![\"white-crowned-sparrow-8535-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-8535-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhen I have to choose between shutter speed and depth of field I usually lean towards\u00a0faster SS’s. Sometimes it pays dividends and\u00a0sometimes it doesn’t.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n I spent some time yesterday morning photographing White-crowned Sparrows in a wild rose bush at Farmington Bay. The bush had hundreds of bright red rose hips that presented a problem with depth of field – a sharp bird with\u00a0one or more soft but still very\u00a0conspicuous\u00a0rose hips in the foreground is far from ideal. I’d have liked\u00a0this image of a juvenile sparrow better if the rose hip were\u00a0significantly sharper and it likely would have been\u00a0if I’d been shooting at about f\/10 (that would have made the tail sharper too).<\/p>\n But that would have dramatically slowed my shutter speed (I prefer to not exceed ISO 800)\u00a0and these little dynamos are like greased lightning – flitty,\u00a0unpredictable\u00a0and incredibly fast. And my penchant for interesting action shots (take-offs, flicking wings, jumping, fighting etc) required, in my judgment, an absolute\u00a0minimum shutter speed of about 1\/2500 sec to have a reasonable chance at freezing the action.<\/p>\n So in the end (and as usual) I chose to go with relatively high shutter speeds and soft rose hips be damned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Soon the sparrow turned on the branch and appeared to be looking for another less exposed place in the bush to land.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So I fired off a quick burst and caught the bird as it flicked its wings just prior to…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n jumping down to a\u00a0safer and more protected place in the bush. It isn’t a great shot but I find it interesting\u00a0so\u00a0I’m still quite happy with it.<\/p>\n In little birds this\u00a0action is much too fast for human reflexes to respond to in time after it begins so you either have to get lucky or anticipate behavior, usually both.\u00a0If I’d been at f\/10 the rose hip would likely have been sharper but the sparrow would have been a blur. In this situation I’ll take a sharp bird every time.<\/p>\n On the other hand I don’t have any shots of this bird where the rose hip is sharp. There are lots of tradeoffs in bird photography!<\/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 + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Four minutes later another\u00a0White-crowned Sparrow\u00a0landed in the same spot on the branch and this time it was an adult. The rose hip is a little sharper in this shot – maybe my active focus point was on the tip of\u00a0the birds\u00a0bill instead of its eye which could account for that relative\u00a0sharpness.<\/p>\n Reviewing images like these on my screen is a learning experience for me. What I’ll do next time in a similar situation is always up for grabs but knowing me I’ll once again opt\u00a0for higher shutter speeds. As a result I’ll probably pay the price but then again I could get lucky…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I have to choose between shutter speed and depth of field I usually lean towards faster SS’s. Sometimes it pays dividends and sometimes it doesn’t.<\/p>\n![\"white-crowned-sparrow-8548-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-8548-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"white-crowned-sparrow-8554b-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-8554b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"white-crowned-sparrow-8555-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-8555-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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![\"white-crowned-sparrow-8622-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/white-crowned-sparrow-8622-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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