Thanksgiving weekend BIF shots

[danielchtong]

Monza76 wrote:

Daniel, I think you have proven that fast AF and high frame rates are not what is is about, it is vision and timing. These are magnificent, well done.

Ira

Ira,

Thanks for taking time to comment. High frame does help actually.












This one was taken the same second afterwards






As it was getting dark (5 p.m.) , I deviated from my regular panning setup of 1/2500s F8 to 1/1000s F6.3. The resultant DoF was punishingly thin.


This old man's predictive focusing on the eyes of the seagull was o k . I had a full day of fun.


Daniel

[Fred2726]

Daniel, great pictures. I love the picture of the three geese in flight and the first seagull. Amazing with a manual focus lens.

Fred

[interested_observer]

Daniel,

These are GREAT!!! As the geese depart your area, they should be arriving here in a few weeks. I really doubt, actually I know, that even with a winter's worth of practice, there is no way I can even get close. However, the ideas that you have supplied! I really like the way that they come skidding in on the water.

On my way to work the other day, there were about 20 Mallard Ducks that decided to cross one of the main streets, from one park to another. They were all lined up, and the cars had to stop. I really should have had my camera. One car was creeping up, so one of the ducks in the middle of the line, started squacking and attacking the car while the rest waddled across the street. However, it would have been nothing like your shots.

Wonderful job!!!

[danielchtong]

Thanks . Interested observer and Fred/

Monza76 wrote:

Daniel, I think you have proven that fast AF and high frame rates are not what is is about, it is vision and timing.
Ira

Ira,

All BIF shooters face the same problem like this:

The bird is within your target range. You raise the camera and try to centre the image. And in 2 seconds the bird is gone out of your viewfinder. Finding the bird in the viewfinder and nail it with the shutter has always been very difficult

My method (of this manual focusing) accidentally solves this problem.

When the bird is within range, I point the camera at the bird and I fire in burst already. I am getting part of a wing and the image will be out of focus. Big deal .

Meanwhile I have only two jobs to do. I follow the bird in my panning action and do fine tuning of the focus. As I see part of the bird already, it is easy for me to center it. I have no need to press the shutter as it is already in burst mode by now.













Before these two pictures I was following the bird 3-4 seconds earlier already. I usually waste my pict the first 2 seconds for panning and fine focusing. At my present rate, I have not much trouble focusing the bird after 2 seconds of pointing it in the general direction.

Suddenly some of my focusing skill in screw mount days came back. But back then, we did not have burst mode and we would have been wasting a lot of film. It is an addictive fun once you get decent rate of keepers

Daniel , Toronto