William Dickson
10-08-2017, 10:26 AM
Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/10
1/160
ISO 2000
I was in my hide during a quiet day, as far as birds were concerned, when I saw a Mute Swan bathing. I usually keep my fps on the slow side, as not to make too much noise with the camera. I upped my frame rate to 12 fps, so not to miss any of the action with the swan. After firing off a few shots, I caught a glimpse of a bird, flying in, and perching in front of me. On looking, I saw it was this Water Rail, which in my part of the world are very elusive, I have only seen it once before, and this was a quick glimpse as it went scurrying by. Unfortunately for me, it perched behind a clump of wood on the loch, hence the crop. The bird seemed mesmerised by the noise the camera was making. It stood in the same place, completely froze, and kept the same pose, like a statue. I continued with the fast frame rate, and the bird never moved. I took over 500 shots of the bird, and it never moved once. As soon as I decided to take my camera off the tripod, to get in a better position, the bird flew, and was never to be seen again that day. The bird was perched in a shaded area, and I experimented with different camera settings. Although the shutter speed I used was slow, I found the images I took with these settings, looked the best to me.
Will
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/10
1/160
ISO 2000
I was in my hide during a quiet day, as far as birds were concerned, when I saw a Mute Swan bathing. I usually keep my fps on the slow side, as not to make too much noise with the camera. I upped my frame rate to 12 fps, so not to miss any of the action with the swan. After firing off a few shots, I caught a glimpse of a bird, flying in, and perching in front of me. On looking, I saw it was this Water Rail, which in my part of the world are very elusive, I have only seen it once before, and this was a quick glimpse as it went scurrying by. Unfortunately for me, it perched behind a clump of wood on the loch, hence the crop. The bird seemed mesmerised by the noise the camera was making. It stood in the same place, completely froze, and kept the same pose, like a statue. I continued with the fast frame rate, and the bird never moved. I took over 500 shots of the bird, and it never moved once. As soon as I decided to take my camera off the tripod, to get in a better position, the bird flew, and was never to be seen again that day. The bird was perched in a shaded area, and I experimented with different camera settings. Although the shutter speed I used was slow, I found the images I took with these settings, looked the best to me.
Will