Photographing birds, just like other subject matter, can be a progressive experience. As we develop our skill set and understand the subject matter more… the quality of our images can improve over time. This article illustrates how we can capture some uncommon moments with common birds… in this case some gulls. All of the photographs in this article were captured on the same day in late May.
Category Archives: Birds in Flight
E-M1X Swallows in Flight Images
On Saturday of this past weekend I spent about 2.5 hours photographing swallows in flight. As readers who enjoy bird photography can attest, capturing images of these small ‘pocket rockets’ is a very challenging pastime. Saturday was the most successful swallows-in-flight photography outing that I have ever had. Rather than share just a smattering of photographs, this article contains a total of 24 E-M1X swallows in flight images. I could have shared a lot more… but I thought 2 dozen images would be plenty for this posting.
Photographing Red Winged Blackbird with Olympus OM-D E-M1X
I spent a few hours on Saturday photographing birds. This article features a small selection of images of a red winged blackbird captured hand-held with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X, fitted with an M.Zuiko 40-150 mm f/2.8 lens and 1.4X teleconverter.
Continue reading Photographing Red Winged Blackbird with Olympus OM-D E-M1X
Landing Postures That Create Anticipation
Many of us who enjoy photographing birds in flight focus our efforts on specific bird behaviours including hunting/fishing, taking off, and landing. It is always a special moment when we can capture a subject bird doing something other than a typical fly-by. This article shares a selection of seven consecutive images and discusses landing postures that create anticipation in our bird photographs.
Importance of Buffer Management
Mother Nature recently gave me opportunities to capture images of two different osprey catching fish within a half hour of each other. This article shares a selection of images of one of those osprey fishing, and discusses the importance of buffer management.
Goose Chase at Hendrie Valley
In the spring many bird species are migrating and finding mates. This can create some aggressive bird behaviour. During a recent visit to Hendrie Valley I had the opportunity to photograph a goose chase. This article shares a selection of eleven consecutive images.
Watching Tern Tail Feathers
Many bird photographers enjoy photographing terns. These quick, small birds can be a challenge to photograph, especially if one focuses on them fishing. Terns can also be quite aerobatic in their flight patterns. This can also yield some interesting images. Watching tern tail feathers can signal potential aerobatic flight moves or fishing behaviour.
Mute Swan In Flight At 60 FPS
This article features a series of 12 photographs of a mute swan in flight at 60 fps. After doing some experimentation last year, using this frame rate has become one of my favourite settings for bird photography.
Goose Taking Off From Water at 30 FPS
As a follow up to my article Geese In Flight at 30 FPS, this new posting shares a collection of 9 images of a goose taking off from water at 30 fps. All images were captured hand-held with a Nikon 1 V3 and a 1 Nikkor CX 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens. When shooting at 30 frames per second with Nikon 1 gear, the first frame locks exposure and auto-focus for the balance of an image run. All photographs in this article were captured at 138 mm (efov 372.6 mm), f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO-250.
Geese in Flight at 30 FPS
In late March I had a bit of time to experiment photographing geese in flight at 30 fps. I haven’t used this frame rate very much in the past, deciding it was time I spent an entire outing shooting at 30 frames per second.