Half Of The Story

Sometimes only getting half of the story can still produce some very interesting, action-oriented photographs. In the springtime birds are vying for mates, or protecting the partner that they already have. This can lead to some dramatic action, especially if large birds like geese or swans are involved.

Wings loudly flapping against the water is often a sign that some aggression is being played out. Like most photographers I often try to capture both birds that are involved in the altercation. This sometimes leads to some useable images. And, sometimes not.

Often one of the birds is out of focus… or is obstructing the view of of the aggressive bird. Sometimes the action is so intense, and there is so much water spray that is difficult to discern what is happening in the photographs.

There are occasions when rather than try to get both birds in my image run, I’ll sometimes keep my attention focused on the aggressive bird. This only gives me half of the story… but sometimes that is enough for some dramatic action captures.

This article features six selected images from an altercation between two Canada Geese. The bird in these featured images is the attacking one. This action happened about 115 metres away (~377 feet) from my shooting position. By keeping my attention focused on the attacking bird I was able to get the most number of pixels on it, as I did not have to back off my zoom lens.

From a pragmatic perspective, keeping my auto-focus centred on the attacking bird reduced the risk that my camera might jump between birds and lose focus.

The first two of our featured images are of the aggressive Canada Goose making the decision to go after another goose. The water trail is clearly behind the attacking goose.

The last four featured images were captured as the attacking goose got closer to the other bird. The splash patterns from the fleeing goose are visible on the right hand side of each of the last four images.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS @ 600 mm, efov 1200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, cropped to 3911 pixels on the width, Pro Capture L, Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking, subject distance 114.7 metres
OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS @ 600 mm, efov 1200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, cropped to 4632 pixels on the width, Pro Capture L, Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking, subject distance 114.8 metres
OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS @ 600 mm, efov 1200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, cropped to 3216 pixels on the width, Pro Capture L, Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking, subject distance 119 metres
OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS @ 600 mm, efov 1200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, cropped to 3917 pixels on the width, Pro Capture L, Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking, subject distance 112.2 metres
OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS @ 600 mm, efov 1200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, cropped to 3426 pixels on the width, Pro Capture L, Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking, subject distance 115.2 metres
OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS @ 600 mm, efov 1200 mm, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO-1000, cropped to 3408 pixels on the width, Pro Capture L, Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking, subject distance 112.3 metres

These images were captured handheld with the M.Zuiko 150-600 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom fully extended to 600 mm (efov 1200 mm). The extra reach of this lens was a significant factor in being able to capture these action photographs.

Before an altercation between two birds begins there are often warning signs that something is about to happen. For example, Canada Geese often lower their necks and heads and make aggressive calls out to the other bird.

It is at this point that a photographer needs to assess the situation quickly and decide if they are going to try to capture both birds, or only one.

It is often apparent which other bird that an aggressive bird may be targeting. The distance between the two birds and their relative position to each other can indicate the likely attack path… and the subsequent attempt to flee.

If it appears likely that the fleeing bird will be coming towards me, I focus on this lead bird. If the fleeing bird is likely to move away from me and show me its back, I sometimes don’t bother to photograph the action at all… or focus only on the attacking bird.

When action is proximate to me, and likely to occur with the birds moving parallel to my shooting position, I typically try to get both birds in the action sequence by using the wider angle end of my zoom lens. In this scenario rather than track the attacking bird, I will focus on the bird that is likely to flee, and try to time my capture as the attacking bird enters the composition.

If both birds are a fair distance from my shooting position, as was the case with the featured images in this article, I usually ignore the target bird and focus on the attacking one.

We can’t always get the whole story when photographing nature… but sometimes getting only half of the story is enough.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld with the camera equipment noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW using my standard process. I used a combination of Pro Capture L and Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking. I used a single, small AF point, with a frame rate of 18 using continuous auto-focus. My Pre-Shutter Frames were set to 10 and my Frame Limiter was turned off. This is the 1,378 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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2 thoughts on “Half Of The Story”

  1. Good Morning Thomas Stirr
    I’ve stumbled upon your website several times over the years. Now I’ve been reading for a long period once again. I’m admiring the many pictures. I got a lot of valuable information. Thank you very much. Is there an ebook that describes your workflows?
    It’s all about the captions for your pictures. I think that you can use this data automatically or read the data from the images data with a script. After some research I always end up with ExifTools. But dealing with the program is not easy. Photolabs, Lightroom or workspace do not show for example the focus-distance. GraphicConverter12 provides this data. But I have to coopy these out by hand. Maybe you can give me some hints or pointers.
    Kind regards, Benedikt Meier

    1. Hi Meier,

      I use DxO PhotoLab as my initial RAW processor. After doing some minor adjustments in DxO I export a DNG file into Photoshop CS6 where some other minor adjustments are made. I finish my files as needed using the Nik Collection, Topaz Denoise AI or Topaz Sharpen AI.

      I store all of my photography files in Windows Explorer. The subject distance and other EXIF on my images is revealed when I investigate ‘properties’ in Windows explorer. Years ago there was a WordPress plug-in that automated the process… but I kept having issues with the plug-in so I stopped using it. All of the EXIF information on the images in my articles is entered manually.

      Tom

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