This article is about capturing the moment when we’re photographing birds.
But… first off… my apologies for not posting a new article for the past couple of weeks. Time is a perishable commodity that sometimes is difficult to manage. Juggling projects… and then recently getting laid up for a quite a few days with the flu hasn’t helped.
For most of this month I’ve been focusing the bulk of my efforts on finishing a new eBook… which is finally very near completion… with an announcement imminent.
One of the challenges that I enjoy is photographing small BIF (birds-in-flight) in their environments, especially when amongst tree branches and other potential obstructions. Even very common birds like sparrows can take on an added dimension when capturing them in-flight in these situations.
This article features some older images of raptors captured at the Mountsberg Raptor Centre about ten years ago. I’ve been culling old images from my main office system for a quite a while now. As this process continues, I periodically come across files that I had previously not fully reviewed.
So, while these images are old, they still may be of interest to readers as many of them illustrate ospreys in-flight. I had processed a few of these photographs in the past. This article also contains some newly processed in-flight images, as well as a selection of newly processed raptor portrait-style images.
As photographers many of us have an overreliance on C-AF (continuous auto focus) and on occasion may sub-optimize our image capturing potential. Sometimes this happens when we lose sight of our photographic objectives, and fall into habitual ways of using our camera gear.
Focus and recompose technique is something that was very commonly used back in the days when DSLRs only had a limited number of auto-focus points, mainly clustered around centre frame.
This article discusses the importance of frame rate, specifically when photographing perched birds and insects taking flight. As photographers each of us has our own approach on how we use our camera gear. I appreciate that many people use continuous auto-focus for the bulk of their photography that involves wildlife subjects in motion.
For me, catch-as-catch-can photography has always meant living in the moment and reacting to photographic opportunities as they reveal themselves. There can be special feelings of creativity… spontaneity… and sometimes excitement that happen when we work in challenging conditions, or have to respond quickly to unplanned situations.
I suppose ‘catch-as-catch-can’ photography may be viewed by some folks as a ‘seat of the pants’ approach. Given the lack of detailed preparation and planning that is involved with ‘catch-as-catch-can’ photography… this is likely a fair assessment.
BIF shutter speeds are often discussed amongst bird photographers. While there certainly are variations in approach, there are also some general guidelines that many photographers follow.
This article discusses how I adjusted my 1680 mm efov handheld technique when using the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom lens with the M.Zuiko MC-14 teleconverter. While I wouldn’t normally use this set-up for birds in free flight, there are times when it comes in handy when photographing birds or insects taking flight from a distant perched position.
This article discusses doing bird photography after 10 o’clock in the morning… which is not considered to be an ideal time of day. Birds are most active earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon.
My schedule has been a bit crazy lately, so I try to fit in some field practice when I can. I ended up arriving at Hendrie Valley just as some other photographers were leaving. The good news was that I was able to get a parking spot. 🙂 Continue reading Bird Photography After 10
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