![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/forsters-tern-4626b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"forsters-tern-4626b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nOperator error and lack of needed\u00a0skills are probably the most common causes of screwed up action\/flight shots of birds but there are other\u00a0villains\u00a0we have absolutely no control over.<\/p>\n
Regular readers know how much time and effort I’ve invested recently in getting photos of Forster’s Terns diving for fish. Since they’re virtually impossible to follow during the dive and they only spend about\u00a0one second in the water\u00a0my best chance is catching\u00a0one (hopefully with a\u00a0fish)\u00a0during\u00a0its exit from the water or immediately after. Something nearly always goes wrong but I have succeeded a few times and this was one of them.<\/p>\n
But my success was largely ruined by something I couldn’t anticipate or control.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, 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>\n A few days ago at Bear River MBR\u00a0I was making yet another attempt at achieving my goal when I caught this tern coming out of the water and it actually had a fish. You’ll notice from the water disturbance at lower left and the droplets coming off the bird that the tern had just barely\u00a0left the water. The bird is mostly sharp, the wing position works, the fish is clearly seen and I\u00a0have proper exposure\u00a0on a difficult white bird. The water’s\u00a0pretty mucky but I could have lived with that in a behavior\/action shot like this.<\/p>\n But I can’t live with that damned stick or reed or whatever it is in front of the bird. It just grabs my eye too much.\u00a0I think this\u00a0photo could have been acceptable without\u00a0the stick\u00a0but the one that hurt the\u00a0most…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 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>\n was the next image in the burst because I really like the wing position and the way the fish stands out against the lighter wing behind it. The mucky water was bad enough but that stick just ruins the photo for me. I like it well enough to keep it but it’ll likely never again see the light of day.<\/p>\n As\u00a0nature photographers all we can do is work as hard as we can on those things we can control (without using setups, baiting\u00a0or unethical practices of course) and hope everything else falls into place. When it does our success can be glorious and fulfilling\u00a0but when it doesn’t it can really burn our butts.<\/p>\n Thankfully previous failures always make eventual\u00a0success that much sweeter so if we’re not so discouraged that\u00a0we just give up we keep plugging away…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Operator error and lack of needed skills are probably the most common causes of screwed up action\/flight shots of birds but there are other villains we have absolutely no control over.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/forsters-tern-4627-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"forsters-tern-4627-ron-dudley\\"")
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