Fighting Tree Swallows
Photographing fighting tree swallows in very low light is an exercise in frustration.
Tag: shutter speed
Clark’s Grebe – Drying Off That Foot
Sage Thrasher Bilateral Wing Display
For the bird species I typically photograph the courtship displays of Sage Thrashers are unique.
A Short-eared Owl Hunting Technique
Short-eared Owls hunt primarily on the wing, typically as they fly low over the ground in a manner reminiscent of Northern Harriers.
Short-eared Owl – A Topsy-turvy Takeoff
I Like To Practice Action Shots On Horned Larks
Action shots of small birds are difficult to pull off well, partly because they’re so incredibly fast
An Angry Magpie
It isn’t often that I think I see true anger in birds. If that’s being anthropomorphic, so be it. I’m sticking to my guns.
Harrier Takeoff Series (for the photographer it’s all about choices)
One of the biggest challenges of photographing birds at takeoff is avoiding clipped wings. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t.
A Surprise Cooper’s Hawk On Prey (and a photographic mistake I continue to make)
White-lined Sphinx Moths In Flight
When I bought my 500mm lens I never imagined that one day I’d be using that monster to photograph insects in flight.
Black-billed Magpie – An Image That May Have Taught Me Something
Horned Larks – Common, Subtly Beautiful And A Little Bit Quirky
Horned Larks are one of the most common and widespread bird species on earth but I don’t believe they get the respect they deserve.
Western Meadowlark Takeoffs – Shutter Speeds And Motion Blur
Wings of birds move fast at takeoff (and in flight) and the smaller the bird the faster they move. This means that photographers must be cognizant of shutter speed if they want any control over the amount of motion blur in their images.
2 Black-crowned Night Herons (and the volatility of shutter speed)
These two images demonstrate how dramatically shutter speed can change in different lighting conditions when you’re shooting in aperture priority.
Big Birds In Flight
I don’t post images of these two species as often as I should. Both are common in my area and such large birds are relatively easy to photograph in flight so I hope the reason I’ve largely ignored them has nothing to do with snobbishness on my part.