A trip to Glommen a beautiful spring morning

Glommen is small village in Halland that I usually just pass on the way to Morups Tånge, but this lovely spring morning would mean something else.

The alarm went off just after 4 am because I had been invited to follow Kenny and Frode to Glommen for bird photography. It was a little early, but you need to get out at this time if you want the best light and the best action.

Glommen wasn´t an exception as we had a lot to do in the early morning hours and as soon as the sun get up in the sky the action dropped. Our main target for the morning were sea birds and in particular the Common Eider.

The Common Eider is actually the largest duck that we have here in Europe and I think it is photogenic, in particular the male. It is also fast in flight so you need to be on your toes if you want good flight shots.

We place ourselves just by the water on the pier at Glommen. The reason to this is easy as this is the point furthest out into the water. This would hopefully translate into birds closer to us as they had to fly past this point to a degree, or go must further out at sea.

The idea worked well, but it had probably been better with slightly worse weather bringing the birds closer to the shore. I might go back to Glommen a day with worse weather just to see how the place works then.

I really liked Glommen and if I look at the pictures I must say that many turned out really good. The light was great in the morning as you can see from the first photos in the gallery. I also had time to work with the panning technique and as usual I used a slightly higher shutter speed.

Common Eiders panning shot at Glommen — Panning shot of Common Eiders 140329

If you know that the Common Eider can fly at speeds above 100 km/h then you probably understand that it will be hard to nail a good panning shot of this bird. The shutter speed in this photo is 1/320s and I used an aperture of F/8. I think I nailed the technique good as I have the nice blurry motion of the wings and the speeding motion of the water that panning brings to this type of picture. I am most happy with the result as I didn´t have any tripod with me, I just handheld the camera.

This panning picture is the best if you just look at technique, but the one I like the most is this one.

Common Eider at Glommen — Common Eider lift off 140329

It is the low angle, I am lying flat on a rocky beach when I take this one, and the shallow depth that makes this picture something extra in my eyes. I will make a print of this one 40x60cm, just to see how it turns out on the wall back home.

I hope you find more pictures in the gallery from Glommen that you like and please feel free to comment the pictures here.