Full Flight Birds of Prey
Full Flight Birds of Prey © Robyn Singleton
After having our outing to the Full Flight Birds of Prey cancelled last year due to Covid, 24 Members drove up to Miners Rest yesterday. We were all excited and ready to attempt to take motion images of the Birds of Prey. Graeme introduced us to about six different birds, ranging from owls to a raptor and eagle. Quite a few of us laughed at our attempts to get the birds in flight and decided we need a lot more practice.
As one of the Members pointed out, it was good that we had the opportunity to photograph the range of birds without having to seek them out; which is a challenge in itself. After the event, 12 of us headed to the Lakeside Hotel for lunch before heading back down the highway. A good day was had by all.
Neil's notes of the day
Full Flight Birds of Flight was an extremely enjoyable photoshoot, and Graeme (the owner of Full Flight Birds of Flight) was a wealth of information on his birds.
Fortunately Wade had prepared information on camera settings and advice of photographing birds in flight. Also, his recommendation to view Steve Perry’s ‘Birds in Flight Photography - Crash Course’ was excellent. As my previous experience at photographing birds in flight with any success has been pelicans and seagulls, I did re-read the manual for my camera and have been doing some practice with rear button focusing.
The weather was real cold with a decent shower of rain until the sun came out near the end of the photoshoot (typical Ballarat area winter weather). Members equipment ranged from lenses that do a serious hit to a bank balance to less sophisticated equipment. Apart from photographing birds in flight there were plenty of opportunities to take portraits of birds and birds almost at the end of the flight before they land on Graeme’s gloved hand.
Taking great sharp images of birds in flight is probably one of the hardest aspects of photography. I thought I had a reasonable plan for my bird photography. However, the first flight of the barn owl was a reality check; zero keepers. For the next flight I managed to pick up focus on the bird essentially as it was taking off, and got a couple of sharp images with one having a reasonable composition (i.e. the whole bird was in the frame). The success rate improved as the photoshoot went on.
