Leatherback Turtle, Grande Riviére, TrinidadDitch dug, eggs laid, eggs buried. It’s all in a night’s work for a leatherback turtle. This mother completed the job but got a late start and was just returning to sea as the sun came up. This is one of my favorite shots from my weekend in Trinidad. I used a tripod and slow shutter speed to blur the waves while freezing the movement of the turtle. They are exhausted after a long night and it takes considerable effort to get their 1,000 pound bodies back into the water. They take it slowly and rest every few “steps” before the water eventually lifts them from the sand and carries them out to sea. I was able to capture the blur of the wave while the turtle held still for the 1/3 second exposure. I also used a fisheye lens on this one and was able to avoid all the usual perspective shifts that are characteristic of fisheyes. This is accomplished by positioning the camera almost dead even with the subject and horizon. Too low and the horizon will be extremely concave, too high and it will be convex (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just not what I wanted for this shot). This is a full crop and as you can see the horizon is only slightly convex.
Nikon D800 with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens, ISO 50, f/22 at 1/3 of a second