Dragonflies in flight

December 10, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
Dragonflies are interesting creatures. They are voracious predators. They can fly around very fast and seem to change direction on a dime. This makes them difficult to photograph in flight. They are hard to track and even harder to lock focus on. The good news is that they are not always in a hurry. At times they fly at a much slower pace. The best...
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Bees (in flight)

December 03, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
The city where I live has a beautiful garden. Bright flowers are everywhere. They attract bees. When the bees harvest pollen from the flowers they don't fly very fast. As the flowers attract the bees, so the slow flying bees attract me. First, I looked for flowers that are isolated a bit. Perhaps one is higher than the others, or to one side where...
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Neighborhood rabbits

November 26, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
There are many rabbits in our neighborhood. My wife and I do a two mile walk most days of the week. At times we have counted up to forty rabbits on our walks. Since these rabbits are used to people they tend not to be skittish. So I decided that it was time to photograph them. You have heard me say time and time again, when talking about bird photo...
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Where is your photography gear when you drive?

November 19, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
When driving to where I plan to photograph, my gear is carried in my car's trunk. I don't want my gear to be visible. When I reach the location, I first observe the conditions to decide if I am going to shoot or not. Sometimes my gear does not even come out of my car's trunk and I don't shoot. Perhaps the crowds are too large or the scene has chang...
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Wing movement of birds

November 12, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
When shooting at a high frame rate to capture the action, you will end up with many images. Even a short burst of a few second will generate a lot of images for you to review. If you have hundreds of similar images of birds in flight, it is often the position of the wings that make or break an image. If you are reviewing your images to cull them an...
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Big lenses and resolution

November 05, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
I read about this place in Washington where Eagles fish. When the tide goes out, oysters are exposed that traps fish. The fish lures the Eagles. So off I went to photograph this spectacle. There was just one problem (actually two, the second being that the light was a bit harsh). The action was happening a bit far from me. I could not get closer as...
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Capture the right moment

October 29, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
Photography is all about capturing the right moment. In landscape photography the right moment is when the light is at its best. In people photography the right moment is often when emotions show themselves. In action photography it is right when the action happens. Your ability to capture the right moment depends on your skill to read the situatio...
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Use every opportunity

October 22, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
We were on a multi-day road trip. Some days we spent most of the time on the road. This means that there was no time for photography. It is easy to say to ourselves, "I only have a half hour, it is not worth it." As a result we don't get the gear out and we don't photograph. On one such day I was ready to leave a half hour before the rest of the gr...
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Flight sequence of birds

October 15, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
Getting good birds in flight photographs are difficult. They move fast. Camera autofocus systems sometimes struggle to keep up. These systems perform well if the bird is photographed with a blank sky behind them. But cameras struggle more if the bird is in front of messy backgrounds. Then the bird does not stand out and the autofocus has to hunt to...
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Animal expressions

October 08, 2023  •  Leave a Comment
Yes, animals have expressions too. Their expressions change from when they are relaxed to when they are on high alert. Or a predator has a different look on its face when it finds and hunts its pray from that of just resting in the shade. A Heron or an Eagle has a focused look as it targets its pray. If we can capture the image when they wear their...
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