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Birds in flight
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Been trying to catch birds in flight recently. These are my best results so far, what do you think?
Not so mad on the first one. The subject is not really in a complimentary position.
The second is something I’ve tried a few times when I’ve grabbed my shot. I fired 2 hours of panning photos of red kites last October and binned every one of them. It’s a technique that pro’s are doing quite a lot to seperate themselves from the rest of us. It’s also very hard to do right. This one is hard to judge because it is all about the eye. If it’s sharp, the photo rocks.
The gull looks well in the third. The background is artificial, something I’m not a fan of. B/W rarely works in wildlife. It has to be a very special photo for it to work (e.g. Nick Brandt’s work).
Thanks a lot for your feedback, Joe! The first one was taken from a bridge at St Stephen’s Green. I don’t have a zoom lens or telephoto, just the 18 to 55mm on my camera, and I found the birds flew by quite close to me at that spot so I grabbed the opportunity! I like this photo myself, I like the way the light goes through the feathers and the leaves, although I see your point about the uncomplimentary position, I hadn’t paid attention to that myself! The second one is not totally sharp but it’s almost there and I was happy that purely by chance I caught the bird with something in its mouth. I learned the panning technique recently in my last course at the Institute of Photography and I just like trying it out every now and then. In the third one (which is a crop) I found the bird stood out more with the black and white background, I don’t usually do this with nature shots but I thought it suited the urban background here, but I completely take your point on board, thanks again for replying!
The 1st is not bad, and 3rd doesn’t do it for me at all. But the second one is excellent, well done. I wish I had taken it. Dont get hung up on sharpness, catching the essence of the bird on the wing is what really matters (although I know my view is not often shared – ask my old camera club :D ). Even in wildlife photography motion, blur and grain will add athmosphere and set shots apart from what everybody else takes. Just look at National Geographic. There are often wildlife shots in there that are similar to yours here. To paraphrase a photojourno I follow like a bad smell “dont try to finish your images, let your viewer do that” , or something like that anyway. I think he said it far more eloquently.
Hi Esther.
Birds in flight are very difficult to capture sucessfully & I found that the smaller the bird, the harder it was to get a decent shot.
I like #1, even though as mentioned the viewpoint / position is not ideal. The lighting in this shot is great showing through the feathers & leaves plus the complimentary colours look well.
Panning shots are also difficult to get right & more so when shooting a “live” subject which can change direction dramatically during the shot. This requires a lot of practice. I think that a bright subject against a darker background & vice versa helps to seperate them in this type of shot & make them stand out more.
In #3 the gull almost looks like it is about to take flight from the balcony railing as it’s body is in line with it. A wider aperture (if possible) would help to seperate it more from the background or the use of a telephoto lens would give a narrower DOF.
Overall, you have done fairly well, but you will need more practice. Gulls can be one of the easiest birds to photograph as they move reasonably slowly & are willing to come close if food is involved. Bring some food with you to entice them to an area & wait a little while for them to get used to you being there. They will start to feed & give you some good opportunities for successful shots (on your terms). :)That’s great, thanks a lot, Steve and Miki for the comments and advice! Steve, I take your comment about my shot being similar to what you can find in National Geographic as a huge compliment!! and I like that quote, I should keep that in mind more. Miki, thanks a mil for the very useful advice, at the moment I’m only dabbling with this type of photography and just grab chances here and there as I go about doing other things. I’ll keep at it as much as I can, bring food with me as you say, and if I ever manage to get a telephoto lens, then I’ll definitely be watching the birds more! :D
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