As we moved into the second half of our Pelicans of Greece Photography Holiday the lake had really started to thaw with larger areas opening up. With an increasing area to fish in the birds started to move around, the sheer number of cormorant fishing in the open areas was astonishing & another reflection on how productive the lake is. Here rafts of them can be seen snorkelling whilst pelicans wait on the peripheries hoping to steal their catch. I shot this with a slower shutter & again high key to try & replicate the effects of a painting.
Our excellent local guide did everything he could to get us out on the water & eventually commandeered a Kerkini fishing boat, adapting brilliantly to the unusual weather we were presented with. This colder than usual weather had frozen his main boat solid in the harbour.
From the boat we photographed the birds feeding & again I took the opportunity to take some slower shutter speed photo to capture the mayhem as they compete for food.
Back on the shore we now had a wider expanse of water to work in & enjoyed laying right down on the water level to photograph the birds relaxing together on the water. When two males get near each other there are subtle changes to their posture with some feather splaying too. It is very interesting to watch them & their behaviour. These three photos were taken before sunrise giving the cool blue hue to the colours.
Whereas the birds would normally rest on islands or the shoreline they now had a third choice; the edge of the thawing ice! Again this allowed the group to take photos that simply were not possible in previous years.
Even with the lake thawing the birds were still close enough for my favoured style of close portraits, a style I personally feel really suits these birds & their punky hairstyles.
I’ll finish this post with my favourite photo from the trip & it had to be a close up higher key portrait. Here three adult males lined up give the three smudged of colour on an otherwise bright white image.
The whole trip had been great; lots of cake, great food & great company then last but not least some fantastic subjects!
DO YOU WANT TO CAPTURE YOUR OWN IMAGES OF THE PELICANS OF GREECE?
The initial pair of trips for January 2018 are now sold out – if there is sufficient demand, we have an option now on a third set of dates, if you would be interested in photographing the Dalmatian Pelicans for yourself, please send us an email using our contact form & we can judge whether there is demand for a third trip.
