Low-tide finds

These great pictures were taken by Peter Haley at The News Tribune. They are on the top of the photographer's blog if you want a better look. Here is his story on how he got the shot (which was at a Pierce County beach, not one up here, but you can find the same sort of critters).

Linda Perez, visiting from California, pauses during some clam digging at Kopachuck State Park.

When shooting low tide photos last week my thinking was that I want to get close to some interesting critter, but still show the whole place and some people. The usual technique is to use a very wide lens with a small aperture for great depth of field (great depth of field means that the foreground stuff is in focus, and so is the background stuff).

I also noticed the nice reflections in areas where the beach is fully wet, and that these reflections are maximized when the camera is very low, whether shooting with a wide lens or not.

The Nikon D2H that I use is a big SLR-- a big single lens reflex camera. Big enough that one can't get the lens really close to the ground. I can get the lens closest to the ground when holding the camera upside down and use what is ordinarily the vertical shutter release-- something that the pro cameras have.

So that's what I did. Using a 14mm (the widest lens that is commonly available) and holding the camera upside down, I shot hail-mary style with the camera close to an old crab. I had hoped the crab would hold up his claws in a defensive position, but he wasn't moving much, so I only had to watch the woman and try to catch a good moment of her activity.

Me again:
I have found geoducks at Des Moines beach, and also some very angry crabs (don't want to get pinched by the red rock crabs, it hurts). It's also fun to watch them slowly disappear in the mud, trying to wait until the next tide covers them up.