Dinner Incoming
Feb, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this on a visit to the Farne Islands in Northumberland, UK in early July a few years ago when the islands are swarming with guillemots, terns, eider ducks, razorbills, and puffins all nesting on the islands for the summer.Time
The all-day boat trip to the Farne islands, weather permitting, include a stop on two of the islands: Staple Island for the morning and Inner Farne Island for the afternoon, with a drive by the grey seal colony that lingers around the islands before one of the islands. I took this photo while on Staple Island and it was towards the end of our time on the island so timing was probably just before midday.Lighting
The trip out to the islands was pretty lucky weather-wise as it was sunny with clear blue skies which are not always a given for Northern England. This meant I could keep a low ISO for most of my shooting but still get good shutter speeds but also allowed me to get the brilliant solid blue background on the shot.Equipment
I used my Nikon D700 and an 80-400mm lens for this shot. I was handholding to shoot as I find monopods and tripods more of a hinderance than a help when shooting birds in flight.Inspiration
This was my second visit to the Farne Islands, the first having been only a few weeks prior, and I was entirely enraptured with the puffins and their busy activity of zipping out to sea and back to scoop up eels to bring back to their burrow for their chick. I spent much of the morning shooting a number of panning shots of the puffins flying from side to side and was looking for a different vantage point when I noticed that for some of the incoming birds I could setup an incoming to camera shot that made for something different.Editing
I try to keep post-processing pretty light touch. The main processing I did on this image was cropping the original to center the bird on the image. I did a few adjustments to brighten some of the shadows, a bit of clarity to bring in some more of the detail and a bit of sharpening.In my camera bag
Since taking this photo, I've upgraded my kit to a Nikon D5 but still rely on my D700 as a trusty second body. I often use my 80-400mm lens as it is a great all-around lens for wildlife photography given the breadth of zoom but great handhold-ability but for shorter range zoom, my go to is my 24-70mm. Along with the spare memory cards and fully charged back-up battery, I always have a pack of tissues and a pack of wet wipes. I also usually pack a bit of candy to snack on as sometimes lunch may need to be postponed if a wildlife sighting is really good. Cadbury Buttons are a favorite but if the weather is too warm for easily melted chocolate, then it is a pack of Haribo Tangfastics or Gummi Bears.Feedback
Capturing birds in flight is a fun challenge but be prepared to throw away a lot of shots in the quest for a good one. For a shot like this, you need to be on continuous focus and pre-focus your camera between each attempt at the point where you want to pick-up the subject. It's a bit of trial and error, so find a bit of ground below where you think you'll pick-up the subject to focus on and take your hand off the shutter until your subject is in focus and then start shooting. I normally have my camera set to continuous shooting for firing off a burst of shots and keep shooting until the subject is too close or I hit my buffer.
