Birds in Flight - Smaller & Faster

Hi There

Its been a couple of weeks since i shot my usual subjects of birds in flight, as i had tried my hand at Sports Photography and Big Cats. I therefore felt it was high time for a return to my favorite haunt of the Hawk Conservancy.

They have various flying displays throughout the day, and last thing in the afternoon they have their "Wild Heron and Raptor feed" where a local population of wild herons can get a free lunch together with Red Kites, Buzzards and Kestrels.

It was the Kestrels that i particularly wanted to get a shot of as despite my best efforts previously, they had always been too far away and frankly moved to fast. Still i now had the 500mm in the arsenal but even that wasn't close enough so it was out with the 1.4 TC to give me a 700mm F5.6 with the crop factor of the 1DMKIIN it was around a 930mm on a full frame.

I was shooting from a timber hide at the side of the meadow, so didn't have the room to set up the Wimberley Sidekick, so oped for the Monopod with the Kirk BH1 ball head as i had a P40 lens plate on the foot of the EF500mm, and didn't want to keep taking it on and off.

The whole thing was quite well balanced and i could pan with it fairly quickly. The focus was on the * button using CF4-3 on the 1D and focus on AI Servo centre point only, High speed on the drive (8.5FPS).

The biggest problem i found was acquiring the bird in the narrow field of view offered by the 700mm. The approach that worked best was to watch him come in to grab some food and see the general area where he landed, then try to pre focus in that general area and wait for him to take off.

Once he was in the air I had about 2-3 seconds to get him in frame hit the * button to acquire focus tracking, and then squeeze the shutter for a burst of 3 or 4 shots before he was out of panning range.

If i was lucky i found i would get 1 or 2 shots in the sequence that were acceptably sharp, but i was really more by luck than judgment.

Still with practice i hope to get a better hit rate and i like a challenge! I post below the best of the bunch of around 8 shots that were acceptably sharp.

As always comments and critiques welcome.

John


Tech Data EOS1DMKIIN - EF500mm F4L + 1.4TC - 1/2000 @ F5.6 ISO 640

Incredible capture. One of these days, I'm going hawk hunting on campus. There are a couple of red-tailed hawks that live here that I really want to capture. The one time I wished I had a camera (and someone else driving) was when this hawk swooped down to eye level when I was driving to work one day.

The only nit I would have to pick (and this is small, in my opinion; and I know it's very difficult under the circumstances you're shooting in) would be to try and get the tips of the wings in better focus. But that is very minor, it doesn't seem to divert my eye, at least.

Great job!

Holy Toledo!

Chris Dana said:

Incredible capture. One of these days, I'm going hawk hunting on campus. There are a couple of red-tailed hawks that live here that I really want to capture. The one time I wished I had a camera (and someone else driving) was when this hawk swooped down to eye level when I was driving to work one day.

The only nit I would have to pick (and this is small, in my opinion; and I know it's very difficult under the circumstances you're shooting in) would be to try and get the tips of the wings in better focus. But that is very minor, it doesn't seem to divert my eye, at least.

Great job!

Click to expand...

Hi Chris

Thanks for looking, it does in my opinion always seem a trade off between reach so you can fill most of the frame with the subject, and depth of field. I love the nice blurred backgrounds you get shooting wide open on a long lens, but the trade off is you get such a small depth of field. I think in this shot is maybe 8 inches or so.

The wing tips may well be out of focus but i also think there is some motion blur, i was only at 1/2000th of a second. I have often found i need to be at 1/4000 for really crisp shots. Now i could have upped the ISO further but then again its a trade off with more noise although the wings may be sharper.

I always try and focus on the eye of the subject (whenever i'm shooting something with eyes!) and am willing to accept some softness elsewhere as long as the eye is sharp.


John

I'm writing that down.

Rachel Foster said:

I'm writing that down.

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Hi Rachel

I post below a couple more shots to illustrate what i mean about depth of filed and long lenses. The 1st shot was with the 700mm lens again of a different kestrel, and you can hopefully see the eye is in focus but the wingtips are outside the depth of field.

The 2nd shot is with just the 500mm so slightly more depth of field (but not that much more) again eye sharp but wingtips off.

John

When I look at photos like that I have the thought, "I'll never be that good." That's ok, though, because the goal is to be as good as I can be, and not as good as someone else is/can be. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge with me. As soon as I'm at that level, you can bet I'll put it to use.

Rachel Foster said:

When I look at photos like that I have the thought, "I'll never be that good." That's ok, though, because the goal is to be as good as I can be, and not as good as someone else is/can be. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge with me. As soon as I'm at that level, you can bet I'll put it to use.

Click to expand...

Rachel

Well roll the clock back 4 years when i got back into photography after a 20 year break i was looking at photos on the web and thinking exactly the same. Then you just take advice, read magazines and shoot pictures, and then shoot some more... and then some more.

Your pictures will improve, its fairly easy to learn the basics and modern cameras help make it easier to get shots like the bird ones i have posted. Could i have got those shots 20 years ago... no

Technology has helped a great deal... but then so has 20 years more experience... older and wiser.

But being creative and having that vision in the 1st place to see the shot you want and then to go and shoot it, well thats why they call it an art.

Good luck on your journey, there are a lot of people here who know a great deal more than me and are happy to share their experience. They have helped me a lot, i just try to pass it along.

John

I've most grateful for the huge amount of teaching that the members have already done. I fear they may feel I'm not paying attention, but I'm playing catch-up. Every word will be considered and remembered as soon as I'm able to.

My enthusiasm by far outstrips my knowledge and ability. I can't contain it, either....it's a passion. I'm going to get there -- "there" being my best -- but it's going to take time. I don't want to wait! I want there now! And by the same token, I don't want it handed to me. I want the joy of working for it and achieving it. It's the conquering that makes it so very, very special. It's hard....and I'm doing it (given my ability level).

Thank you...and thanks to everyone else too.