Wait for it....

I stood on the shores of a suburban lake waiting for the ducks to fly. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, a man walking his dog on a leash, approached the ducks and they FLEW...in the opposite direction.

Might have been worth the effort to have made a picture of the whole event, including the man with dog and the birds flying away. Probably way more interesting than the more typical flying ducks picture we've all seen about a million times.

Might have been worth the effort to have made a picture of the whole event, including the man with dog and the birds flying away. Probably way more interesting than the more typical flying ducks picture we've all seen about a million times.

You are absolutely right! Problem is I am not yet an expert to be looking in the right direction at the right time. I saw the man and dog as the ducks (or perhaps egrets) were flying away.

You'll never get them all, but relax, observe, anticipate and have camera in hand ready to go - if a particular event is shaping up, preset for it. Good fun!

Sometimes it just doesn't quite get in focus:(

 

You are absolutely right! Problem is I am not yet an expert to be looking in the right direction at the right time. I saw the man and dog as the ducks (or perhaps egrets) were flying away.

Got it! One of the most valuable lessons I learned early on was to anticipate and previsualize a shot I want to take to whatever extent I can while also being ready for the unexpected and accidental, which will often produce a better and more spontaneous picture than the one I was originally thinking about or planning for. I do a lot of planning and don't think spontaneity is the be-all and end-all of photography, but when the unexpected works out, it can be magical. To that end, utilizing a broad kind of peripheral vision, even while focused on something specific, can allow for a lot of interesting developments.

Ducks and Geese take off and land into the wind. Remembering this can help with pre-positioning yourself ready for when they do take off.

Sometimes it just doesn't quite get in focus:(

 

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I am still wrestling with my camera, which exacerbates the effort to photograph birds in flight. Do I set focus to Auto Focus Flexible (AFF) or Auto Focus Continuous (AFC)?

A nature videographer once told me the useable video captured was a fraction of the time spent getting it. Sometimes days for minutes.

I am still wrestling with my camera, which exacerbates the effort to photograph birds in flight. Do I set focus to Auto Focus Flexible (AFF) or Auto Focus Continuous (AFC)?

 

I nearly always use AFC. On Nikon cameras there is also the AF Area Mode and I usually use 9 point Dynamic Area Mode.

A nature videographer once told me the useable video captured was a fraction of the time spent getting it. Sometimes days for minutes.

In the US, a 30-minute (or more like 20+ minutes without the commercials) sitcom typically takes a week to shoot (video tape). Quality products take time to produce. Days for minutes is normal.

With this thread I can't resist telling this story. We own an island with a cabin in northern WI and for the last few years there has been a pair of bald eagles who have made a nest on the mainland near the island and raised one or two eaglets. This year there was one eaglet that I always saw and heard on or near the nest until one day it appeared on a tree on our island. So it must have just fledged. That afternoon it was again on the island so we decided to have dinner on our pontoon boat positioned between the eaglet and the nest, thinking we would see one of the parents come to make a food drop, or the eaglet fly back to the nest. The first photo show my wife eating dinner while the eaglet can just be seen on the tree to the far right. As the sun started to go down, the nearly full moon began to rise in the east and I remarked that it would be something if the eaglet flew across the full moon. The next shot shows the eaglet on the tree with the moon rising on the right.

 

Of course, I wouldn't have a story if the impossible didn't happen: the eaglet flew out of the tree and right across the moon. I decided to take a video and the final photo shows screen grabs of the video stitched together in PS. I told my kids that you need patience and luck for this to happen.

 

 

Eating dinner with an eagle by Tom Yin, on Flickr

 

Eaglet and the rising moon by Tom Yin, on Flickr

 

Sequence of eaglet flying across the moon by Tom Yin, on Flickr

You got it! Not only in flight, but also perched in the tree. You’re looking at the eaglet...and the eaglet is looking at you...perhaps waiting for you to make a move.

You only get the duck in flight shot by waiting:

 

Untitled by David Stephens, on Flickr