Crossed Cottonwoods - Gilbert Water Ranch
As promised with my introductory post, here’s an image that isn’t of a bird! But it was taken at the Water Ranch in Gilbert, AZ, where I do a lot of my bird photography so it was taken with my primary bird lens: a 300mm f/2.8 AF-S Nikkor on my Nikon D200 camera. I use this with the Nikon TC20E 2x converter for birds, and since I hike around for a couple of hours and a couple of miles at a time I seldom take any other lens with me.
I’ve looked at these trees on every visit, but almost always from the other side. On this particular morning I’d taken a different trail that put me on the other side of the this pond at the perfect time to catch a nice reflection of the cottonwoods. I could barely fit the tree trunks and their reflections in the frame with the 300.
Before my life was completely consumed by the search for birds I did a lot of black-and-white photography, and for my B&W I always looked for strong graphics. I still fall back on that style when I’m shooting today, but I seldom get a chance to incorporate it into my avian photos. I see no other choice but a formal composition here, so both trees are given equal weight in the image, just like the reflection and the trees are given equal weight.
Nikon D200, AF-S 300/2.8, tripod, ISO 100, 1/125th @ f/8, 12/11/07
