Photos: capturing birds in flight

Pigeon

Back on the day wordpress ate that blog post, I went out for the day in the Chilean Lake District. The area has some of the most spectacular mountains and volcanoes as scenery. Unfortunately the clouds had settled low over the hills, and all you I could see were the lakes. I took a bus from Puerto Montt to Puerto Varas and back (about 2USD each way) and took a walk along the lakeside and through the town.

As I didn’t know what photo subjects I might find, I left the 50mm prime on my camera for the whole day. This makes sure I get some practice away from my favorite lens, the 10-24mm wide angle, and my second most used lens, the 70-300mm zoom. With the 50mm I open the aperture wide, turn the ISO down low, and it becomes very, very fast. The narrow depth of field give the photos a great look.

As I was walking up the beach I saw some pigeons just ahead. One flew away, and as pigeons do, it flew in a wide circle around me. I noticed that as it passed in front of the lake, it was exactly the same distance from me as it was when it stood on the beach. So I focused on the next pigeon as I walked up to it. It took off, and followed the same route as the first. Click! Not the most interesting photo, but I’m pleased with it just because I got it in focus.

Hawk

This is a hawk or something similar. I took a number of photos of this as it flew overhead, so had time for the auto-focus to do its job.

PS: I’ve had a relaxing Christmas. I felt a bit hung-over this morning after the crew party last night. I sat in the jacuzzi for a while, watched two movies (the first films I’ve seen for months), and did a load of writing. New Years Eve should be fun too, as I’m doing two shows that evening, then there’ll be another crew party later on.

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