Working on something new - chickadee's in flight

[Don Kondra]

Greetings,

As if I needed a new challenge

Please note I did not have the light for these shots, just looking to see if it was possible.

Tripod, Manual focus to a point just in front of the feeder, speed as high as possible.

I tried single and burst mode with and without remote shutter release and what it seems to boil down to is timing.

The chickadee's stage in the bush across from the feeder and there is one particular branch on one tree that yields a fairly consistent flight path.

The "trick" is setting the focus and timing the shutter release so the bird is in the dof

Strong back light...

On these next two shots it was totally overcast and could have benefited from +Exp Comp, sigh..

Cheers, Don

 

[EricD]

Well captured..love the transparent look in the wings!!

 

[Don Kondra]

Thank you Eric,

Looking forward to trying this with better light, some detail on the head/chest and a catch light in the eye would be great

Cheers, Don

 

[jdubya]

Great job Don ! I've been trying to catch the Redtail hawk for a long time since moving to S.W. Missouri. I hope I have as much luck as you had w/your chickadee's.

 

[Don Kondra]

Another cloudy day but slightly better results

Cheers, Don

 

[Shocknawe]

decent shots, would be even better if at least the bodys were 100% focused (the last pic you posted was best IMO), quite a bit of grain too but low light compounded with the blacks will do that.

 

[Don Kondra]

^^

Agreed, I still consider these works in progress with tough light

Cheers, Don

 

[Shocknawe]

Oh deffinatley not easy thats for sure....it'll make that much more gratifying when you do get exactly what you want though.

 

[Don Kondra]

A little better but haven't quite nailed the focus

Cheers, Don

 

[Big]

Maybe try AF Servo instead of manual focus.

 

[rstrick2]

I have tried this myself and i found you need at least 1000 shutter speed to get then clear. Most of the time you need a high ISO and the noise gets bad. I use Noiseware to remove the noise. Great work timing is the key. Keep more coming.

 

[Don Kondra]

Thanks Robert,

My exif is intact, all of my shots range from 1/1000 to 1/1600. Noise isn't an issue, out of focus and poor light is

As I said, all but the last image were test shots irregardless of the lighting conditions.

I have a plan to address the focus/dof. Big suggested what Olympus calls continuous auto focus but with such a small, fast subject moving towards you that isn't possible.

To give you an idea of what I'm up against, the chickadees stage in a tree about thirty feet from the feeder and the best flight path is from a branch about fifteen feet in the air. So they are flying towards me at about a thirty degree angle.

The E-30 can fire at 5 fps. If I release the shutter just as the bird leaves the branch, the first frame will have a way out of focus bullet, the second frame has the bird flaring for landing and in the third frame the bird has already landed.

No way an auto focus system has time to acquire and capture that

Having said that, these are almost ideal conditions for my goal, a front view with wings fully extended, head feather detail and eye highlights.

The not so good is even with good light the best I can expect is side light, I'm shooting south and repositioning isn't going to happen... my friends are already starting to look at me like I'm crazy, he, he....

More to come.

Cheers, Don

 

[Allizdog89]

whats your ISO at?

 

[Don Kondra]

400
200
200
500
100

Strange, the exif data is not available from Photobucket right now.

Cheers, Don

 

[corralup]

I agree with you on how tough it is. I think 1/1600 of a second would be more ideal as you stated you have done. Keep trying your getting better at it. You need to do this on good lighting though. I personally stop taking pictures on cloudy days unless of course it was something I had to get. Looking forward to more!