Ringed Turtle-dove Fly By

[Jim Neiger]

Osceola County, Fl - 1D4, 600mm, 1/3200, F5, ISO 400, manual exposure, hand held

[David Salem]

Very nice BIF shot. Beautiful wing position, feather detail, HA, exposure, catch light and nice blue sky. Like the comp too. Awesome capture!

David

[gareth thomson]

Very cool. I second David's comments. And I like the eye contact too. How did you get a 600 on that bird while in flight?

[Jim Neiger]

Very cool. I second David's comments. And I like the eye contact too. How did you get a 600 on that bird while in flight?

Thanks Gareth. I specialize in hand holding the big lenses to photograph birds in flight and I make my living teaching other photographers how to do this as well. With the proper skills, technique, and lots of practice, a shot like this is not really very difficult. I was standing in my backyard when a couple of doves flew by. I made a dozen or so decent images of one of them as they flew by. This image was my favorite of the bunch. If the doves had been flying against a varied bg, the shot would have been much more difficult. Photographing small fast flyers against a varied bg is many times more difficult than photographing them against a smooth sky bg.

[Grace Scalzo]

It's a beauty, Jim. Excellent detail and I love the slight ripple to the feathers on the top wing. Light angle is nice, too, giving depth.

[Varun Bellie]

Love shot, details and wing postion...hand holding a 600mm for flight is something I cant think off .. is it a version 2 lens ?...I struggle sometimes with my 500mm f/4..

[Jim Neiger]

Love shot, details and wing postion...hand holding a 600mm for flight is something I cant think off .. is it a version 2 lens ?...I struggle sometimes with my 500mm f/4..

Thanks Varun. It was the new 600mm. I used to hand hold the old 500mm frequently and the old 600mm occaisionaly. The new 600mm is the best of both. It has the reach of the old 600mm and the weight of the old 500mm. It actualy is easier to use than the old 500mm because the weight is distributed more evenly and provides better balance. It feels lighter than the old 500mm even though it is slightly heavier. If you search and read thru some of my old instructional posts, you may learn some things that will help you with the 500mm.

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool Jim

[Petros Petrou]

Awesome capture. Great feather detail and eye contact! I wish I could use my 500 like that.

[Shawn Zierman]

I don't care how easy an image like this has become for you to make...
to my eyes, it's still wicked good!

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with killer upper wing detail. Is this with the 600 II???

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Very nice.Great light HA and I like the slight curve in the wing tips