[avkomp]

Sea eagles are high on my list but boy do they cover the ground fast!

there is a pair nesting in a nature reserve across the river from me. they have 2 chicks now and I figure that they need to feed them.
have seen them flyiing around a bit and fishing etc. managed to get a few fishing pix, but far off.
more interesting though is that I have seen it take 3 seagulls. almost captured in the act yesterday, but had packed up to go home at dusk when it turned up and took one in front of me. I quickly got camera out agan, and was about 10 secs too late.

you need to ship a few kites over here and I can send some eagles

[loose cannon]

It's a deal!

Seagulls could do with a bit of thinning out around here

[Phoenix]

To think about framing the bird while it's flying sounds waaay advanced.
I really struggle trying to find them in my lense to start with let along get such sharp focus.
I'm impressed with your shot.

[loose cannon]

Nah, it's not that hard really Jo. Little bit of practice and some planning.

I love the push/pull zoom feature of the 100-400mm lens. My left hand sits under the lens and it's a simple process to zoom in or out without losing contact with the subject and going from 100mm to 400mm only takes a fraction of a second really. If I had to rotate a zoom ring I'd go nuts.

Now, finding the bird while looking through the lens took some practice. What i used to do was zoom back to 100mm so I could locate the bird then zoom in as required. This is a lousy way to do it and I missed countless opportunities while waving my lens around in the sky looking for a fast approaching almost invisible blurry blob.

At 400mm it's like looking through an old dunny roll, you get to see about .00001% of the sky lol. But with practice you should be able to swing the lens up to your eye and be right on the bird almost every time. I have the lens in front of my face just below my eye and sorta line the bird up by looking down the barrel of the lens, both eyes open! That bit takes a bit of getting used to but it comes naturally after a while.

When I move the camera to my eye I'm only moving the camera a few inches and I move it quickly, make the movement sharp and precise and you'll see the bird through the viewfinder instantly 9 out of 10.

Sometimes ( most times really if there's time) it pays to pre-focus on something else that is a similar distance away as the bird so that you are not looking at a blurry blob first up.

I practiced on seagulls, a slow moving predictable target. It doesn't take long to get the hang of it if you have a clear plan about how you are going to go about it.

Hope this helps and thanks for the kind words.

[Phoenix]

Nah, it's not that hard really Jo. Little bit of practice and some planning.

I love the push/pull zoom feature of the 100-400mm lens. My left hand sits under the lens and it's a simple process to zoom in or out without losing contact with the subject and going from 100mm to 400mm only takes a fraction of a second really. If I had to rotate a zoom ring I'd go nuts.

Now, finding the bird while looking through the lens took some practice. What i used to do was zoom back to 100mm so I could locate the bird then zoom in as required. This is a lousy way to do it and I missed countless opportunities while waving my lens around in the sky looking for a fast approaching almost invisible blurry blob.

At 400mm it's like looking through an old dunny roll, you get to see about .00001% of the sky lol. But with practice you should be able to swing the lens up to your eye and be right on the bird almost every time. I have the lens in front of my face just below my eye and sorta line the bird up by looking down the barrel of the lens, both eyes open! That bit takes a bit of getting used to but it comes naturally after a while.

When I move the camera to my eye I'm only moving the camera a few inches and I move it quickly, make the movement sharp and precise and you'll see the bird through the viewfinder instantly 9 out of 10.

Sometimes ( most times really if there's time) it pays to pre-focus on something else that is a similar distance away as the bird so that you are not looking at a blurry blob first up.

I practiced on seagulls, a slow moving predictable target. It doesn't take long to get the hang of it if you have a clear plan about how you are going to go about it.

Hope this helps and thanks for the kind words.

I'm impressed once again; giving a few "kind words" (which were really very sincerely in awe words) have been rewarded with some great tips.
Thank you, I will give it a go while I'm out swamping on Sunday. Can't wait.

[loose cannon]

Enjoy your day in the swamp ( now there's a sentence you wont here every day)

Glad I could help.

[Scottymc]

Lovely mate lovely!. Great job. I still gotta get up your way and bludge a day trip off you.

[loose cannon]

Thanks Scotty. I'm only just down the road, drop in any time mate.