Eyes left

Gallery: AvianPosted January 2, 2011103 views14 comments

Taken on Skomer Island in West Wales, Uk.
These birds fly like bullets and just getting a shot of one in full flight is an achievement and if you get one that is anywhere near sharp then that's a bonus.

Well, that was the case with this camera and lens but I've recently bought a Nikon D3 and have been practising down my local beach with seagulls over the Christmas break with my Nikon 70-200 f2.8 attached and I was amazed how much easier it now is to get sharp flight shots, almost every single shot was sharp and I didn't even have the full 51 focus points active, nor did I have 3D tracking on, just continuous focus.
I almost feel like I'm cheating now, compared to what I had to do before to get my shots, this camera does it all for me now.

This image was taken as a single shot, I had no choice with a 2,5 frames per second frame rate and just the one central cross hair for focussing, I had just the one chance per fly past as by the time the shutter fired for the second time the bird was gone so as you can imagine my success rate was very low but the sense of achievement when I did get one was high.

This has been cropped a bit,Um, I mean I used some digital zoom lol, the bird was central in the original capture.

Happy New Year everyone.

Sony A350
Sigma 50-500 EX
1/640th
f7.1
ISO 100
280mm
-0.7 stop exposure compensation
Centre-weighted metering
Hand held

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on January 2, 2011 at 8:13 AM

really sharp shot geoffrey. Wish the eye had some light, but a neat flight position. I love the BG. The D3 is a big jump up from the Sony for sure. It will make getting sharp flight shots easier for sure.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on January 2, 2011 at 9:25 AM

Nice flight shot of a puffin. I like the look back pose of the bird. Well done. Which camera did you use? you have the Sony with a Sigma lens listed, but your story about the shot, which I like, indicates otherwise. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on January 2, 2011 at 10:19 AM

I like the sharp detail you obtained on this Geffrey, but would really of like a little more eye contact. I actually use only a single focus pooint anyway when I shoot flight shots, so I can control where the sharpest point of focus is. Most of the time, I use the center point and try to hit the eye. It also p[uts the bird nicely in the frame with the majority of the body not being too centered. But overall, really nice job on this Puffin and hope to see many more with the new gear.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Fabio Giarrizzo on January 2, 2011 at 10:37 AM

Nice flight shot- Good details on this difficult task- since I liked very much your old images, I'm very curious to see what happens with the new artillery- ciao, Fabio

Registered on December 3, 2010, 90 Posts, 1614 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Moore on January 2, 2011 at 10:47 AM

The great flight position overrides the lack of eye contact for me! Very nice indeed.

Dan

Registered on February 11, 2010, 143 Posts, 1248 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on January 2, 2011 at 11:01 AM

You come up with so many great Puffin images. When we were in Alaska this last summer I tried to get some flight shots of Puffins, but like you said they fly like bullets and I could never catch up to them for a really satisfactory image. I have enjoyed all of your Puffin images. Have a great new year.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Hyman on January 2, 2011 at 11:09 AM

Well captured, Geoffrey. The turn of the head is most intriguing.

Out of curiosity, what does the EX on the lens mean?

Nice job.

Carol

Registered on January 18, 2007, 597 Posts, 8062 Comments

Comment posted by Geoffrey Baker on January 2, 2011 at 12:32 PM

Thanks everyone

Just to clarify, this was taken with my old Sony gear which has now gone.
The EX means it's one of Sigma's better range of lenses.

I'm still getting to learn to use my Nikon D3 and will soon be uploading something taken with it, once I have something suitable.

Geoff.

Registered on August 20, 2010, 192 Posts, 980 Comments

Comment posted by Sally King on January 2, 2011 at 1:16 PM

I really like the headturn. Nice flight capture from your hard work.

Registered on December 2, 2008, 416 Posts, 4450 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on January 2, 2011 at 1:29 PM

I really like the positioning of the bird here, Geoffrey. Delightful image. btw, I notice you say you didn't have 3D tracking on. You don't want it on for birds, either.

Registered on April 10, 2009, 292 Posts, 3967 Comments

Comment posted by Joe James on January 2, 2011 at 6:40 PM

Great shot Geoffrey! Like you said, just getting a sharp photo of a Puffin in flight is an achievement, getting one with an interesting head turn like this is special....well done.

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on January 2, 2011 at 10:37 PM

Really nice image. You are going to enjoy the D3-glad photography is going to be "easy" now.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on January 2, 2011 at 11:54 PM

Love the pose Geoffrey, particularly the look over the shoulder

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Eric Diller on January 3, 2011 at 5:03 PM

Love the pose...nice capture!

Registered on October 2, 2009, 69 Posts, 434 Comments