{"id":50028,"date":"2017-12-22T05:51:56","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T12:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=50028"},"modified":"2025-10-08T14:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:48:56","slug":"photographing-a-bathing-american-coot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/22\/photographing-a-bathing-american-coot\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing a Bathing American Coot – TC On or TC Off?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult American Coot bathing in a pond – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many times when I am photographing birds or animals with a long lens and teleconverter that I have to make a split second decision on whether to leave to the TC on or take it off.<\/p>\n

The decision to take whole body photos or close ups comes up more often than one would think, especially when a subject moves in closer to where I am.<\/p>\n

Four days ago I was faced with making that kind of decision when an American Coot swam in close to where I sat at my local pond in a mobile blind and started bathing with much enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose up of an American Coot bathing – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I opted to leave my teleconverter on while photographing this bathing American Coot, at times I could fit the whole body of the coot in the viewfinder and at other times it was simply too close to fit it all in.<\/p>\n

The coots, ducks, geese, and grebes at the pond are used to people being near them in the urban environment of this pond so at times they will approach me and others more closely than birds in wilder environments who are less acclimated to humans in their habitat.<\/p>\n

\"BathingBathing adult American Coot – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The afternoon light, clear skies, brilliant blue water, and action of the coot were a delight to me after many days of cloudy skies combined with our nasty, valley inversion.<\/p>\n

I was happy to photograph the coot up close as it splashed water around it while it bathed.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Coot shaking while taking a bath – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know if I have ever seen an American Coot bathe as long as this one did, or maybe it seemed longer than it actually was.<\/p>\n

When I am photographing it isn’t uncommon for me to lose track of time because I am focused on getting images, paying attention to exposure, shutter speed, my camera settings, and the movement of my subject.<\/p>\n

There were a few times I was prepared to remove my teleconverter while I photographed this American Coot but then I knew I might miss some great action in the few seconds it takes me to turn the camera off, remove the TC from my lens, attach the lens to my camera and turn my camera back on.<\/p>\n

I know it happens, I have missed some great action while performing those actions in the past.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Coot splashing water while bathing – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m okay with my decision to leave my teleconverter on while I photographed this bathing American Coot<\/span><\/a> because I took a nice mixture of close ups and full body photos, although the latter are tighter in the frame than I usually prefer.<\/p>\n

Maybe next time I will have a little more space between the coot and I.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my American Coot photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I opted to leave my teleconverter on while photographing this bathing American Coot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,27,709,26],"tags":[4004,4010,5109,4373,4142,2772,2773,4121,8301,8300,1984,4502,2688,6298,8018,3996,373],"class_list":["post-50028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-coot","tag-bath","tag-bathing","tag-close-up","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-fulica-americana","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-pond","tag-shaking","tag-splashing","tag-teleconverter","tag-urban","tag-water","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-bathing-mia-mcpherson-8154.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-d0U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50628,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/01\/10\/photographing-an-american-coots-post-bathing-behavior\/","url_meta":{"origin":50028,"position":0},"title":"Photographing An American Coot’s Post Bathing Behavior","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Perhaps I am easy to please but I got a real kick out of photographing this American Coot while it bathed, shook and fluffed on the pond close to home.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Coot post bath, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-bathing-mia-mcpherson-3781.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-bathing-mia-mcpherson-3781.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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