Get up and go!

Suggestions/comments appreciated; thanks

Great image! Full breeding plummage too. Very nice shot. Maybe a little more headroom in the crop. 7/7 anon

Great capture!

Beautiful action shot! I love the sense of fast action it gives and your pelican is attractive (some here in Charleston are not as pretty). Great shot!

Beautiful Dieter! You held the white pretty damn good, I love the action!

Regards, B.

Ps take a look at this one, one of the best that I have seen http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/ic.cgi#bottom

Nice catch. Best regards.

Great shot, the colours of this bird are nice and what a moment and sharp too.

Superb, Dieter! looks like he's flying under the radar. Nice action!

Beautiful shot.Great timing.Bravo

your link does not go to a picture; I am almost certain it is this one: California Brown Pelican .

Very good, love the crop...:)))

What a beautiful photo, very good the composition, the crop, the colours of this image, bravo Dieter, ciao Giangiorgio

Both captures are great, excellent images.

 

JV

Birds in flight are so difficult but you got this one. Great job...6/6.

Just wait 'till I get my 300mm f2.8!!!. : ) Just wondering have you used a polarizer? I know, that slows down things, but if you eliminated the reflection a little more, that would even improve this master-work to 8/8

Samir, I would love to have a 300/2.8 or the 200-400/4 but too much money for me; would love a 500/4 or 600/4 even better. Did not use a polarizer although I own one. Would require the camera to be on a tripod, which currently I am not using either. Regards, Dieter

How do you guys even get "bird in flight" shots in sharp focus? Usually my background is in sharp focus LOL

Dale, I have many many of these too. One more reason to love the digital SLR; the "film" wasted on those "background sharp - bird a blur" shots doesn't cost a dime. More seriously: standard answer I guess would be to use a tripod or at least a monopod, proper panning, short shutter speeds and an AF that is fast enough and able to track. Trap focus with MF would work too. Pelicans being rather massive don't move all that fast and also rather predictably. Smaller birds are a much bigger challenge and I often have shots that show background only since "Elvis has left the building". Regards, Dieter

Thanks Dieter ... another slow moving bird, a heron, was the only somewhat sharp shot I got of a bird-in_flight but I screwed up the exposure on that one. I'll have to look into that AF Servo mode a bit more next time. Not to turn this into a Q&A (since it is for comments) but just quickly, what is "Trap focus with MF"? Do you mean like pre-focus? If so, I guess I would need some deep depth of field. Thanks again.

Dale, yes, I think trap focus and pre focus is the same; trick is to fire just before the moving object enters the DOF zone. I own some rapid action pistol grip Novoflex lenses that are (with practice) in focusing speed somewhere between AF and a standard MF lens. I am itching to give these a try, I have never used them on a DSLR before and want to see what their optical quality is. I haven't had much practice with them anyway and when shooting anything that moves it was hit and miss (mostly miss though). Regards, Dieter

Ok thanks Dieter. And as you said, good thing for digital in these kinds of shots. I think I will try some more bird shots in the spring and summer ... tired of shooting birds in all this overcast and dark lighting of winter.

Excellent bird photography work.

Thats a perfect shot - congratulations.