[lancslad]

My first attempt at moving wildlife, its the best of a bunch of shots, Canon Powershot pro 1 f/5.6 1/1250, 50.8mm (208mm 35mm equivalent) comments advice and critique welcome, i'm hear to learn!

[Australopithecus]

I've shot a few of these, so I'll tell you how I do it:

I pick a spot where I've observed them fly over, and just sit there and wait.
I shoot early morning, when the sun is low in the horizon - this gives the nicest light, and if you're lucky, you get nice light under the wings. I shoot them as they fly towards the sun.
I choose cloudless days to give me a nice blue background.
When I spot one coming towards me, I lock onto it using continuous autofocus. I then track it, hoping it keeps coming towards me. When it's within 20 metres, I start shooting in continuous mode, keeping it in frame, focussed, and panning by rotating from the waist.

It does take practice and patience, but the rewards are worth it. I aim for shutter speeds of around 1/1000 sec. Sometimes I shoot aperture priority, other times shutter priority. As long as you adjust to the changing light by varying ISO setting and aperture to keep that shutter speed up, you should get good results.

In this pic, he's flying towards the sun, but away from you. Most of the body is in shadow, which makes detail rescue difficult.

BTW - the image you posted is only 17KB in size, which doesn't do it justice. If you increase the image size to around 150KB, I'm sure it will look a lot better.

Sorry about the big reply, but I do hope this helps.


Cheers, Frank

[Charlotte]

Very helpful indeed, Frank I haven't tried any moving targets yet ... still battling with the stationary ones LOL, but you gave a good clear + concise explanation on how pan, as well as valuable exposure tips, as indeed it can be tricky shooting into the sky. Thanks!

Lancslad, good try!

[Markulous]

Ahh, the joys of catching a flying object!

Must admit that I've given up on Autofocus and focus manually as I seem to get way better results - and another thing that is equally personal preference: use slower shutter speeds to show some movement (the pan/focus change needs to be pretty much spot-on but think it lends itself to a more dynamic shot). All then comes in useful when trying to get dragonflies on the wing - something I've still to satisfactorily achieve!

[JMitchell]

I really like this, not your typical nature shot, but something with more depth. I like the way the composition with the clouds etc. leads you to look around the frame rather than just at the bird. Nice!

[Charlotte]

Have to agree with Markulous about autofocus with moving objects - every time I've tried continuous autofocus, it just never focuses + I don't get to shoot at all in that mode!

[Australopithecus]

Yeah, autofocus can be a bit of a pain. I have a focus limiter on my lens, which helps a bit. I must admit that I haven't tried manual focus. I don't trust myself, especially at larger apertures. I'll give it a try.

Frank

[Charlotte]

I like the autofocus with manual overide on my 105mm VR : Autofocus first, then fine-tine manually, especially if you want to use selective focus technique on a portion of your subject, it beats having to re-compose

[lancslad]

thanks jmitchell I was actually trying to capture that feeling exactly glad someone picked it

[Rob Barron]

I think this is a great picture, entirely different to Australo's set which are also superb. For me, I wouldn't change anything in this picture, it has a really dynamic shape, lovely and sharp (I don't want motion blur in this particular shot as I don't envisage this bird speeding around the sky, more soaring a bit like an eagle) and even though it is moving away from you, the profile works really well and tells us this is a pelican. The clouds are perfect to break up the sky and you have composed it so that we have space for the bird to fly into. Not much advice to offer you other than general points for when trying future shots and they've already been done.

Just to mention that when shooting into the sky like this, you usually have ample light to work with so a smaller aperture is feasible to still get about 1/250th of a second which in turn gives you plenty of depth of field to work with and so manual focus is a much better option, especially when the subject is beyond 20m away and so the focal range is close to infinity anyway.

I'm delighted to have seen the two different types of shots that we've been shown by Aust and now by Lancslad, both excellent and inspiring.

Cheers,
Rob

[Charlotte]

This looks hugely better at higher res Good point by Rob about utilising small aperture when shooting into the sky for max DoF! And I agree that the angle of the bird is interesting - a refreshing change from the usual front or side view shot, + I like the way you've captured his flight feathers on the left wing. I think this one could have even more impact if you brought out the colour of the sky + lightened the underside of the bird which is a bit underexposed, 'cos your camera metered for the sky here. Again, I say well done for a first try, lancslad - better than I could've done

[Australopithecus]

Good points you guys raise about this one being a totally different approach to mine. I guess I approach photography as a technical challenge. I hope that my artistic skills will develop over time. I'm a scientist by trade, so I guess I presently tend to analyse the technical aspects more than the artistic aspects of a photo.
Lancslad - I hope you didn't think I was trying to be clever with my first post. I assumed you were looking for more info on how to shoot close-ups of birds. I missed the points that the others noted. I guess we've covered all the bases.

Cheers, Frank

[lancslad]

Not at all, Frank, I am a relative newcomer to this type of subject so all help is very much appreciated. I love the crisp focus of your Pelican shots, I know that it'll be a while before i attempt such precise [and stunning] shots. I'll stick to 'artistic' it covers my laid back nature!