Something to do on holiday...

[Steven Budd]

Hi folks.

First image post on BPN, so hopefully this'll work.
I'm a rank newcomer to flight photography, so I've been cramming the brain space with as much relevant info as I can these last weeks. A recent trip down to Bude, North Cornwall, offered the chance to wander down to the sea lock and scout out shooting possibilities with the inevitable Black Headed and Herring Gulls milling around Summerleaze beach.
Local fishermen use the well weathered mooring posts embedded in the sand and the gulls appreciate them as handy observation points before launching off at the first sign of a meal. Having had some flight tracking practice in the preceding 20 minutes or so, a large penny dropped with the usual hollow echo and I framed up asymmetrically on a Herring Gull on the nearest post.
Being unfit and overweight, although in the process of shedding the 'excess me', training the kit handheld for extended periods was a reminder to bring the tripod and gimbal next time...as 'my' gull mocked me by stepping forwards, pausing, stepping back, reversing direction and reverting until eventually he/she launched. Three frames later, only the first was sharp. The resulting image matches the composition of the RAW file but has been cropped to tighten (on the basis of leaving room for wing spread).
The most unexpected part of all this was the discovery that this particular Herring Gull is clearly a rabid 'Battlestar Galactica' fan and thinks it's a Cylon Raider. Must go back and see its rendition of a Colonial Viper...
Canon 7D MkII / Canon EF70-200mm f2.8L IS MkII @ 200mm / Canon EF2x teleconverter / AI Servo with max frame rate / 1/4000 second @ f5.6 and ISO 320.
I've been a fan of Stephen Dalton for decades and his pioneering high speed flash photography of the natural world. His comment that brief exposures reveal details about locomotion and behaviour that are undetected by the naked eye has never left me and after realising I'd got one out of three useable enjoyed studying the gull's posture and shape as it launched into the air.
Happy days.


TTFN

Steve

[gail bisson]

Hi Steve,
Welcome to BPN! You will learn a lot here.
A very solid first image!
It is very hard to do flight photography with an extender on- especially a 2 x. The auto-focus has a bit of a lag when extenders are on a lens and as a beginner that will make the learning curve a lot more difficult.
Is the 70-200 the longest lens you have? It would be so much easier for you if you practiced your flight photography on a bare lens!
I like the way you have cropped the image. It suits the scene very well.
Your exposure is spot on and the whites look good.
You have a dynamic wing position and image is sharp.
The sun was not quite at your back so the near wing is a bit in shadow but not a big deal.
Did you know you can post images at 1920 pixels? It helps to have a bigger image for us to critique! My old eyes need all the help they can get!
Gail

[Steven Budd]

Hi Steve,
Welcome to BPN! You will learn a lot here.
A very solid first image!
It is very hard to do flight photography with an extender on- especially a 2 x. The auto-focus has a bit of a lag when extenders are on a lens and as a beginner that will make the learning curve a lot more difficult.
Is the 70-200 the longest lens you have? It would be so much easier for you if you practiced your flight photography on a bare lens!
I like the way you have cropped the image. It suits the scene very well.
Your exposure is spot on and the whites look good.
You have a dynamic wing position and image is sharp.
The sun was not quite at your back so the near wing is a bit in shadow but not a big deal.
Did you know you can post images at 1920 pixels? It helps to have a bigger image for us to critique! My old eyes need all the help they can get!
Gail

Hi Gail.

Thanks for that - I used Postimage to host the shot, so cheers for the steer on the 1920 thing.
I've just bought a Canon EF300 f2.8L IS MkII, primarily for use with my 7D MkII to get me out to 960mm effective with the 2x bolted on. In truth, I accept all the technical consequences that go hand in hand with this and well...I like a challenge!
Whether I get a longer prime, like the 500 f4 goings forwards, depends on a number of things, not least the minor issue of assembling the requisite beer vouchers.
Again, much appreciated that you took the time to drop by on this one - I greatly enjoyed looking through your album! Wonderful stuff!

TTFN

Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Steve, that is a pretty wicked take-off pose! I love the wing positions, and the top-side view. Nice slightly gradient BG. Composition is OK, but I could see a bit more above being good too. I only wish the head was angled our way, this would have lit it with sunlight. All-in-all a strong first image post on BPN!

[Steven Budd]

Hey Steve, that is a pretty wicked take-off pose! I love the wing positions, and the top-side view. Nice slightly gradient BG. Composition is OK, but I could see a bit more above being good too. I only wish the head was angled our way, this would have lit it with sunlight. All-in-all a strong first image post on BPN!

Hi Dan.

Cheers for that!
Thanks also for the compositional advice - I'll slacken it above the bird to see how that looks.
For sure, the head tilted towards the camera would've lifted the light - got that logged and thanks again.



TTFN

Steve