Monday, November 15, 2021

Photographing a Bird in Flight is Hard

 I might stand silently with my lens trained on a bird for 15 minutes.  The instant I drop the lens to swat a mosquito, the bird will fly away.  Or, I will see a bird and reach for my camera, and it will fly away before I have the camera in hand.  Or, it will be facing left but unexpectedly decide to fly to the right.  

I was focusing on this little blue heron for quite a while.  Without warning, it flew off, making me snip an eighth of an inch off its bill and even less off its wing feathers.  

The easiest way to catch a bird departure is to reduce the zoom so the bird fills less of the frame and there is a split second more time to react.  But, the bird image will be smaller and less sharp when cropped.  

Decisions . . .

5 comments:

Taken For Granted said...

Jack, you got your shot, and you are very talented at getting birds in action.

RedPat said...

You need more cooperation!

Mage said...

That's a delightful story to go with the partial bird. :)

jennyfreckles said...

Yes, it's hard. I don't even try these days!

JudithK said...

That is so almost! Almost complete. But still quite a shot of a bird taking off. Can't imagine being able to do this.