Eyes on the Prize

[Bill Dix]

The life cycle of a termite includes a larval stage spent in underground colonies, from which the termites emerge as alates, or winged termites. Driving through a grassy area bordering a wetland in Botswana, we came across a feeding frenzy of Southern Carmine Bee-eaters and other bird species, flying around a swarm of emerging alates. Their speed and seemingly haphazard flight made it very difficult to lock on AF. But after watching for a while, a pattern emerged. At least some of them would fly over the termite hole, then make a broad circle and come back around in the same direction. This made it easier to predict, and with many failed attempts, to occasionally lock on as the bird made its final turn toward the termites. This time I got lucky.

D500, Sigma 150-600 @ 340mm; ISO 1250, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual. HH.

[Mike Poole]

Thats an absolute beauty Bill, got to be happy with this, the prey item takes an already very good shot well over the top. Maybe a little noise on the wings, but we're really into nit-picking territory now!

Mike

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Bill, well done on getting this fast flyer in the frame. Bee Eaters are extremely quick, and you nailed a great flying angle too. The insect in the frame is tops.

A characteristic behaviour of any Bee Eater is that they will always return to the same perch after taking off to catch some food.

[Isaac Grant]

Fantastic Bill. Like holy $%&! fantastic. You were not lucky. You were read the situation and were persistent and nailed it with a great wing position, a sharp bird a perfect head angle and the eye right on the termite is just amazing. Congrats man. Question for you, do you think the difficulty in getting them locked in was their speed, the lens not being fast enough or a combination of them? Would you mind sharing what settings you used when trying to get them? Some sort of large zone or maybe group on the Nikon? Getting any small bird in flight is quite difficult so having this sort of knowledge in your pocket can only help if any of us we are ever in a situation like this one. Just super Bill.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Great one, Bill. Persistence paid off and the termite simply sends this capture into the stratosphere.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[Alex Becker]

Love it Bill -- really something special. Great pose, details, and the prey is just great. The BG sets the stage well. TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice Bill, I like it a lot, you got lucky the bee is still describable too. I see some noise on the under wings which should be easy to remove in post. There is a bit of motion blur on the beak but it won't show as much if you cloned out the specular highlights

This is a tough shot to get sharp but I now know the secret The Nikon Grp AF kicks some a** when it comes to shots like this one. It wouldn't surprise me if even the D500 could nailed a bunch of these frames.

[Randy Rimland]

incredible timing and focus

[Bill Dix]

Thanks folks. Isaac, I think the problem of grabbing focus was primarily because these are small, fast birds in erratic flight against a somewhat busy bg, and I was trying to lock on before they got too close. I was set at AF-C and 3D, which I find works pretty well for birds in flight. I don't see other folks mentioning this, so maybe I should experiment more with Grp., but the 3D seems to grab anything that's moving, if not too small in the frame, and continues to track against difficult BGs. Yes, Arash, I should go back and remove a bit of the noise on the wings, and the highlights on the bill. Easy fixes. I should have noted that this was cropped to about 57% of full width.

[Isaac Grant]

For all of the Nikon shooters I think that is great information. I have been told that the group setting should be the go to setting for Nikon shooters when shooting BIF shots, but have zero first hand experience with it. Nor with how group compares to 3d. Now if only you could just go back and shoot some more bee-eaters and try to recreate this one!

[Bill Dix]

For all of the Nikon shooters I think that is great information. I have been told that the group setting should be the go to setting for Nikon shooters when shooting BIF shots, but have zero first hand experience with it. Nor with how group compares to 3d. Now if only you could just go back and shoot some more bee-eaters and try to recreate this one!

I'd go back in a heartbeat. The only drawback (aside from cost) is the 16-hour flight from JFK to JoBerg. In the meantime, I'll post another Bee-eater flight shot or two.

[Tim Foltz]

Bill, nice timing, details are sharp even on the insect, nice angles and the environment in the BG shows its hunting habitat.

-Tim

[arash_hazeghi]

3D works for conditions where the bird is different color than BG like this shot. Grp for other cases. In some case d9 or d25 work best.

[dankearl]

Superb, Bill, not many people have or could get a shot like this. Congrats...

[Isaac Grant]

I'd go back as well. Funny enough the flight I took to RSA many years ago was the best flight I was ever on. South Africa Airways was amazing. Great food, friendly service and we had a 2 decker plane. We were on the top deck with only 1 other person! Really looking forward to more of your shots.

[John Whaley]

Perfect title and timing on this one Bill. It would be a wonderful shot with the prize but the bug makes it a lottery capture. Well done. I have never used the 3D on the D500 but find AFC - Group with center plus 4 best for BIF. The focus system is really amazing especially compared to the 7dII I used to shoot. tfs

[David Salem]

Rockstar Bill!! What a capture!!

[gail bisson]

All been said Bill. My only question is the ornagy color on the wings. It should be more red I believe? Perhaps the sun angle gave the wings that color?
Another suggestion to improve this fine image would be to blur the vertical stalk behind the bee eaters right wing.
Well done!
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all again. I took a minute to address at least some of the noise on the underwings, and clean up the bill. Gail, I wasn't sure which vertical stalk behind the bird's right wing. I did tone down a prominent blade of grass running behind the left wing. As to the color, I boosted the red slider and reduced the yellow slider, just a bit, for the whole image. It still looks somewhat orange. I shot quite a few of these guys in the three camps we visited (but mostly Duma Tau where this was captured). I'm sure you did even more on your numerous trips. I found them to exhibit a range of colors from red to pink to orange. And some were a bit blotchy. I don't know if this had to do with the age of the birds, a transitional plumage, or the light. (This was shot 20 minutes before sunset.) Or all three. I'll post a few more in days to come and I think you'll see the difference. Your helpful comments are always appreciated.