Shooting Birds.... The feathered kind!

Hey Guys...

This is my first post! I am not a big poster...

Was wondering if I could pick the brains of your collective experience?

I am from an action back ground of mainly shooting cars, bikes and fast jets but I cannot for the life of me get a good shot of a bird in flight because they are so unpredictable!

I was wondering the what's the best way to capture one in flight? I am ok with exposure but it's just getting one into sharp focus. Am I best doing pre-empted focusing and then just following the bird in flight until I get it in focus and then snapping a shot off? With fast jets I can use quite slow shutter speeds and blurring the back ground but fast jets fly a very predictable flight path and are relatively easy to get a good shot of... well they are for me I have been shooting them since I was 10!

Any help would be much appreciated!

Ian

hi and welcome,
what camera and lens are you using, its all in the panning i find i normally try get a shutter of 1000/s, heres some pics.
[IMG]http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/perigrinfalcon1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/owl2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/SJB17694.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/harrishawk101.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/eagleowl.jpg[/IMG]

Amazing shots there Scot!

I have a IST-DL (will be soon upgrading to a K20D) and a Sigma 150-500mm. I think maybe my trouble is running maybe to slow on the shutter speed! I have been aiming for 1/250 to maybe 1/500. When shooting fast gets i rarely go above 1/500! Maybe I am getting camera shake because of so much panning?

I took these 2 at RAF Valley and were taken using 1/125 shutter speed but like I said they fly a very predictable path:

Hi Ian,

Nice shots. I see you are in the Peak District - where abouts? I live in Chesterfield.

I live over in Buxton. Altho I go to and thru Chesterfield quite a lot as I have a good mate who lives there and also my sister and dad live in Bolsover!

i have a 150-500mm for sale if interested pm me,

BUGGER!!!

I would of been a week ago... before I got mine! Altho I did get a good deal. It was one a customer had and it went back for repair and I got it for £550 and I am very happy with it!

Following on from the OP question

The last few nights I have enjoyed watching the Bats that put on a rather superb aerobatic display in the lane next to my house

Do you reckon there is any AF system that could track them? Suppose the next question is, could they actually be photographed especially in the low light conditions?

Cheers
Rich

cant see why not, but we are not aloud to big up other camera makers on this forum,

says who!!

Scott and Ian,

If I can manage to get a Lesser Kestrel and European Roller in mid air fight using AF on the K20D on continous shoot than I think you should have a go at the bats. The only problem would be the light.

J

Don't think that would be giving it large for another brand, just answering a genuine question
Especially so if Pentax don't actually manufacture such a beast

Not like i would be off to buy one, have a feeling that anything that could track and shoot a bat in flight is way out of my league

I have just been thinking about that... I love night photography and hows this for an idea: use a long shutter setting (10 plus seconds) combined with f22 and then using a strobe flash gun. That may produce some interesting images!

There you have it , That's one way of doing it.

You don't always need a N***N for it. There are always ways around a problem and if we think carefully we always can come up with a process of solving it

But then again you might have a problem focusing and there are some cameras there that are better at AF

I would be astounded if any camera would be able to lock on and track a bat in flight. Bear in mind that the most likely one you'll see in Britain is a pipistrelle, which is about 40mm long and flies at 5 metres per second. At dusk.

I have got a shot of a bat in flight, using a long exposure (about 1 second I think, just to get a bit of colour in the sky) and flash, with a 50mm lens and prefocusing on the height I expected the bats to be. It's heavily cropped.




Scott's pics are lovely and sharp, but remember (with no disrespect to Scott) these are captive birds, and will have been flying from perch to glove or something similar. They're going to be a lot more predictable than wild birds. Having said that, the Kestrel is obviously doing something more aerobatic than that, so hats off to Scott.

Even my Red Kite shots were most successful when I could predict where they were going to be flying, and there's no getting away from the fact that knowledge of your wildlife subject is the best way to get a good shot - you'll probably find out they're not as unpredictable as they first appear. Just watch them for a while, if it's birds in your garden, they'll most likely have a preferred route to your feeders. The Kites I shot had a fairly regular 'holding pattern' that they flew before swooping in for food, and a fairly predictable route out again with the meat.

Dan