The Last 60 Seconds

[glenna1984]

My wife and I were on an Audubon walk in S. California last week. The photo opportunities were completely ho hum normal. Nothing to get excited about. As we were approaching the car, there was a Great Blue Heron in the path.

I focused on the bird, set my Nikon D7000 to track and just stopped.

Within a minute the heron lifted off and I got three terrific shots.
Here is the last one.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Very good focus. I have never tried that feature.

 

[glenna1984]

Almost very good. I did need to run it through Topaz Sharpen AI, which helped

 

[Scott Whaley]

I use the AIServo focus on my 7d & 5d. Nice feature to use. Oh, by the way. Nice pic.

 

[Winona]

Nice!

 

[K9Kirk]

A tad too dark but still a pleasant pic.

 

[Space Face]

Has a composite look to it. Lots of features to take in.

 

[glenna1984]

A tad too dark but still a pleasant pic.

Actually, a good point. Before sending it out for printing, I did lighten up.

 

[Amocholes]

I have a D7000 and I had no idea it could do that!

 

[SquarePeg]

Isn’t it always the first shot of the day or the last? Seems to happen to me quite a bit.

Nice way to end your walk!

 

[glenna1984]

I have a D7000 and I had no idea it could do that!

There are several ways to do this. For this shot I set the Auto Focus to AF-C and a single point (though I have seen that multiple points are recommended too).
Because I did not expect to wait long, I focused on the bird's head and just held the shutter release half way down (again, there are other ways to do this, using the AE-l/AF-L button on the back).
I set the shutter control to multiple with one press. Top dial, on left CL-H.
When the heron started to move, I just pressed and held, and moved the camera to follow the heron
I got about 10 shots and kept 3.
Still needed to do some post processing, cropping & sharpening.
This was with the 18x105 kit lens. 500th of second f/10

 

[willard3]

Nice foto of a Guapo bird. I love GBHs

 

[paigew]

Beautiful!! What a perfect shot!

 

[Amocholes]

I haven't done that with my Nikon before. Usually not enough time to change the settings. I have done it with my waterproof Fuji point & shoot in my kayak.