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<\/p>\nAction shots of small birds\u00a0are difficult to pull off well, partly because they’re so incredibly fast. Success usually requires appropriate photo gear, planning ahead,\u00a0experience, luck, and lots of practice. Because I have\u00a0many photo opportunities with Horned Larks I often choose them to practice on.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n I found this male two weeks ago on Antelope Island,\u00a0Because the background is busy and I’m not fond of bright perches I decided to attempt to\u00a0photograph any action he might present to me – mostly for the practice. So I upped my ISO to get\u00a0sufficient shutter speed, left as much space\u00a0in the frame as I could in the direction the bird was\u00a0facing (or looking), tried to keep him\u00a0in focus\u00a0and waited\u00a0for something interesting\u00a0to happen.<\/p>\n It does take concentration. And patience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n When he shook his feathers I was able to get 4 sharp shots of the action. The feather tips in particular move extremely fast during this process and usually the photographer doesn’t have enough shutter speed (especially in small birds) to get them sharp. Some folks prefer motion blur in images like this because it implies the movement that is actually occurring\u00a0but my preference is usually to get them sharp. In this case I succeeded pretty well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n These are twitchy, jumpy little birds and when\u00a0this one\u00a0headed for the edge of the rock to either take off\u00a0or\u00a0jump down to the ground I already had the shutter speed necessary to freeze his quick movements. If I hadn’t I’d have been out of luck because at this point I certainly didn’t have time to change\u00a0any camera\u00a0settings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n The bird chose to jump to the ground and I don’t believe it even opened its wings during the\u00a0descent. But since I had plenty of shutter speed to freeze the action and the bird jumped in the direction of my plane of focus the entire lark is sharp and that was my goal.<\/p>\n Did I get any spectacular shots from my efforts? No, but I added to my experience and to my\u00a0knowledge base and that’s usually what it takes to improve your chances to get “that shot” when everything comes together sometime down the road.<\/p>\n Hopefully I’ll be ready for it\u00a0next time\u00a0it does. I’ve sure missed plenty of potentially\u00a0wonderful shots because I wasn’t prepared.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Action shots of small birds are difficult to pull off well, partly because they’re so incredibly fast<\/p>\n![\"horned](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/horned-lark-7961-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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