Little Tern

[Jonathan Michael Ashton]

I had to try the Mongoose and the Gitzo out, I was fed up of waiting for the weather - a decent day arrived at last. There were very few Little Terns flying - I was about a week too late but there wasn't much I could do about that. The head and the tripod were great but the 20D was sooooo slowwwww even with the lens on restricted focus. I managed a couple of shots- one with a fish but no catchlight in the birds' eye. This has a catchlight but it is heavily cropped. It is a case of tried hard - must do better!
Canon 20D Canon 500mm F4 L IS plus 1.4TC
Av mode +2/3
ISO 200
1250 sec @ f6.3

All comments welcome

Jon

[DustinFinn]

I think your comments sum it up. It's lost a lot of its sharpness from the crop I beleive and then the crop brought out the noise. Some of these birds fly so fast I wonder if you could have shot at a higher iso and a higher shutter speed to grab more?

[Doug Brown]

Excellent self-assessment Jon! But we all know what it's like to get the itch to go out and take some photos. Have to agree with Dustin here about shutter speed. I rarely use ISO 200 for flight no matter what the weather conditions, but particularly when it's overcast. Thanks for posting!

[Jonathan Michael Ashton]

Thanks Dustin & Doug, I keep forgetting to go for a higher ISO, I will make a point of it next time, I did think though that 1/1250 sec was pretty darned fast - well for England anyway!
Jon

[DustinFinn]

Excellent self-assessment Jon! But we all know what it's like to get the itch to go out and take some photos. Have to agree with Daniel here about shutter speed. I rarely use ISO 200 for flight no matter what the weather conditions, but particularly when it's overcast. Thanks for posting!

Who's Daniel?

[Ramon M. Casares]

It does lookk a soft, but hey, it is all about not giving up, right? For what it's worth, the EXP looks terrific! Congratulations!

[Arthur Morris]

The COMP and wing position are nice but the image suffered from the big crop and is not at all sharp. Sharpening the bird may help a bit. AF on the 40D is quite excellent.

[Doug Brown]

My bad! I corrected the original post.