Technical: 0039 Nikon D200 1/250 sec, f5, ISO 200, focal length 160 Technical: 9815 Nikon D200 1/250 sec, f5, ISO 200, focal length 185 Technical: 1010 Nikon D200 1/1000 sec, f5, ISO 1000, focal length 145
Here’s an exercise. Try to shoot birds in flight. I have many shots now of birds perched on the feeder. Flight is another subject. Advice: shoot at high shutter speed, use a tripod, pre focus, and have lots of patience. I used a tripod, which I mostly eschew. It does limit mobility and composition. But holding a telephoto lens is a chore. I used the bird feeder and focused on one of the lower screws as my pre focus point. I set the camera focus on manual so I could fine tune. I used shutter speeds of 1/250, 1/1000, and then 1/2000. The action is caught pretty well at 1/2000 but there is the noise/ISO to contend with. My ISO ran to 1000 and then 1600. The images were sharp. At 1/250, the wing motion was harder to stop. The images are obtained primarily by patience. In 1000 images, I got about 50 take home shots. You would never do that with film, but hey, it’s digital. You cannot just set off the motor drive. It will not reliably capture good images. Most images have no movement because the timing was off. Or the image will capture the wings in a strange position. Hence there is a low rate of success. The tripod is crucial. I could pre focus and then wait. While waiting I made up this post.
For a really great set of photos see 11/14 post hummingbirds by cousin David. It’s posted again below.
PhotoCritical 