In the Previous Blog Post …
In the previous blog post, Why Photograph Common Birds? Why No Chance?, here, I asked the following questions:
1- Which is the stronger image? Why did you make your choice?
2- Which sky color do you prefer, the slightly blue sky in Image #1 or the grayer sky in Image #2?
3- What are the two main reasons that I had zero chance of creating a sharp, pleasing take-off shot despite the fact that Pre-Capture (PC) was set to ON with the P-C time set to one full second?
1: I felt that Image #1, the sky-pointing bird, was the stronger image because of the beautiful pose and the iridescent colors. The bird’s eye in each image was sharply focused, but the eye in #2 looked a lot better because of the slightly-toward-the-viewer head angle. Most folks liked Image #2 best because of the impending action.
2- I always struggle with decisions on sky color especially when photographing black or very dark birds early on sunny mornings. In Image #1, I blued up the sky just a bit using Color Mixer/Saturated Targeted Adjustment Tool. With Image #2, I used the same tool to make the sky more neutral, much closer to gray than in Image #1. In most cases including this one, I prefer the grayer sky though perhaps because the because the blue sky in these situations looks phony to me (even though the sky was a pleasant light blue at the time).
3: Most who commented noted that the shutter speed of 1/1000 second was nowhere near fast enough to freeze the bird in flight as it jetted off the perch. But nobody nailed the second reason. Keep reading to learn why I had no chance for the take-off shot at 1200mm.
What’s Up?
With classic death on bird photography conditions on Thursday morning — a brisk NW wind with bright sun, I pretty much came up empty.
I was glad to learn that the sale of Todd Koudelka’s used Canon EF 600mm f4/L IS II lens is pending.
Today is Friday 7 March 2025. Anita North — visiting from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and I left ILE at 4:445qm for an experimental early season visit to Stick Marsh. Whatever you plan on doing, I hope that you too opt to have a wonderful day. Do remember that happiness is a choice — Byron Katie, The Work.Com.
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This image was created on 4 March 2025 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Seated in the driver’s seat of my SYV, I used the hand held Sony FE 300mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens (Sony E) with the Sony FE 2x Teleconverter and the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. ISO 2000. The exposure determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Wheel; 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect: AWB at 7:32:01am in on a sunny morning. Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly. Image #1: Boat-tailed Grackle taking flight |
a-1 ii Pre-Capture
Pre-Capture with the Sony a-1 ii and the Sony a9 iii makes capturing take-off shots much easier especially for folks like me with age-slowed reaction times.
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Image #1A: The Photo Mechanic screen capture for the Boat-tailed Grackle taking flight image |
What Everyone Missed
What everyone missed was the fact that I simply had too long a focal length: 1200mm. I knew that the bird would fly south because of the wind direction. Even with Pre-Capture I was doomed to fail as when the birds take flight they raise their wings overhead. Clipping the wings was 100% unavoidable. A related issue was that working off the BLUBB makes it nearly impossible to pan with the bird.
The next day, after realizing my problem, I went to the hand held 300mm f/2.8/2X TC/a- ii rig. With the much lighter rig and the shorter focal length, panning with the bird as it took flight was child’s play. When trying for the take-off shot, you need to work wide rather than tight. Working wider (with a shorter focal length) gives you more depth of field. In addition, the AF system is better able to follow the bird and track the eye. Then comes the crop.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
The question about your chances of getting a sharp image was a bit sneaky 🙂
I didn’t think about it enough, as you asked, “sharp, PLEASING, image”. So I concentrated only on the sharpness question and did not consider the difficulty you might have keeping the subject in frame at 1200mm.
Tricky. LOL.
Hi, Artie. Typos under What Everyone Missed. I’m guessing you mean 1200 mm in the second line. 200 is rarely too long. Also line 6 should be their wings. But yes, as to your main point it’s a tradeoff between getting good portraits of a perched bird at long focal lengths and getting good takeoff shots at shorter focal lengths. You might have to decide in advance which you want.
Thanks times 2 and fixed. For me the choice is difficult since I love clean, tight, and graphic.
with love, a