![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/belted-kingfisher-3383-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"belted-kingfisher-3383-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI often pay nearly as much attention to my failed takeoff and flight\u00a0shots as I do to my successes.<\/p>\n
I do it\u00a0because analyzing and understanding mistakes I made and\/or\u00a0what I could have done better given my equipment and skill set might turn the next similar situation into a raging success.\u00a0But it’s also important to\u00a0realize that getting a mediocre shot or no shot at all doesn’t necessarily mean\u00a0photographer error or\u00a0lack of skills. Birds are tough and notoriously uncooperative\u00a0subjects, particularly during takeoff or in flight, and much of the time even the most skilled photographer couldn’t make a silk purse out of that pig’s ear.<\/p>\n
A couple of cases in point.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 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 I could have loved this shot of a Belted Kingfisher taking off but it has at least two major flaws – the side of the face we see is deeply shaded with very little detail (including no catch light in the eye) and the\u00a0perch is sharper than the bird.<\/p>\n But in this situation there’s very little I could have done about\u00a0the light angle on the\u00a0kingfisher\u00a0because\u00a0I can’t control where the sun rises in the east and I can’t control which direction the bird might take off. I stopped my pickup on what I judged to be the best spot to get at least decent light on the bird in this sidelight situation and still be relatively close to it. The rest is up to chance,\u00a0the whims of the bird and the gods of photography.<\/p>\n But perhaps\u00a0the\u00a0kingfisher would have been sharper if I’d been using more active focus points than the\u00a0five at center\u00a0I believe\u00a0I had activated. This shot is cropped to about the lower right third of the frame so it looks like those few points I had activated stayed locked onto the post instead of following\u00a0the kingfisher.<\/p>\n Next time I’ll consider using\u00a0additional active focus points in situations like this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 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 Two days ago at Farmington I found this male American Kestrel on a favorite raptor perch at the refuge. I’m not fond of photographing kestrels on this post because\u00a0these small falcons are\u00a0dwarfed and overwhelmed by the massive perch. But I had a decent chance for a takeoff or flight shot so I\u00a0removed my teleconverter and began to wait him out.<\/p>\n I didn’t have to wait long because through my rear view mirror I saw a duck\u00a0hunter’s stinky and loud\u00a0diesel\u00a0pickup I was familiar with approaching on the gravel road behind me. I anticipated the noisy pickup might flush the kestrel so I tried to prepare for it as best I could. Kestrels, especially when they’re flushed by something, take off at lightning speed and in unpredictable directions\u00a0so the trick would be keeping him in frame when and if he did so.<\/p>\n My plan was to try to begin firing a burst just before he took off so I had to guess from the noise from the truck how close it was (I was looking through my viewfinder and couldn’t see\u00a0the pickup\u00a0coming)\u00a0and hope\u00a0for two things – that the kestrel\u00a0took off at an angle that would give me\u00a0a\u00a0nice\u00a0photo or two (no butt shots please) and that I timed the beginning of my burst just right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I came close but no cigar. I cut off part of his left wing and the bird was beginning to turn away from me because I waited a few nanoseconds too long to begin my burst. I was bummed by this one because I can imagine in my mind the potentially spectacular flight pose I might have had given this quirky takeoff angle\u00a0if I’d started the burst just a little sooner.<\/p>\n But in this situation, a common one at the refuge and elsewhere with traffic approaching me from either direction,\u00a0I\u00a0don’t think I’ll\u00a0make the same mistake again. Unlike film, pixels are cheap\u00a0so it doesn’t matter much if I “waste” ten or twenty\u00a0shots because I started my burst a second or two early. They would be pixels well spent.<\/p>\n So yes, I do bitch and moan when I miss potentially great\u00a0shots like these but if\u00a0I use them wisely as a resource for learning it shouldn’t happen as often in the future.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I often pay nearly as much attention to my failed takeoff and flight shots as I do to my successes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/american-kestrel-1846-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-1846-ron-dudley\\"")
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