Gamble's Quail in Flight

[Doug Brown]

We get lots of Gamble's Quail in our yard, and I've gotten lots of nice portraits over the years. I've always wanted to get a decent flight shot, but opportunities are few and far between. The birds tend to walk to our house and jump up on the yard wall rather than fly in to the yard wall. The birds were hungry yesterday afternoon but things didn't get busy until after we'd lost the good light. I decided to grab my camera and try to capture some flight frames. This was my best frame of the afternoon.

Canon 1DX2, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 4000, manual exposure, hand held

171527

[Doug Brown]

The head is noticeably sharper in the original jpeg. Not sure why my browser does that to some of my images.

[Isaac Grant]

Just about perfect for me Doug. Perfect background and the wing position is great. Head looks really good to me. Hard to imagine a better yard shot than this!!!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, its not easy capturing fast flyers and you nailed this, especially the angle flying towards you. There is a cool 3D effect here with the sharp head popping nicely from the clean BG. Its fun capturing subjects 'local' subjects - there is no pressure as you know if you dont succeed, you can try again on another occasion, without having to travel to get there.

[Doug Brown]

Hi Doug, its not easy capturing fast flyers and you nailed this, especially the angle flying towards you. There is a cool 3D effect here with the sharp head popping nicely from the clean BG. Its fun capturing subjects 'local' subjects - there is no pressure as you know if you dont succeed, you can try again on another occasion, without having to travel to get there.

Thanks Stu. I don't do a lot of flight photography at f/2.8, but it definitely lends a 3D effect to the image.

[gail bisson]

Always a treat to have backyard opportunities. Great BG.
Head looks sharp to me.
I see some noise on the tail and would address this in PP.
The flared wing tips on the near wing are nice,
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Certainly not an easy frame to pull off!! Cool flight pose, and yes that 3D effect is quite evident.

[Tim Foltz]

Doug, sweet action pose, nice sharp head and creamy BG, to bad about the OOF foreground at the tail but hey that's nature.
Nice one my friend.

-Tim

[Glenn Conlan]

​How did you pull this one off? Super timing on this rocket. Well done

[Doug Brown]

Appreciate the feedback everyone!