A Cold Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday morning I noticed that the outdoor temperature had dropped quite low (I think it was -18°C when I first looked at the thermometer on my kitchen window) and started to wonder whether that would be sufficient to see some sea smoke (steam fog) as the differential between sea water and air temperature was quite significant. Initially I considered to go to Suomenlinna sea fortress, but for some reason it was closer to midday before I was actually ready to go out and therefor I decided that Lauttasaari would be my destination as it was easier to reach and as added bonus there had been few interesting bird observations lately...

After taking the metro train to Lauttasaari, I started to walk towards the coastline and after a while I reached Hevosenkenkälahti (˝ Horseshoe Bay) and I was greeted with quite a nice view...

1. Hevosenkenkälahti

α7R IV + Sony FE 4/24-105 G OSS @ 24 mm, f/13, 1/800 s, ISO 400

And although the waters close to the beach had already frozen, when looking at the open sea further away there was...

2. Sea smoke

α7R IV + Sony FE 4/24-105 G OSS @ 104 mm, f/13, 1/800 s, ISO 500

I decided to move along the coast further south and after a while I noticed few other fellow photographers and then found their target, which was something I was expecting to see since there had been earlier observations from the previous weeks...

3. Northern hawk-owl (Surnia ulula)

α1 + Sony FE 5.6-6.3/200-600 G OSS @ 600 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 s, ISO 1000

Unfortunately the owl was somewhat uncooperative and didn't want to hunt or otherwise fly around although I did spend something like one and a half hours waiting (and providing some guidance for passersby who got interested in what people where looking at there) and I eventually I started to head again towards...

4. Särkiniemi

α7R IV + Sony FE 4/24-105 G OSS @ 46 mm, f/13, 1/250 s, ISO 200

5. Golden hour

α1 + Sony FE 5.6-6.3/200-600 G OSS @ 200 mm, f/8, 1/1600 s, ISO 640

After a while I reached the southmost point of the island.

6. Not long before the sunset

α7R IV + Sony FE 4/24-105 G OSS @ 63 mm, f/13, 1/250 s, ISO 125

7. Bright light

α1 + Sony FE 5.6-6.3/200-600 G OSS @ 200 mm, f/8, 1/1600 s, ISO 200

8. About last glimpse of the Sunday's sun

α1 + Sony FE 5.6-6.3/200-600 G OSS @ 273 mm, f/8, 1/1600 s, ISO 800

On the open waters in front of Lauttasaari there was quite a few waterfowl, for example:

9. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

α7R IV + Sony FE 4/24-105 G OSS @ 69 mm, f/11, 1/125 s, ISO 200

10. Long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis)

α1 + Sony FE 5.6-6.3/200-600 G OSS @ 600 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 s, ISO 1600

(And if somebody wonders why this long-tailed duck does not have a long tail, it is because it is only males that have this feature and this individual is a female)

11. Flock of goosanders (Mergus merganser)

α1 + Sony FE 5.6-6.3/200-600 G OSS @ 600 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 s, ISO 4000

And as the sun had set and light was fading it was then time to head back home.

Beautiful images! A gorgeous series!

My favorites are #4, #5, #8 and #11 - and I would also vote for #5 at the top of my ranking.

TFS!

Agree 5 Golden Hour is a great shot, also 1 H., although I prefer the Long-Tailed Duck alternate in the Birds thread. I didn't know Mallards stayed in cold water. Thanks, great shooting!