During some recent visits to Hendrie Valley I had the opportunity to capture a selection of handheld images of swallows taking flight. All were taken using Pro Capture H with my standard small bird settings of 15 Pre-Shutter Frames, Frame Limiter set to 15, and 60 frames-per-second.
Category Archives: Birds in Flight
Osprey Aggressive Crops
This article features a selection of aggressive crops of osprey fishing images, captured handheld with an E-M1X at Hendrie Valley last week. Each of us have our own style of photography. For me, ‘aggressive’ crops are anything less than 3000 pixels on the width of a M4/3, 20 MP, 5184 x 3888 photograph.
Swallows Mating
This article features 8 consecutive photographs of two swallows mating, including the male bird approaching the female in mid-air. All images were captured handheld using an E-M1X, M.Zuiko 100-400 mm f/5-6.3 IS and M.Zuiko MC-14 teleconverter. Pro Capture H was utlized, with my standard settings for this technology.
BIF Triple Coordination
The importance of practising BIF triple coordination is discussed in this article, as well as sharing a selection of new, handheld practise images. We all appreciate the need for eye/hand coordinaton when it comes to BIF (birds-in-flight) photography. Sometimes we overlook the importance of also coordinating focal length.
Like many photographers I can get caught up in the moment and not remain as cognizant as I should be when it comes to adjusting my focal length. When shooting with my lens fully extended, patience waiting for my desired image framing, takes the place of adjusting my lens focal length.
Getting Better with Age
I’m still wrapping my head around my Olympus cameras getting better with age as additional capabilities are provided through firmware updates. My previous experience with other cameras was that firmware updates were mainly used to fix software bugs, not give me new capabilities at no additional cost.
When I purchased my first E-M1X I was amazed with the camera’s innovative functionality, build quality, handling and ergonomics. Having read about how Olympus would add features through software, I was anticipating that birds would be added to the E-M1X’s Intelligent Subject Tracking.
Backyard Pigeons
This article shares some new images of pigeons in flight that were captured handheld in my backyard, using an E-M1X with Bird AI. Unlike many downtown environments, pigeons are not that common in our residential area. I haven’t had very much luck capturing photographs of pigeons in flight in the past. My lack of past success is likely due to a combination of my own technique, limited angles of view in my backyard, and the auto-focusing performance of the camera gear used in previous attempts.
More Kingfishers in Flight
This article features ten new photographs of more kingfishers in flight, captured during two recent visits to Grimsby harbour. On Monday and Tuesday this week I had one opportunity on each day to photograph a kingfisher in flight.
Fish Crow in Flight
Recently I was at Grimsby harbour doing some general bird photography and was able to capture a selection of images of a fish crow in flight. My knowledge of bird species is fairly limited, and I was not familiar with this particular bird at all.
Aggressive Blackbird Test
Photographing an aggressive blackbird chasing another bird is a challenging situation since these mid-air altercations are fleeting at best. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do a quick test using my C1 Custom setting on my E-M1X to capture an aggressive blackbird going after what appears to be a crow.
Mourning Dove Leaving Nest
This short article features 15 consecutive photographs of a mourning dove leaving its nest, which was in some cedar hedges. These images were captured handheld using an E-M1X fitted with an M.Zuiko 100-400 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom and M.Zuiko MC-14 teleconverter. I used Pro Capture H with my standard settings of 15 Pre-Shutter Frames, Frame Limiter set to 15, and 60 frames-per-second. My standard shutter speed for small to medium sized birds is 1/2500.