wildlife – Florida Bird Photography Tours & Fine Art

Action Bird Photography with the Canon 7d Mark ii in the Sarasota Bay

This post could have been titled three squawks for three poses!! I always enjoy photographing in the Sarasota Bay, and that 2 hour shoot in the Bay last month did not disappoint. Yet another demonstration of action Bird Photography with the Canon 7d mark ii for sure.

First, as this is likely to be my last post before the holidays, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!!!!

Snowy Egret landing – Sarasota Bay, Florida
ISO 320 | f/4 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

The Snowy Egret image above is quite striking with the diagonal side way landing. The situation was that this particular Snowy Egret is known to me as quite feisty. So, I usually pay close attention to possible new comings in the vicinity to see what kind of chase is going to follow. The key is to not have your eye stuck to the view finder and look around every so often. Surely enough, my favorite feisty Egret spotted a new comer and propelled itself sideways in the air to land close in a furious squawking demonstration. 🙂

Roseate Spoonbill squawking – Sarasota Bay, Florida
ISO 320 | f/4 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

While the image above was not taken in the Tampa Bay Spoonbill rookery, I find it extremely pleasing with a bright blue grey blurry background. In this case, the bird had approached too close to me for proper horizontal framing, so I switched to vertical to still make it fit! Then, the pleasing background is a result of careful shooting angle, sun angle, background angle and head angle. Once you understand the four angles of success, you will re-think your photography in a very different light.

Great White Egret banking in flight – Sarasota Bay, Florida
ISO 320 | f/4 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

This spot in the Sarasota Bay can be a bit challenging for banking shots. There is in fact a narrow window of opportunity when some birds turn around with decent sun angle. The way I see it, instead of following and shooting the bird in flight wherever there is a flying movement, I look for a shooting zone and wait for a bird to have a flight course that is likely to cross it. I much rather take less shots and wait for the right moment…

Florida Spoonbills and Shorebirds photography workshop – $990

Feb 20th-21st 2016 / limit 6 people – FULL

Mar 19th-20th 2016 / limit 6 people – FULL

Apr 16th-17th 2016 / limit 6 people – FULL

Contact me at steven.blandin@gmail.com to be put on the waiting list for possible cancellations or for 2017. Cancellations do happen, so it is not excluded you might still get to join me in 2016.

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Steven

Birds in flight photography tips: general tips

There are lots of tips for birds in flight photography out there. Let me present you the ones that have made me successful with my birds in flight photographs. Those tips are not all must do, but they definitely help from my perspective. Enjoy!

– shoot in manual mode
The biggest advantage of shooting in manual mode when doing birds in flight photography is that you will expose properly no matter what the background is. In Av or Tv modes, your camera will compute a different ideal exposure whether there is a dark background or a light color background. In other words, you might properly expose when the bird is in the sky and then suddenly under expose as soon as the bird crosses a tree line.

Black Skimmer in flight - Florida photography tour

Black Skimmer in flight – Indian Shores, Florida
ISO 500 | f/5 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

– shutter speed above 1/1000 (the faster the better given balanced noise)
I have no issue raising the ISO in a significant way in order to have a shutter speed of 1/1000 or above. Though it is possible to shoot birds in flight at 1/500, it is often with some degree on blurring around the wing tips and I tend to prefer the perfect freezer action. In fact, I will often be shooting faster then 1/2500. You never know what kind of crazy wing movement you might be able to capture and it is better to be ready then to miss to play safe. High ISO noise can easily be dealt with given proper optimization technique.

– AF single point expansion zone & AI servo mode
The advantage of the single point zone expansion, is that if you loose focus with the central single point, one of the eight peripheral focus point can pick up the tracking. You may then decide where to focus, while keeping a reasonable area covered in your view finder.

– Gimbal head on tripod for smooth panning
While it is easier to track your subject in the air while handholding, with a proper good quality very fluid gimbal head, you should be able to track fairly well with a big telephoto lens. The key is to pick a head that is fluid and gives you true weightless assistance.

– Handhold if you can
The best way to handhold a heavy telephoto lens is to tuck your left elbow against your left ribs (if you are a righty) with your feet apart at a shoulder length distance. Picture the typical stance used by a rifleman, this is the most stable stance and the least tiring one you may adopt.

Brown Pelican taking off – Fort Desoto, Florida
ISO 800 | f/7.1 | 1/5000 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review) with the 1.4x extender, the Canon EOS 5D mark III on tripod with gimbal head.

– Composition: twice as much space in front / pan faster
Ideal composition to give movement to your creation would be to have twice as much space in front of the bird versus in the back. What that means though, is that you really to keep up with panning with your subject by being having your focus point slightly ahead of the bird’s trajectory if possible.

– burst of 3/4 images times 2
I typically take a couple of burst of 4/5 images within the shooting zone. Re-focusing from one burst to the other increases your chances of having at least one burst with proper focus for a sharp image around the eye.

Young Spoonbill landing - Florida photography tour

Young Spoonbill landing – Tampa Bay Spoonbill rookery, Florida
ISO 250 | f/5.6 | 1/5000 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens (Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM review), the Canon EOS 5D mark III on tripod with gimbal head.

– Pump AF button
When you start tracking the bird, lock focus once in AI servo mode but do not keep the focus button locked the whole time. My advice is to “pump” or re-acquire focus just before going for your fist burst.

– Pre-focus
If you have prefocused on something at a distance fairly comparable to where your subject is likely to show up, the lens will take a lot less time to acquire focus. Also, make sure you are shooting with the focus range set to the preset in which the longest range is infinity and the shorter focus range is as far as possible. That option is available in long telephoto lenses and it helps the lens having less focal lens to go through to acquire focus. It will help having your less not spend as much time “hunt focusing”.

– look behind you for banking shots
See this post => https://stevenbirdphotography.com/2015/08/04/birds-in-flight-photography-tips-bif-banking-shots/

– understand wind direction
See this post => https://stevenbirdphotography.com/2015/06/01/birds-in-flight-photography-tips-bif-wind-direction-shooting-zone/

– Exercise on big slow birds first like Pelicans. They make for perfect practice 🙂

Florida Ospreys Photography Tour

Florida Spoonbills Photography Workshop

Support our blog by following our links for your purchases. It comes at no extra cost to you and it helps keeping this photography blog lively!

Steven

Black Skimmers in flight with the Canon EOS 7d mark II

The only one morning I spent at the Indian Shore Black Skimmers breeding ground was very rewarding! On top of the nice chick images I shared in a recent post, I had the pleasure to photograph some pretty good flight stances.

Black Skimmer banking in flight with prey – Indian Shores, Florida
ISO 500 | f/5.6 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

A classical banking shot from the Black Skimmer above, with the fish in the beak as an added bonus. As often, I placed myself in a way to work on only one portion of the sky: the only place where I could reach optimum sun angle. This tends to work better than hunting birds flying left and right. First recognize the good situation, then calmly wait for a subject to enter “the good situation”. While there were birds flying all over, my attention was set on a particular spot where conditions were suitable to my requirements. Every so often, some birds would pass by, giving me all the opportunities I needed 🙂

Note that I took care of keeping the horizon with the sea water to help anchor the image.

Black Skimmer banking in flight - Indian Shores, Florida

Black Skimmer banking in flight with prey – Indian Shores, Florida
ISO 640 | f/5.6 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head while kneeling on the ground.

Another really good banking shot! Keep in mind that banking shots are possible only when the bird turn in flight. With a good eye, it is not that difficult to recognize the pattern and wait for just the right moment.

Black Skimmer landing - Indian Shores, Florida

And after a few banks, here is the landing! Actually, having the subject closer to the breeding ground is a bit tricky. The reason is there were a lot of distracting objects to deal with: fence to prevent people from getting to close and other breeding birds amongst others. It took a lot of Photoshop cleanup on the image above. Use your stamp tool to clone on a separate layer above your original layer, then use a layer mask to erase (paint in black) zones where you would have stamped over the subject. See below a before and after view:

Black Skimmer landing - image optimization

Support our blog by following our links for your purchases. It comes at no extra cost to you and it helps keeping this photography blog lively!

Steven

Birds in flight photography tips: Banking shots

Many bird photographers consider banking shots the Graal of Birds in flight photography. On top of acquiring proper focus and all the other steps that make birds in flight photography difficult, we now try to create an image with full view over the upper wing or the under wing. Those situations are not as common as regular flight patterns for one who does not have an eye for it. I will gladly agree that banking views are a real notch harder, but so much more exciting to hunt for.

Spoonbill banking shot - Birds in flight photography

Roseate Spoonbill banking in flight – Tampa Bay rookery, Florida
ISO 500 | f/4 | 1/5000 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

The Spoonbill banking photograph above was created during the 2015 Spoonbill photography tour. My number one tip is to look around you and not to keep your head in your viewfinder in front of you. Banking positions happen during a turning motion during flight. So, birds that are likely to turn in front of you while displaying full upper wing detail will be coming from behind you! You literally want to keep a close eye for those and start tracking very early on. If you have paid attention to flight patterns around you and noticed that the birds are turning within your shooting zone with proper sun lighting, then simply wait for the next birds coming from behind you as some of them will turn in front of you as well. If you are waiting to see a bird actually banking to think about acquiring focus, you are most likely already too late.

Brown Pelican banking in flight - birds in flight photography

Brown Pelican in flight – Tampa Bay rookery, Florida
ISO 400 | f/4 | 1/5000 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

The bigger the bird, the harder it is to have a full upper wing view. Stay patient and keep trying as even the bigger birds will offer full banks every now and then. A tip that is true at all time, is to attempt to decipher a flight pattern. Birds behavior is repetitive and seeing one bird flying a certain way is a good hint at what the next bird might do. Based on the direction in which the wind is blowing, you should quickly understand the most likely trajectories.

Spoonbill banking in flight - birds in flight photography

Roseate Spoonbill banking in flight – Tampa Bay rookery, Florida
ISO 1600 | f/4 | 1/1600 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod while wading in the water.

The birds in flight photograph above was also created during the 2015 Spoonbill bird photography workshop. Going vertical or staying horizontal? Most vertical views of full banking shots are crops from vertical captures. The reason is of course that one is ready for everything when shooting horizontally, versus being in vertical mode you are only hoping for a full bank and will most likely not get a good composition for normal flight. While I follow the herd on this, every now and then I do attempt to shoot vertical and just wait for the proper full bank position before firing the shutter.

Florida Spoonbills and Shorebirds photography tour – $990

Feb 20th-21st 2016 / limit 6 people – 1 open

Apr 16th-17th 2016 / limit 6 people – 1 open

Contact me at steven.blandin@gmail.com and $250 non refundable deposit to book your spot. Note that we will be wading in the water, about 50 feet from the point of highest tide in order to follow the Audubon society guidelines and help protect those beautiful birds during the nesting season.
Florida Spoonbill photography tour

Support our blog by following our links for your purchases. It comes at no extra cost to you and it helps keeping this photography blog lively!

Steven

Bird photography with the Canon 7d mark II in the Sarasota Bay

Visiting family close to the Sarasota Bay has its perks. The other day, I slipped in about an hour of delightful photography before everybody woke up for breakfast. While starting my short bird photography adventure with the Canon 5d mark III to work on blurs, I quickly switched to the Canon 7d mark II for the rest of the hour. With low tide conditions, some parts of the Sarasota Bay attract many wading birds, including Spoonbills. Every now and then I witness flocks of 20 to 30 individuals of the stunning pink feather colored bird. Ideally, you want the tide low enough to attract the birds to come feed, but not so low that the grass type algea shows. When the algea shows, it makes for less pleasant backgrounds with brown patches here and there.

Little Blue Heron with prey - Sarasota Bay, Florida

Little blue Heron with breeding colors – Sarasota Bay, Florida
ISO 250 | f/4 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head while wading in the water.

The photograph above depicts a Little blue Heron with bright breeding colors keeping a snake like invertebrate snared in its beak. When I spotted that the bird seemed close to strike at the water, I positioned myself a bit closer and decided to go vertical for potential head shots with prey. Bingo! The wading bird snatched a snake like prey and fussed with it for a couple of minutes to put it in a proper position for a big gulp. The other advantage of going for a tight shot here was to avoid some brownish green patches of algea in the background. I am very pleased with the excellent head angles of both predator and prey. Plus, it is not often one may create an interesting photograph with a little blue Heron with breeding colors.

Great White Egret landing – Sarasota Bay, Florida
ISO 1000 | f/5.6 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod with gimbal head.

When the wind is blowing in the right direction, from your back and straight towards your subject, the chances of creating a squarely frontal landing are dramatically increased. The Great white Egret photograph above is a nice landing over the blue water. I would have created a lot more of those during my short outing, but few would have come out with a clean background since the tide was a bit too low and there were not that many spots that offered a non clustered blue backdrop. I preferred not to go for the obvious and focus for a situation where the conditions would be good, meaning the 4 angles of success would be met!

Snowy Egret – Sarasota Bay, Florida
ISO 250 | f/4 | 1/6400 sec. | Manual mode | AI servo rear focusing
This photograph was created with the Canon 600mm f/4 L IS II USM lens, the Canon EOS 7D mark II on tripod while wading in the water.

This is a very fun situation if you know how to recognize it. A white subject brightly lit up with a background in the shade will turn into an almost completely black background once you have set your camera settings for proper exposure on the subject. As you will have to under expose in order not too blow up the highlights, the backdrop will turn even darker. Play with the curves in post production by giving it a bit of a S shape and here you are!

Florida Spoonbills and Shorebirds photography tour – $990

Feb 20th-21st 2016 / limit 6 people – 4 open

Apr 16th-17th 2016 / limit 6 people – 4 open

Support our blog by following our links for your purchases. It comes at no extra cost to you and it helps keeping this photography blog lively!

Steven