As nature and bird photographers we sometimes overlook the importance of being in the right place at the right time. Often our attention is overly focused on camera gear. We can spend hours debating the relative merits of camera format, brand, model and lenses used. If we care about our craft we’ll invest time in skills development like our eye/hand coordination. All of that goes for naught if we aren’t at the right place at the right time to capture our images.

Being at the right place at the right time does have luck involved. Not a rolling the dice kind of luck, but rather a Labouring Under Correct Knowledge kind of LUCK.

That correct knowledge includes visiting birding locations that are known to be frequented by particular species of birds at specific times. And, also understanding some of the behaviours of those subject birds.

This article shares some images recently captured when I was out at the right place at the right time.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

A few days ago I was out at Hendrie Valley hoping that some ospreys or eagles would visit and do some fishing. These birds are often spotted hunting at this location… especially in the morning or later in the day.

It had been a quiet morning so just after 10 AM I decided to photograph some smaller birds taking flight in a partially wooded area. Suddenly another photographer behind me called out, “Osprey with fish!”. As I was  wheeling around I reset my Custom Mode dial from C2 to C1 to prepare for a potential burst of bird-in-flight images.

I looked up to see an osprey flying low and carrying a large fish in its talons. It was less than 25 metres away (~ 82 feet) and closing fast. I instinctively raised my E-M1X to my eye,  quickly framed my composition, and fired off a quick burst of images. The photographs featured in this article are the first three images from that short burst. The Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking on my E-M1X nailed focus for me.

Yesterday I arrived at Hendrie Valley at about 6:35 AM and checked out the usual spots for bird activity. It didn’t take too long for some terns to arrive and begin their passes over one of the larger ponds looking for their morning meal.

Whenever I spot a tern with a fish in its bill I always try to pan with it for a while just in case the bird does a mid-air shake… or occasionally drops its fish in mid-air accidently and dives to retrieve it.

For this type of potential photographic opportunity I have my E-M1X set for Bird AI Subject Tracking in combination with Pro Capture L. That way I can pan with a bird-in-flight and continually spool some images in temporary memory just in case one of the desired bird actions occurs.

As I was panning with a tern in the distance… about 60 metres away (~200 feet) it dropped the small fish in its bill and immediately dove down to retrieve it in mid-air. The tern left my frame so quickly that I wasn’t able to get an image of it grabbing the fish in mid-air… but I did capture the following four consecutive photographs.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of camera gear that we own if we don’t go out regularly to capture some images with it. We can create our own LUCK by learning to use our camera gear effectively. Continually practicing critical skills like eye/hand coordination and shutter release timing. Learning where the best birding spots are located. And, understanding some of the key behaviours of the bird species we are attempting to photograph.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Pro Capture L was set to 18 frames-per-second using silent shutter, 10 Pre-Shutter Frames with Frame Limiter turned off. I used a single auto-focus point with Bird Detection AI Subject Tracking. All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. This is the 1,277 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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