City - Sunnyvale State - CA Country - United States
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Acrobats of the Sun. This female Red-tailed Hawk was hunting ground squirrels around the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant. I waited for her to capture its prey but after abou 30 minutes she decided to move away from the area.
Dear Bill, Thank you very much for your comments. For birds in flight, I follow Marcus Armani recommendations. The metering mode selected is evaluative metering and the exposure program is aperture priority. Also, I used only AF and I am not familiar with manual. I keep ISO 200-400. That depends of the light. According to the camera manual, if the subject brightness and background light level are very different is better to use partial metering. I only use the center spot for birds in flight, however if I am shooting a large bird (seated) as a great blue heron or a pelican, I select the AF point that will allow me to focus in the eye. At the other hand if you are shooting a bird like a duck seated in a pond, I select the focusing point below the central AF point. Doing so allows you to place the bird lower in the frame than you will be able to do when using the central sensor. I got this information from the San Diego site guide by Arthur Morris. I understand perfectly what you mean when you mentioned that you have a hard time keeping the AF. When I follow a bird in flight, my 20 D likes to jump to the background and I loose focus. That's why you see me posting mostly birds in flight with a blue backgorund. It requires practice, but with your dedication you will be able to find the hot spot. I almost forgot to mention that recently I started using a 1.4 TC that gives me additional 250mm and the lens that I use (400 mm F/4 DO) is very sharp. Adding the TC does not affect much the quality of the image. If you decide to use the TC, the most important fact to take into account is to have excellent light. Ok buddy, I hope this helps and do not hesitate and contact me if I can be of any assistance. Take care and hope to see you birds in flight shots soon. Yamil ysaenz@hotmail.com
Another outstanding shot Yamil, What metering feature do you use to get such crip focus? Are you on AF or manual. Do you use more than one spot for focusing or just a center spot. Hope you don't mind me picking your brain?? When I try to focus on a bird in flight the AF has a hard time keeping up and I always miss the shot. Anyway I'm still a big fan of yours and look forward to you next outing. Bill
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