Birds In Flight... Upload your photos.

[PeterHG]

Beautiful shots of the Avocets and we have the same uncooperative Kestrels over here...

[offshorebirder]

Looks like the Avocet was vocalizing in a couple of the shots @Soukous.   Well done.

[PeterHG]

The Northern Shoveler remains one of my favourite Ducks. I flushed this one by accident as I was driving past a ditch in the meadows and managed to grab a shot through the open window.

 

[Peter Connan]

Stunning shot Peter

[Soukous]

14 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Stunning shot Peter

 

agreed!

[pedro maia]

15 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Stunning shot Peter

 

And he was just passing by...

[Tdgraves]

nothing new for the BY yet, so I thought I'd test the Flickr settings...

 

7T4A4563 by tdgraves, on Flickr

[Tdgraves]

this one is twice the size with better resolution. Does it still load fast?

 

7T4A4563a by tdgraves, on Flickr

Edited May 26, 2020 by Tdgraves

[TonyQ]

@Tdgraves they both loaded instantly on my iPad 

[Tdgraves]

47 minutes ago, TonyQ said:

@Tdgraves they both loaded instantly on my iPad 

on mine too. Interesting that on the pc the second photo is literally double the width but on the iPad, no different!

[Soukous]

some Common Terns from yesterday. I was fortunate, they were diving for fish on both sides of the bridge so I got a variety of backgrounds. Not all of them worked but overall a vary satisfactory half hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Soukous

[Peter Connan]

Cracking shots!

[Soukous]

This year I'm still waiting for a good Kestrel sighting ( from a photography point of view). There are plenty of them about but always pretty distant and with the light behind them. Always a pleasure to watch them though and fun to try and get a decent shot.

Another batch of 'almosts' yesterday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Soukous]

Mute Swans too are in abundance this year, or maybe I'm just noticing them more because I am spending more time out on foot.

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Not an uncommon bird but frustratingly difficult to see, let alone get  a decent picture. Yesterday morning I was lucky finally.

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Stunning!

[Soukous]

21 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

Not an uncommon bird but frustratingly difficult to see, let alone get  a decent picture

 

agreed. I wish I had your luck. Or maybe I just need to try harder. 

[offshorebirder]

Holy crap! that is a good shot @michael-ibk 

 

[Soukous]

A useful little video tutorial from Steve Perry for those of you that haven't seen it.

 

 

 

[offshorebirder]

Thanks @Soukous - that is a very useful video - concentrated stuff!

 

I only disagree with a couple of his points - matrix metering and turning off image stabilization for BIF.    He should have at least qualified the second point - as someone who shoots a lot from boats, vehicles with engines running, not-totally-stable observation decks / towers, etc. I need IS for BIF at least as much as I could get away without it.

 

And I find the scenarios where you can shoot BIF with a tripod to be pretty limited.

Edited June 7, 2020 by offshorebirder

[Soukous]

13 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

And I find the scenarios where you can shoot BIF with a tripod to be pretty limited.

 

Agreed, BIF usign a tripod, even an expensive one like his, rarely feels comfortable; mainly because instead of rotating your torso to follow a bird you have to scoot around the tripod.

 

I think what he said was to turn off the IS when you are using shutter speeds of 1/2000 and above, rather than in all cases.

 

On the metering front, I mostly use spot metering for BIF, and in fact for just about all bird photos, it works for me. On the basis of the video I will give Matrix metering a try though

Edited June 8, 2020 by Soukous

[offshorebirder]

4 hours ago, Soukous said:

I think what he said was to turn off the IS when you are using shutter speeds of 1/2000 and above, rather than in all cases.

 

In my experience, 1/2000 (especially without IS) is often not fast enough for BIF in a bouncing boat, vibrating vehicle, etc.

 

I try for 1/3200 or 1/4000 sec on pelagic birding trips for example.

[Soukous]

37 minutes ago, offshorebirder said:

I try for 1/3200 or 1/4000 sec on pelagic birding trips for example.

 

no problem, as long as you've got bright light and a fast lens

[janzin]

I love Steve Perry (especially as he's Nikon-centric) but here's another good BIF video which I received yesterday. This is another favorite bird photographer of mine, Jan Wegner, although his approach is vastly different than most--he shoots mostly birds on perches which he sets up. Still, I follow him and like his work a lot, and he has some excellent instructional videos. Also being in Australia he always has incredible subjects to choose from

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

8 hours ago, Soukous said:

On the metering front, I mostly use spot metering for BIF, and in fact for just about all bird photos, it works for me. On the basis of the video I will give Matrix metering a try though

 

Had a similar conversation with @Elsa Hoffmann the other day.

I use Matrix almost exclusively. Reasons are that a lot of what I do is swallows and swifts at stupid distances. So targets too small  and too fast for me to keep the spot on, and because I am not clever enough to keep track of too many different settings.

 

Take note though, I expect it does mean that you end up changing compensation more. Which I also often forget about...