Taken on a recent trip to the Isle of Skye with Colin...
The cottage we stayed at had a pair of male and female Chaffinch which for some reason, would spend half the day attacking their own reflections in the cottage windows! At first I was taking shots from within the room shooting out so that I could capture them flying at me. I had some ok shots but it was through a window and the light wasn't perfect and the background busy. I then had the idea of going outside and trying to shoot them side on against the white walls of the cottage. In all I must have taken close to 2000 shots over a few hours trying to get this shot but I knew if I persisted it would pay off. Many of the images had bits cut off, no bird in frame of were soft. I started at 1/1000 second and soon realised I needed MUCH faster shutter speeds! The light was hit and miss and at one point I had to drop down to ISO 3200. I could have used flash but I didn't want to throw shadows on the wall close behind and also, in order to capture the pose I wanted I had to eventually pre-empt the take off and start shooting before. If I waited, even at 1/5000 second and 9fps the first shot had half a bird and the second had no bird!! Another problem was shooting at f5 to keep the shutter speed up meant I had to hope the bird stayed in my DOF which is rarely did as the branch was being blown about by wind!
D3 and 200-400 VR. 1/5000 second at f5, ISO 1600, all natural lighting. Shot against the white wall of the cottage.
Excellent result Richard and I enjoyed the explanation. As if happens, I'm off to Skye at the weekend, so if you identified any "hot spots", I'd be delighted to hear from you!
I love the plain background and the way the bird and branch stand out against it. I don't know, there really is no pleasing some people
Seriously though, thanks for all the comments everyone, very pleased with the end result. I'd have been most unimpressed if after all that I got nothing
Barrie...I'm sure I have no idea what your on about
all those shots paid off! I like it a lot. Wonder whether its possible to burn out the white wall anymore - I think the simplicity of the image might work well like the modern studio portraits you see?
And once again the explanation is really helpful to me in developing - thanks for sharing
Discussion
10 repliesThe cottage we stayed at had a pair of male and female Chaffinch which for some reason, would spend half the day attacking their own reflections in the cottage windows! At first I was taking shots from within the room shooting out so that I could capture them flying at me. I had some ok shots but it was through a window and the light wasn't perfect and the background busy. I then had the idea of going outside and trying to shoot them side on against the white walls of the cottage. In all I must have taken close to 2000 shots over a few hours trying to get this shot but I knew if I persisted it would pay off. Many of the images had bits cut off, no bird in frame of were soft. I started at 1/1000 second and soon realised I needed MUCH faster shutter speeds! The light was hit and miss and at one point I had to drop down to ISO 3200. I could have used flash but I didn't want to throw shadows on the wall close behind and also, in order to capture the pose I wanted I had to eventually pre-empt the take off and start shooting before. If I waited, even at 1/5000 second and 9fps the first shot had half a bird and the second had no bird!! Another problem was shooting at f5 to keep the shutter speed up meant I had to hope the bird stayed in my DOF which is rarely did as the branch was being blown about by wind!
D3 and 200-400 VR. 1/5000 second at f5, ISO 1600, all natural lighting. Shot against the white wall of the cottage.
It looks like your perseverance paid off handsomely! Awesome fight capture and a great story to boot!
JR
Matt
Great shot and a full explanation which I find very helpful thanks for sharing.
Barry
Eastbourne / Kansas
Alan
Seriously though, thanks for all the comments everyone, very pleased with the end result. I'd have been most unimpressed if after all that I got nothing
Barrie...I'm sure I have no idea what your on about
And once again the explanation is really helpful to me in developing - thanks for sharing