Birds in Flight with a Beater Camera

[LeeOtsubo]

Here's a pod of sandhills taken with a 4 year old Canon 10D (6 megapixels) and a Canon 70-200/4 non-IS (~$550) + EF 1.4X TC (~$280). The effective focal length is 280mm. Exposure was 1/500, f10, ISO 200.

Sandhills with Canon 10D

If your excuse is that you have an older camera or your lens is too short or your Grandma won't give you an early inheritence, you're not trying hard enough.

[msbrad]

Beautiful photo Lee!
m

[NMarti]

Beautiful shot Lee.

[DMurray407]

Wow. Lee! That's exactly what I want to do-AND, I have all that stuff! Tell, me-what did you meter off of and did you you use somethig like A1 servo to focus? I need details . . .
Thanks!
Deb

[lexcell]

I can't speak for Lee and how he exposes for his images but, I almost always shoot in aperture priority, matrix (evaluative for Canon) metering, AF continuous (servo) and if I find that I need to brighten or darken the exposure based on my highlight warnings or histogram, I dial in exposure compensation.

This allows me to concentrate on my subject and not all the trappings of camera buttons and dials. As the subject moves across the sky (or wherever) the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed to keep the exposure accurate.

When I know I need a fast shutter speed, I select a wider aperture and when I want a blur I dial down the aperture to a smaller opening.

I can do this on the fly without ever taking the camera from my eye allowing me to capture the image the way I see it.

[GaryK]

Lee

All that camera mumbo jumbo aside, can I still hope for the early inheritance?

[bayhli]

Laurie,

I'm intrigued by the fact that you shoot birds in aperture mode - my instinct as a beginner would be to go with shutter speed mode to ensure blurring or freezing etc.

Can you elaborate a bit on why you prefer aperture mode for birds?

Thanks!

[lexcell]

Pat,
By shooting in aperture priority, I can control depth of field and/ or shutter speed.

The reason I don't use shutter priority is... let's say I am in shutter priority and have a shutter speed of 1/250 at f4 with my 600mm lens. I begin to pan with my subject and the light changes, gets darker. I already have the widest aperture possible so there is no where else to go and the result is underexposed images.

If I am in aperture priority, same situation and the light changes, my shutter speed drops, I keep shooting and the exposure is fine. I may get blur, I may not but, I have a proper exposure.

Over the years, I have learned to think in apertures...what aperture will result in a certain DOF, or what aperture will give me a faster/ slower shutter speed, etc It works for me and so I stick with it.

The only time I ever deviate from aperture priority is when shooting lightning, fireworks, etc.

[bayhli]

Thanks Laurie,

I'll tuck this useful information away for the spring, when the birds are back.

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Hi Lee,

Great shot and an even better explanation. Too often we forget that photography is 85% seeing. When I ran a software company, I often said that the software business was simple: "Good programmers do good work!"

Cheers,

Bob