35mm Baldessa 1 camera was fully manual, ‘‘which forced me to learn at a very early age the importance of the relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO.’’
The SCT judges adjudicated the photo as being perfectly in tune with the contest’s March theme of ‘wet and wild’.
The SCT team thanked everyone who entered the competition in March, and expressed their appreciation for the many lovely photos submitted. date.
There’s only one more month in which local and visiting lensmen and women can snap away while standing the chance to win R1,000. The competition theme for April is ‘splash of colour within the Sapphire Coast’.
RULES: Post your entries on the SCT photo competition page at www.facebook.com/groups/269113490113061/ and be sure to e-mail the high resolution image to bsm1@mweb.co.za and/or sctphotocomp@gmail.com to enter.
The high resolution image should be a minimum of 1mb in size.
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