Hold That Crab!

It’s incredible fun getting down in the sand, eye level with the many birds that cruise the surf looking for a meal. The panic attack we see chasing the waves to and fro are the Sanderlings. These puff balls of energy are on the beach most of the time fueling up on migration. They feed on these tiny little crustaceans and slimy things and they need thousands to put on weight. That’s what keeps them a panic attack, finding their food items in the receding surf. The beds of sand where there is the most prey will have the most birds, so that’s where I hit the sand.

I literally lay right in the sand and with my rig. The Z 9 / Z600f4 TC rests securely in a Panning Plate which I have inside a Frisbee. The panning plate as its name suggests provides limited panning with the lens though it’s “resting” on the ground so I can photograph moving subjects like, the Sanderlings. The key to making sharp images is to first realize you have very limited panning maneuverability when you’re on the sand. This requires you to pick your foreground and background and “hope” your subject uses it. In this case I wanted the small section of reflection in the foreground so that’s where I positioned myself. Then, as the Sanderlings zipped by, the Z 9 zipped to bring home the photograph. I knew they would come there because of the food, they needed the food. So when I saw the crabs pop up, I would say to myself, hold that crab!