A Birding Excursion

[ScottH]

I visited Healesville Sanctuary earlier this year with a Photo group.
Tried my hand at shooting birds in flight at the Spirits of the Sky show.

I then went to a private birding presentation a couple of weekends ago.
Had mixed success. 1091 images, most ended up in the bin.
Here are some of the keepers.


Wedge Tail Eagle by Scott, on Flickr


About to take flight - Kestrel by Scott, on Flickr


Nankeen Kestrel Flight Time 2 by Scott, on Flickr


Nankeen Kestrel - Tail by Scott, on Flickr

[Isac]

Worth the visit I'd say Scott. Nice detail and colour.

[loose cannon]

So your keeper rate is similar to mine!

Tough game, birding.

Great set Scott.

[seaslug]

Lovely shots.. nice to have them 'handed' to you so to speak.

[Alan]

A Bird in the Hand etc..

[ScottH]

Birding is a tough gig, even when handed to you.
We all had so many shots of part wings, nice blue sky. Trees perfectly in focus and a blurred object in the middle.

Thanks for looking!!

[loose cannon]

The further away they are the easier the task, sadly.

On a few occasions now I've had very close encounters with sea eagles where they have swooped and come within less than 10 metres. The approach shots were no problem as I've spotted them coming from a long way off but in what seems like a fraction of a second the viewfinder is full of bird, it's out of focus and in a blink of the eye the opportunity is gone.

Drives me nuts

[Alan]

I don't how bird photographers using 35mm slide film didn't end up poverty stricken and totally mad before the digital camera era.

Come to think of it - nothing has changed

[avkomp]

The further away they are the easier the task, sadly.

On a few occasions now I've had very close encounters with sea eagles where they have swooped and come within less than 10 metres. The approach shots were no problem as I've spotted them coming from a long way off but in what seems like a fraction of a second the viewfinder is full of bird, it's out of focus and in a blink of the eye the opportunity is gone.

Drives me nuts

I would agree with that. the long lens is the birders friend I think.

as for the keeper rate, I wonder whawt camera and lens you used?
vr or is may not be your friend for flight,
I found that you may be tracking a bird well and shoot off a burst to find that the bird isnt in the frame for all shots. a wing here a wing there etc.
so
I generally turn off vr when I shoot flight and this doesnt happen to me, I believe at least nikons vr to cause this. seems worse with some lenses.
if you are shooting flight, you are typically using higher shutter speeds anyhow so vr not necessary
also too many active points in the af can hinder you too
I use the centre point only or one all around it. if not the camera might like the back ground better than the subject. if you can keep the subject under the centre point, no problems.
nikon uses a setting called focus tracking with lock on, this can help you keep focus if you temporarily run off too ( canons verson is something like tracking sensitivity I think)
af seems to work faster also with less active points.

[ScottH]

I would agree with that. the long lens is the birders friend I think.

as for the keeper rate, I wonder whawt camera and lens you used?
vr or is may not be your friend for flight,
I found that you may be tracking a bird well and shoot off a burst to find that the bird isnt in the frame for all shots. a wing here a wing there etc.
so
I generally turn off vr when I shoot flight and this doesnt happen to me, I believe at least nikons vr to cause this. seems worse with some lenses.
if you are shooting flight, you are typically using higher shutter speeds anyhow so vr not necessary
also too many active points in the af can hinder you too
I use the centre point only or one all around it. if not the camera might like the back ground better than the subject. if you can keep the subject under the centre point, no problems.
nikon uses a setting called focus tracking with lock on, this can help you keep focus if you temporarily run off too ( canons verson is something like tracking sensitivity I think)
af seems to work faster also with less active points.

Good info.
I was using a NIKON D7100 and Tamron 18-270.

I did have VR turned on and I had 9 AF points. I'd read up beforehand and thought this might help.
Centre point may have been more useful.
I tried the focus tracking, but didn't seem to focus on what I wanted, so I gave up.

The other mistake I made was having the Exposure Comp set to +2. I had it on that for early shots where it was darker in the shade, but did not change it back once we were back in full sun.

[Phoenix]

I was wondering what time of day it was. Looks like you had some overhead light to deal with too.
I think number two is a terrific shot of the kestrel.

[LJG]

Would have been a great day Scott. The keeper rate is not as important as how much you enjoyed it.