As lucky as we were yesterday, I knew that we probably wouldn't be repeating that anytime soon. And I was right, today was pretty slow. I think the birds feel the storm coming in and they are heading for safer waters.
However, this makes it the perfect day to practice. And I definitely need to practice my birds in flight. The best way to do this is to seek out the biggest and slowest flying birds you can find. And the Pelicans and Ospreys were happy to oblige. Getting good BIF images doesn't just happen by accident. (at least not to me!) There is a learning curve and the only way to learn is to get out there and make mistakes. And don't automatically delete those mistakes. Look at them and find out why they didn't come out the way you wanted them to. Usually it's a combination of things. Shutter speed too slow and erratic panning are the common mistakes we make. I try to keep my SS up around 1/2000 at least and even then the wing tips might be a little blurry. And the easiest way to smooth out your panning is with a Gimbal head. A Gimbal head or a "Sidekick", attaches to your tripod and allows you to swing smoothly through the flight path of the bird.
1/1250 @ 7.1, ISO 2800
The GBH was first thing in the morning and I was trying to balance my need for light with my need for high shutter speed. It's a bit of a tightrope walk when the light is low, and you will have to experiment and make your own mistakes. But if it was easy everybody would be doing it!!!
1/1250th @ f7.1, ISO 2800
I left some of the noise in this image to show you what happens at high ISO. Fortunately, when you print these a fair amount of the grain just disappears into the print.
1/1250th @ f7.1, ISO 400. This shot had much better light so the ISO is much lower which results in a much cleaner image with less noise.
Thank God for morning light!! 1/200 @ f8, ISO 450
Not only does the morning light let you use higher shutter speeds, but it gives your images a nice warm look!
Last but not least, there was this little guy. He kept me company for almost 2 hours while I was waiting for the "better" birds to show up. So he deserves some recognition. I just wish I knew his name!!!
None of these images will make it to my permanent "best of" collection, but that wasn't the point. When that perfect "bird of a lifetime" shows up in your viewfinder your practice today will help you get that "shot of a lifetime"!!!
All for now, more to come!