First time with birds in flight

[Dominantly]

I have never tried to capture birds in flight before, but decided I would head down to the water and maybe give it a shot.
Some things I noticed was in 3D AF tracking the camera was being difficult with keeping the birds in focus. I set the camera up to single point, continuous focus, center weighted metering for the follow on shots to get them to work a bit better.
This ended up being easier to focus, but I found that with trying to focus on them and their flight paths, I often had them dead center of the frame, or leading out (which I know is not correct).
It was fun though and I've sure people probably enjoyed watching me whip around trying to keep these things in frame with their irregular flight paths

I used the 55-200mm VR lens for the shots BTW. I'm sure there is better glass, this is just all I had one me at the time.


1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. His eye really popped

7. Just for fun, this shows how that setup was able to distinguish between the background and bird.

C&C Welcome... Maybe some hints on technique.

 

[lvcrtrs]

Hey, for your first go round I think you did good. You got them and they in pretty good focus, good for you. I found the 3D tracking challening as well with BIF. I pretty much used the forum feedback and have gone to center focus point. I like #1 because of the light on his underside showing his feather and color detail.