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In a previous post I said that one of my goals was to get a terrific shot of a Cedar Waxwing in flight. To qualify as being “in flight” the bird must have completely left the perch after takeoff (no toes still touching the perch allowed) which makes it much more difficult to get it sharp because they rarely take off in the same plane they were perched and keeping active focus points locked onto a speedy and erratic songbird in flight is almost a superhuman task.<\/p>\n
Several days ago I almost succeeded in getting that terrific shot, two of them in fact. But “almost” doesn’t cut the mustard.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/cedar-waxwing-7130b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cedar-waxwing-7130b-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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 caught “him” at the end of the first down flap after leaving the perch. Even though he was partially side lit I got a catch light, I captured an interesting flight posture and I like the way the waxwing is partially and artistically framed by the leaves at right and at bottom.<\/p>\n But the bird just isn’t sharp enough, even with a little extra sharpening added selectively to the bird during processing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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 was lucky enough to keep him in frame for two photos but neither one was quite sharp enough (they look better at this relatively low resolution than they really are). I had enough depth of field and shutter speed to get him sharp but I think I know why he ended up soft.<\/p>\n When birds take off from elevated perches more often than not they take off horizontally or slightly downward to use gravity as an aid to gain speed and save energy. After photographing birds for over a decade I’ve internalized that tendency so I don’t even think about it anymore. So when this bird took off I instinctively started to aim my lens slightly downward to give myself the best chance of keeping him in frame and in focus as he accelerated. When I did that my active focus point locked onto the leaves below him instead of the bird which caused the waxwing to be somewhat soft in both shots.<\/p>\n So why was this a mistake instead of just another completely understandable failure of a very difficult and high risk shot? Notice the head angle of the bird in both shots – he was looking (and flying) up<\/em> instead of horizontally or down because he had his eye on a bug up there. There was an entire flock of waxwings hawking insects from the tree they were perched on and when they took off they almost invariably took off in an upward direction to get at the insects flying above them.<\/p>\n I should have known that this bird would take off at an upward angle!<\/em> Actually I did know it on one level but I’m the poster child for “creature of habit” so when my instincts kicked in I automatically moved my lens at a slightly downward angle, my active focus point locked on to the leaves and the bird was soft.<\/p>\n Being a creature of habit generally serves me well in both bird photography and life but occasionally it bites me in the butt. This was one of those times.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – Just a couple of days ago a local friend and bird photographer who also shoots from his vehicle mentioned that he often screws up his first shots of the morning when he unexpectedly encounters a bird but he’s forgotten to set his camera to the most appropriate settings and didn’t have the opportunity to do it at the last second. I rarely if ever make that mistake anymore because I’m in the habit of setting my camera and lens on the kitchen counter in the morning before I leave home and then formatting my memory card and adjusting my camera settings to the lighting conditions I’m most likely to find when I arrive on site. <\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/cedar-waxwing-7131b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cedar-waxwing-7131b-ron-dudley\\"")
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