I've taken better shots than this in the past and will take better in the future but rarely have I had as difficult a time getting a shot as one like this. That makes this one more satisfying than most.
I found this Scrub Jay and partner building a nest in the arborvitae tree it is flying into. That was about a month ago. I've been observing them ever since. The female is now sitting on eggs in the nest and the male periodically arrives to do what I assume is bring food to her or check on her or perhaps even take turns on the nest. Lighting conditions at this location are usually contrasting shadow and bright light which makes it even more difficult to cope with for getting images. Adding to that difficulty is that these birds are smart and if they even think that you are observing them they will either not enter the front nest hole or will use an alternate entry on the rear of the tree.
So today I've started using an alternate approach to my usual handholding the camera and waiting. I decided to setup on a tripod (what I should have done in the beginning), compose up front and prefocus and then kind of just make believe I wasn't looking that direction. When I did notice the birds flying to the nest I just calmly had my finger to the shutter button and shot a burst. I realize now that I could really use the remote shutter release for the Canon - I'll have to get that.
20D, 70-200/4 + 1.4x, 1/4000 @ f7.1, ISO 1600 (I noticed this high shutter afterwards and see that I could have used a lower ISO. Apparently, the light undersides of the bird decreases the exposure greatly!).
I have no suggestions on how to better capture these cautious parents. It must be so much fun trying get them just perfectly. Hopefully you will be around when mama brings out the little ones for flying lessons. What a photo op the will be!
Hi Janet! Thanks for looking. When it comes to these really, really dynamic shots of the smaller birds in midair I am really just experimenting until I find the right formula. I've not been wanting to use any fill flash on this pair because I didn't want them to abandon the nest.
It is a challenge to get the perfect shot here. This one is not it. It's getting better, though. I think my perfect shot would be similar to this one in the bird's flight posture but I really would like to get the shot from behind so that all the bird's colors would show off the best. And the light needs to be just a tad less harsh which doesn't go hand-in-hand with the shutter speeds I need to stop the action and have no blurring.
Unfortunately, I do not think I will be around when the young ones hatch and are ready to start taking their first forays out from the nest. I leave end of next week for a month trip. I've observed this pair for so long that I just hate to leave them but it has to be.
I like the action, Geoff, but the bird's color looks a bit weird to me. It seems sort of blown-out grayish. I can see the problem with the exposure. I certainly don't know how to do it better (I'd sure be happy if this was mine) but I'm just offering an observation for your consideration.
No, I do have a problem with the exposure, Mark. That's why I said this isn't my best image. I certainly liked the action I got and I was proud of being patient enough to get that. But the lighting conditions were so bad that I was forced to do too much PS work to get shadow and bright areas looking decent. I think the underside of the bird became too much of a casualty as a result.
I am thinking that the only way I get the bird with the action frozen and with correct lighting is to actually use fill flash and I was hesitating doing so. But I might. If I wait until a time of day when the light is less harsh I can't get a shutter speed high enough, meaning fill flash once again.
FYI, here's another shot where I got the exposure conditions I wanted (without fill flash) but didn't quite get all the jay in focus as the head is slightly blurry. Now, if I can only get the exposure conditions as for this image and meld it with my latest methods for waiting on the birds and capturing the shots...
Geoff, your timing was darn good! That is a shot that few have duplicated. I think that the only possible improvement would be in having no shadow to the farside wing. These were some tough conditions and I think you can be proud of the result.
Actually, beyond the shadow on the far wing, there are other problems as I already talked about in previous replies. Much of the problem is as a result of incorrect exposure coupled with too much post-processing. I may actually rework this image from scratch as an exercise in some tricky PSCS post-processing.
Discussion
8 repliesI've taken better shots than this in the past and will take better in the future but rarely have I had as difficult a time getting a shot as one like this. That makes this one more satisfying than most.
I found this Scrub Jay and partner building a nest in the arborvitae tree it is flying into. That was about a month ago. I've been observing them ever since. The female is now sitting on eggs in the nest and the male periodically arrives to do what I assume is bring food to her or check on her or perhaps even take turns on the nest. Lighting conditions at this location are usually contrasting shadow and bright light which makes it even more difficult to cope with for getting images. Adding to that difficulty is that these birds are smart and if they even think that you are observing them they will either not enter the front nest hole or will use an alternate entry on the rear of the tree.
So today I've started using an alternate approach to my usual handholding the camera and waiting. I decided to setup on a tripod (what I should have done in the beginning), compose up front and prefocus and then kind of just make believe I wasn't looking that direction. When I did notice the birds flying to the nest I just calmly had my finger to the shutter button and shot a burst. I realize now that I could really use the remote shutter release for the Canon - I'll have to get that.
20D, 70-200/4 + 1.4x, 1/4000 @ f7.1, ISO 1600 (I noticed this high shutter afterwards and see that I could have used a lower ISO. Apparently, the light undersides of the bird decreases the exposure greatly!).
Janet B
It is a challenge to get the perfect shot here. This one is not it. It's getting better, though. I think my perfect shot would be similar to this one in the bird's flight posture but I really would like to get the shot from behind so that all the bird's colors would show off the best. And the light needs to be just a tad less harsh which doesn't go hand-in-hand with the shutter speeds I need to stop the action and have no blurring.
Unfortunately, I do not think I will be around when the young ones hatch and are ready to start taking their first forays out from the nest. I leave end of next week for a month trip. I've observed this pair for so long that I just hate to leave them but it has to be.
I am thinking that the only way I get the bird with the action frozen and with correct lighting is to actually use fill flash and I was hesitating doing so. But I might. If I wait until a time of day when the light is less harsh I can't get a shutter speed high enough, meaning fill flash once again.
This is tough photograpy for sure!
Actually, beyond the shadow on the far wing, there are other problems as I already talked about in previous replies. Much of the problem is as a result of incorrect exposure coupled with too much post-processing. I may actually rework this image from scratch as an exercise in some tricky PSCS post-processing.