![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-9926-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"great-blue-heron-9926-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nLike all bird photographers, as I approach my subject I’m often too close to the bird by the time I can see it clearly through vegetation or by the time I have good light on it. That’s when my two-lens shooting strategy pays off in spades.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm<\/em><\/p>\n That’s exactly what happened with this Great Blue Heron three days ago at Bear River MBR. I had to creep forward to have a clear view of ‘him’ through obstructing vegetation, some of which can be seen as out of focus blobs at lower right. By then, while using my 500mm prime lens, I knew I was too close to keep him comfortably in frame when he lifted his wings to take off.<\/p>\n So I quickly grabbed my “baby lens” sitting on the passenger seat next to me. That smaller zoom lens was perfect for the situation so I got quite a few shots without cutting off body parts while he was taking off and in flight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My two-lens shooting strategy keeps me “covered” from 100mm – 400mm plus I have the 500mm option with my bigger prime lens and the 700mm option with the 1.4 teleconverter attached to it (I could, but I usually don’t use a tc on the smaller zoom lens). Since my 7D Mark II’s are cropped frame (1.6x) cameras, that translates to an effective focal range coverage between 160mm and 1120mm with only a few gaps. That’s about as good as it gets.<\/p>\n I have two 7D II’s and I keep one attached to each lens so I don’t have to fiddle-fart with swapping lenses between camera bodies. All I do is set one combo down and grab the other. I can do that in about 2 seconds which almost eliminates the chances of missing important shots while I’m swapping lenses.<\/p>\n It’s a strategy that works extremely well for me and I highly recommend it if it fits your shooting style. However, it may not if you’re usually hoofing it because hauling two large lenses around on foot has obvious disadvantages.<\/p>\n But because I shoot from my pickup about 98% of the time it was tailor made for me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like all bird photographers, as I approach my subject I’m often too close to the bird by the time I can see it clearly through vegetation or by the time I have good light on it. That’s when my two-lens shooting strategy pays off in spades.<\/p>\n