![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/green-tailed-towhee-3867-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"green-tailed-towhee-3867-ron-dudley\\"")
1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nI photographed this Green-tailed Towhee two weeks ago in the Wasatch Mountains as it jumped from one perch to another. Even though the image was cropped to less than half of the original I thought it was\u00a0a fun photo, partly because\u00a0I’ve always been a sucker for action shots.<\/p>\n
But I was disappointed that the right foot is so soft from motion blur (it isn’t a depth of field issue). In most situations a shutter speed of\u00a01\/2500 sec is fast enough even for little birds unless they take off or pull a stunt like this. But it’s stunts like this that I’m often after and I\u00a0think the softness of the\u00a0foot detracts significantly from the image. Normally in this situation I’d be at 1\/3200 sec\u00a0or even a little higher so for me this was a mistake since I had plenty of light to achieve it.<\/p>\n
Folks are often surprised at my\u00a0high\u00a0shutter speeds for perched birds but you never know when something exciting is going to happen and little birds are quick! I should also confess that for me another part of the equation is that I have essential tremors and\u00a0that makes\u00a0my hands\u00a0shake\u00a0at certain times. It goes without saying that shaking doesn’t go hand in hand with sharp photos, especially at\u00a0the long focal lengths I typically use for birds.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Overall I gain more than I lose when I use relatively fast shutter speeds for birds.<\/p>\n