Mario Cea is
a well-known Spanish wildlife photographer who specializes in bird photography.
He's able to capture feathered creatures in unexpected, beautiful situations by
using slow camera speeds and artificial light. Cea's breathtaking photo of a
kingfisher plunging into a pond which won the People's Choice Award at the 2016 Wildlife Photographer of the
Year competition and was recently shortlisted for the Bird Photographer of the Year
Awards, is a regular winner in international photography contests.
Cea is a
master in tactics that allow him to make this magic happen in the field, with
over 25 years of experience as a wildlife photographer. The professional
wildlife photographer was able to realize his artistic vision via hard work and
patience. The blue trail, in reality, is the culmination of 6 months of work and
2,000 pictures to get this flawless outcome.
So, how
did Cea achieve the streaking effect as the kingfisher descended into the
water? “NO PHOTOSHOP WAS USED IN THE MAKING OF THIS IMAGE. It was created
entirely with photographic techniques,” Cea explains. "A slow shutter
speed of 1/15s was used in conjunction with continuous light to capture the
wake left by the bird in its passage, and a flash was used to freeze the
flight. The continuous light of a lantern is turned on when the exposure
begins, and the flashes are fired at the second curtain soon as the exposure
concludes. 'Why doesn't the wake appear in the reflection?' some people wonder.
The solution is straightforward...the wake is only visible when the background
is sufficiently dark.”
There you
have it, no special post-production methods required, just a thorough
understanding of the equipment and a lot of hard effort to achieve the perfect
shot. It's all worth it for Cea to convey his innovative point of view and
entice the viewer. He believes that people will get greater regard and respect
for wildlife as a result of his photography, as well as a better understanding
of the labor and effort that photographers put in to obtain amazing photographs
of birds in nature.
If you
want to master Cea's creative techniques, he teaches workshops all across Spain and
maintains a blog where he shares his equipment and approach.
Here are
some more instances of how wildlife photographer Mario Cea captures the
magnificence of birds using a high-speed photography technique.
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