There are occasions when bird photographers can face an obstructed opportunity when the sightline to a potential subject bird is partially blocked. Depending on the camera gear used, and its resident technology, an obstructed opportunity can still yield some decent photographs.

This article features 10 consecutive images of a green heron taking flight. The bird was partially hidden behind the limb of a fallen tree. All photographs are displayed as full frame captures to help demonstrate the technique used to capitalize on this obstructed opportunity.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

As we can see in the first frame of this image run, the green heron’s head is hidden behind the limb of a fallen tree. The heron had been looking down to its right as it scanned the shallow water for a fish. I’ve not had much luck in the past capturing an image run of a green heron taking flight… so this looked like a good chance to do so.

I could tell from the crouched body position of the green heron that it was very likely going to take flight. I quickly reset my camera to “C3” Custom Mode which activates Pro Capture H on my E-M1X. Since I couldn’t see the heron’s head, I placed a single AF point on the body of the bird and immediately began to spool images into temporary memory.

I composed my photograph with the bird in the lower right-hand corner to enable it to fly through my frame. By using Pro Capture H I was able to capture the following nine consecutive images of the green heron as it launched into flight. I fully depressed my shutter release as the heron was leaving my composition on the left-hand side of the frame.

Photograph #9 was the image that I was hoping to capture with this particular burst. With some modest cropping on the right-hand side it would produce quite a decent image of this green heron in flight.

There were two other photographers proximate to me when this obstructed opportunity presented itself. Neither one of them paid much attention to the obstructed heron, and they did not attempt to photograph this green heron taking flight.

Often we get fixated on using continuous auto-focus when attempting to photograph birds taking flight. This is especially true if our camera has some kind of AI bird tracking capability. It is easy to forget, that depending on the flight angle of the bird taking off, we don’t need to use continuous auto-focus to capture our image run.

Locking focus and exposure based on the first frame often works very well, as was the case with this image run. I was able to shoot at 60 frames-per-second using Pro Capture H. This increased my potential to get a couple of good frames towards the end of my image run. If I would have used using Pro Capture L, I would would have been limited to 18 frames-per-second with AF-C.

The 10 photographs featured in this article were captured in a total of 1/6th of a second. If I would have used Pro Capture L I would have captured a total of only 3-4 frames… and likely would have missed capturing any useable photographs.

OMDS owners who use an OM-1 or OM-1 Mark II can shoot at 50 frames-per-second with continuous auto-focus, which would give them more shooting options. The caveat is that they need to have a lens that is also capable of this fast AF-C frame rate. Neither my M.Zuiko 150-600 or my M.Zuiko 100-400 are capable of this fast frame rate, and are limited to 25 frames-per-second with AF-C when used with the noted OM bodies.

As long as a bird taking flight is doing so while flying parallel to my camera’s sensor I can lock focus on the first frame and still have the entire run in focus. The green heron featured in this article was 30.3 metres away. From this distance a focal length of 600 mm (efov 1200) using an aperture of f/6.3, gives me about a half metre of depth-of-field. This was adequate for this particular image run. If the bird had been closer I may have needed to stop my M.Zuiko 150-600 lens down to f/8 to create sufficient depth-of-field.

In summary, using single AF to capture a bird taking flight can be effective.

• Imagine the action scene in your mind that you are trying to capture.
• Anticipate the flight direction of the bird. If it will be flying parallel to the focal plane of your camera, using AF-S can work well.
• Use a function like Pro Capture H if it is available on your camera.
• Depending on the distance to the subject bird and the lens focal length used, stop your lens down if necessary to create sufficient depth-of-field.
• Place a single, small AF point on the subject bird wherever it makes the most sense. Don’t worry if the bird’s head is hidden.
• Use the fastest AF-S frame rate possible to increase the chances of capturing one or two good action images, as the bird flies past the obstruction.
• Compose your image to allow the subject bird to fly through your frame.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld with the camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data, and using single point auto-focus and Pro Capture H. I used a frame rate of 60 frames-per-second, with both my Pre-Shutter Frames and Frame Count Limiter both set to 15. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,402 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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