{"id":50042,"date":"2017-07-18T05:08:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T11:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=50042"},"modified":"2017-07-18T10:32:22","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T16:32:22","slug":"red-naped-sapsucker-landing-at-the-nest-cavity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/18\/red-naped-sapsucker-landing-at-the-nest-cavity\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-naped Sapsucker Landing At The Nest Cavity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t believe I’ve ever worked harder to get a\u00a0photo than I did for\u00a0this one.<\/p>\n

You probably had to be there to really “get it” but suffice it to say that I had my heart set on getting a particular kind of\u00a0shot and the photography gods were ganged up against me. My primary\u00a0goal was to get\u00a0one of the\u00a0sapsuckers in flight just before it actually landed at the nest cavity entrance. But the lighting and shadows at the cavity\u00a0were incredibly variable and the angles I could shoot from\u00a0were far from ideal (the problems were\u00a0much more complicated than that) so all I could do was keep on trying as I constantly changed my methods and my\u00a0camera settings and continued to get soft birds, shaded faces, clipped\u00a0or cut off body parts, wings in front of heads\u00a0and more “air shots” than I care to think about.<\/p>\n

I spent many hours trying to get that shot over four days and this was one of the few times I succeeded and actually liked the image.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/8, ISO 1250, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Here the sapsucker is still completely in flight as its feet haven’t yet touched the nest entrance. The wings are in a position I like, there’s good light on the entire bird, it’s sharp, there are no annoying shadows in the foreground or on the bird and I have a catch light in the eye. That’s a lot of “things” to come together for one of these little speed demons in flight.<\/p>\n

If I had my druthers the bird would be slightly further away from the cavity entrance for better separation but that would be me being picky and I’m never picky…<\/p>\n

These\u00a0sapsuckers were feeding a single chick in the nest and they usually carried only ants with them but sometimes there was a little variety. This bird has a load of ants (not easily seen) but it also has at least one large winged insect in its bill.<\/p>\n

I learned a lot about bird photography while photographing these rascals. When you’re as frustrated by conditions as I was you either say to hell with it and try for some other kind of shot or you keep plugging away while varying your methods and camera settings\u00a0to see what might yield better results.<\/p>\n

And sometimes if you’re stubborn enough\u00a0it actually works, eventually.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n