This article shares a moment of anticipation as a bird is diving to feed, photographed handheld using Pro Capture H.

One of the things that I love about using my E-M1X is that I can imagine a photograph in my head, then use the incredible technology in my camera to create it.

During a recent visit to LaSalle Park in Burlington Ontario I observed a bird diving to fish. It was a beautiful scene with calm water and low, morning light. I immediately saw a photograph in my mind of the bird diving with its bill just about to touch the surface of the water.

I quickly selected C3 on my e-M1X’s mode dial to access my standard Pro Capture H settings. Placing a single auto-focus point on the head of the bird, I engaged Pro Capture H and began to capture images in temporary memory.

As the bird’s body entered the water I knew that I had captured the moment of anticipation that I saw in my mind. I fully depressed my shutter release to write those images to my memory card.

You’ll find the moment of anticipation that I wanted to capture in frame 6 of the 15 images that follow.

It occurred to me when preparing this article that if I set my Pro Capture H settings a bit differently by increasing my Frame Count Limiter, I could have also captured another interesting moment of anticipation… the bird’s feet just as they disappeared into the water.

That is the power of using a camera like the OM-D E-M1X. It allows me to see a moment of anticipation in my head. Then document it, usually with only one attempt to do so… which was the case with these images.

Coupling the E-M1X with the M.Zuiko 100-400 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom and my M.Zuiko MC-14 and MC-20 teleconverters provides me with an incredible amount of flexibility for bird and nature photography. The more I use this gear… the more I love it.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured hand-held using camera gear and technology as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. Photographs were cropped to approximately 4350 pixels on the width, then resized for web use. My standard Pro Capture H settings were used: Pre-Shutter Frames and Frame Count Limiter were both set to 15. Photographs were captured using a frame rate of 60 frames-per-second.

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