week # 12 – Theme # 5″Birds Eye View”

November 29, 2015 by Bob Bolcik 5 Comments

This post is probably my favorite from the list of 52 themes.  Bird photography is what I mainly concentrate on.  I’m out every chance I get looking for opportunities to photograph birds.  My website at SmugMug is full of bird pictures that I have taken over the years.  Birds are difficult to photograph, they don’t pose and smile.  They often are turned away from me and if you are lucky enough to catch one in flight it is difficult to get the right exposure or composition.  This photo was taken at the “celery fields” in Sarasota and I happened to have all the “right” settings on my camera to get the shot.  Three photographers were talking and looking in a direction opposite from the approaching bird.  A woman behind us yelled out “here comes the shot.”   We all turned and quickly fired away.  I was the only one fortunate to get the shot.  Capturing birds in flight requires a very fast shutter speed, > 1/1000 and in order to stop the wing motion; spot focus on the head; sufficient DofF to get the whole bird in focus; and +EC of at least one fstop when shooting against a bright sky.

This is an osprey with a fine catch.  The fish was so large, the bird had difficulty finding a proper spot to land.  it kept circling and looking.  Once it did land however, I’m sure it enjoyed it’s breakfast!