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<\/p>\nAvoiding “clipped” body parts is perhaps the biggest challenge associated with take-off shots.<\/p>\n
Take-offs are lightening fast, especially with relatively small songbirds\u00a0and if you’re close enough to get good detail they’re often completely\u00a0out of frame before you can trip the shutter.\u00a0 Once you develop your skills (and reflexes) you may be able to keep most of the bird in frame\u00a0with only a few body parts\u00a0cut off or clipped but of course the goal is to not only get the entire body in frame but to also have\u00a0enough room around the bird for pleasing composition.\u00a0 It isn’t easy!<\/p>\n
If you can anticipate angle and direction of take-off your chances of success are greatly enhanced.\u00a0 Doing so is highly variable, depending on\u00a0many conditions.\u00a0 Here’s\u00a0some examples: \u00a0(each of these shots was taken on Antelope Island last week)<\/p>\n
Western Meadowlarks are very common on Antelope Island right now and I get a lot of practice with them.\u00a0 Birds are most likely to take off in the horizontal direction that they’re\u00a0facing but then you have to worry about the\u00a0“vertical direction” – will they\u00a0take off from an elevated perch going up or down or level and at what angle?\u00a0 Sometimes their perch helps you to\u00a0guess correctly more often.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The favorite perch of meadowlarks on the island is the tops of sagebrush which often have vertical bare twigs from last years growth surrounding the bird.\u00a0 Those twigs must be avoided at launch.\u00a0 Here there are few twigs and they’re not very high so I anticipated that the meadowlark would take off in the direction it was facing (to my right) and that the angle to vertical would be almost level because that direction was clear of twigs (the more vertical the direction of take-off the more work required).\u00a0 I guessed right and got a shot I like without clipping anything and with enough room in front of the bird for decent composition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n When it was perched this\u00a0meadowlark had lots of twigs around it in every direction and they were sticking up fairly high so I figured it would take off at a steeper angle than the previous bird – which it did.\u00a0 Again, nothing clipped or cut off and there’s enough room for composition.<\/p>\n Some might also notice the scarcity of feathers just above the “armpit” – something I covered with this species in a previous post<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This meadowlark had been perched on the green branch at bottom with very long twigs sticking up around it.\u00a0 About the only direction it could go was up so I aimed my lens above the bird and waited.\u00a0 Through the viewfinder I could only see the top half of the bird but the timing for this shutter click was just right.\u00a0 It’s a bit of an unusual flight pose but I enjoy it for its variety.<\/p>\n I realize that most of my readers are likely more interested in the images themselves\u00a0than they are in the technique used to get them but some readers are also bird photographers and occasionally I like to do this kind of post.<\/p>\n Happy Easter, everyone!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Avoiding “clipped” body parts is perhaps the biggest challenge associated with take-off shots.<\/p>\n![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/western-meadowlark-3213-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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