Birds in flight, how do I do it?

Birds in flight photography is one of the most challenging aspects of bird photography. It’s not just about having a camera with great autofocus and a fast lens to track the bird; a lot relies on having the right camera settings. In this situation, shooting in Auto Mode simply won’t cut it.

So, how do I approach it? I’ve configured my Canon R6 with custom settings specifically for Birds in Flight, saved to the C3 memory slot. This allows me to quickly access my optimized settings with a simple switch to C3. I prefer shooting in Shutter Priority mode, setting the shutter speed at around 1/3000 to freeze the motion, while letting the camera automatically handle the aperture and ISO. This approach simplifies the process and keeps me focused on the action.

The results speak for themselves, as seen in this stunning capture of a red-shouldered hawk in flight.

 

Or this other picture of a juvenile Mississippi Kite.

Extremely detailed photograph of the moon

 An Iraq-based photographer decided to take the most detailed picture of the moon. 

 ...it required four days of continuous moon observation and shooting, ending up with over 81,000 images. They were stacked together to create the final 708 GB piece, with a whopping 159.7 MP resolution. Darya merged four different moon phases and the moon’s shadow area to reveal the topography of the lunar surface.

You can see some of the pictures here. The quality of those pictures are amazing so the amount of work put into this project.

Settings for Wildlife Photography

There aren’t necessarily right or wrong settings—there are settings that work well for you and your specific shooting situation. I chose the following video because it perfectly explains my approach and settings to wildlife photography.

Bird Photography in New York City

Believe it or not, I had more opportunities for bird photography when I lived in South Florida than I do now living in a small town north of Tampa.

Surprisingly, bird photography in New York City isn't uncommon, as explained in the following video.

Swans in Florida

 Yesterday we visited the city of Lakeland, Florida, specifically Lake Morton. The main reason of our visit was to photograph the Swans that were gifted to this city by Queen Elizabeth II.

Using a Canon R6 w/EF100-400L

Using a Canon R6 w/EF100-400L

 

 Above you can see two of the pictures I took while admiring the beauty of these birds.  For more pictures, please visit my Flickr page.

 

Image stabilization

Image stabilization is crucial for any type of photography. Here’s a picture I took using a super low shutter speed to capture the movement effect in the water. I used 1/15s; at this speed, without image stabilization, there would have been no way to shoot this image without a tripod.

Love is in the air

In my opinion, this is the best picture from today’s photo walk. The two lizards look like they're hugging each other.