AlpenglowJoin me learning Nature Photography

Bald eagle (captive) diving in on me at high speed. Camera set to continuous auto-focus (AF-C in Nikon speak), single auto-focus sensor activated (center).

ISO 1000, f/6.3, 1/3200 s, at 300 mm. Exposure compensation +0 (bad idea at that moment – I would have needed at least a +1 here with the bird covering only a fraction of the original image, and the sky was cloudy white and bright. So I needed to add one EV during raw conversion, at the cost of even more noise. This photo is not printable in any decent quality.)

Know your gear, and know what it can do. You might be positively surprised. When trying something as daring as to catch an eagle during a high speed dive towards his trainer standing just 20 meters away from where you are, don’t expect miracles though – during his dive, I took 11 shots, and only 3 are in focus. Luckily, the last 2 are, with the eagle already having a decent size in the frame.

Some capabilities of your gear will be less often challenged, but still you should know that it will work when being out in the field. A great way to test and train for those birds in flight (the jargon calls this “BIF”) situations are the raptor flying displays of zoos, game reserves, or falconries. Make sure to visit those near your home, and visit them multiple times! The program of the show will vary not too much, and you will learn to anticipate what will happen and be ready for the moment. Don’t be disappointed when you don’t have any images to show after the first time you went there, think even of going there first without a camera!

This by the way was an obviously “imported” eagle showing off during the Glanzlichter nature photography days in Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich this year. The bird was launched by the falconer from the platform of the 75 m high bell tower of the monastery Fürstenfeld, and was called by a second falconer standing in the yard close to my position – the eagle did not take any detour, but knew his yummy award was waiting for him – he just pulled the wings and dropped like a stone with a (fierce) beak.

Noticing I do not have enough *photos* on this website which after all was meant to be, well, the story of me learning nature photography, with this post I start a new category “Photo First” which will aim to present photos made by me without the whole story… I seem to be taking too long formulating my usually longer posts, and the photos get left behind.

This Mandarin duck photo I really like is from Xmas 2007. It was then and there when the first time I finally had the feeling that things were coming together in my bird photography: I had the sun in my back, had thought of putting the tripod very low (using an angle view finder), and even managed to get at least one kind-of-sharp image from the dynamic autofocus system. I liked the water color from the reflection of the vegetation behind the little pond, because it matches the duck’s own colors.

Looking at it today, I know it lacks critical sharpness. I tried to print it large (A2), and noticed the eye is slightly soft,  as the autofocus targeted slightly behind the duck’s head. Got to try it again…