Sandhill Cranes fly with amazing elegance and grace! Their long wings grab so much air with each stroke, it sends them gliding through the air with little effort. Watching them fly, it’s very easy to see this grace but when you stop it with a camera, the motion and grace is often not captured. Is there a trick to this? Is there a wing position in flight that says this more than another? In saying this in a photograph, I tend to try for a couple of things. First, I try to start firing the camera when the bird is at the top of their wing stroke (crane on the right). I don’t know what it is but it seems to work out when you rip the shutter to capture the best wing strokes. The other thing I do is go for synchronized flying. Shooting with the D5 / 800mm (so I can shoot with Auto Area AF), I look for two birds flying together. They tend to at some point synchronize their wings beats so when one is up, the other is down. The thing with this is, they don’t always synchronize where you want them to and, they tend not to do it for long. But if you look for it and shoot for it, your odds are better at capturing it. Just something to stick in the back of your mind when you’re wanting to speak about the elegance of flight.
Ruddy Turnstone captured by D5 / 800mm / Panning Plate
Turnstone, turnstone, what kind of name is that for a bird that is found most often on the beach? We have two turnstones in North American, the Black and Ruddy, this is a Ruddy. And their name comes from their constant habitat of turning over debris looking for food. Unlike many of its beach neighbors, Turnstones don’t constantly prob the sand looking for a bite to eat, but under debris where the rest of the birds never look. It always fascinates me to watch all the different species of shorebirds gather and feed with minimal competition in the same little patch of sand, all finding what they need to survive the day. Beautiful!
Ruddy Turnstone captured by D5 / 800mm / Panning Plate
In these first two photos you have two different stories of the Ruddy Turnstone. The above is your basic intimate with the subject shot, the bottom is the biology unfolding. While they were both taken with the D5 / 800mm w/TC-1.25x but the top one, the rig was resting on the sand with the Panning Plate and the bottom photo with the rig on the Gitzo mounted to the Zenelli. The difference in elevation changes two things. The biggie is the background and next is the comfort of birds to feed. Birds feel very vulnerable when feeding so if shy and feeding, being close and on lying on the sand might keep them at a distance. In the case of the Turnstones though, they only have so many opportunities to feed, that debris. Then to get the bottom photo we need to combine biology and technology.
Ruddy Turnstone captured by D5 / 800mm / Panning Plate
It simply requires understanding how the Turnstone got its name and use that knowledge to stack out that debris. Because at some point they will come to check it out and if you’re laying on the sand and they come to YOU on THEIR terms, then you can get the biology with the clean background. There are times then when knowing what goes into a critter’s name is your clue to the biology to exploit to make your photo. Pretty simple once you connect the dots :-)
There is NO one way to work with wildlife, this is especially true with birds! There are many paths to success so then the way to find your path should include the fun factor. When you include that, then lying on the beach has to be one of the best techniques (Kelby class on the technique). We’re working with birds about the size of your fist darting about a world that is full of visual distraction. To make them visibly pop, we need to either make them larger in the frame or remove the visual distractions. Getting down on their level accomplished both with a lot of fun mixed in. Here’s a video showing you the technique in action a few days ago.
The video was shot with the new Nikon KeyMission 360. It was attached to a flash arm over the 800mm lens. It’s a 4k video (be sure to set it to 4k when viewing) resized down from 2.1Gb to 524MB to upload quickly to YouTube. Clicking on the arrow in the top left corner or dragging the hand around in the frame, you can see how we’re shooting in 360 degrees using the Panning Plate from the surf. You can see it all which might help you work with this killer technique!
Which format, horizontal or vertical tells the story best of this Red Squirrel munching? It was a pretty easy photo to take. The Red Squirrel had his mind on one thing, food. Getting close with the D5 / 300PF was easy, real easy so then after that challenge comes the question, which way to turn? I have a favorite based on the action, background and light. When it comes up in your viewfinder, do you know which way to turn? If you don’t and if the opportunity presents itself, take it both ways and then look at the photo later in the hopes you’ll start teaching yourself which works best for your storytelling. Because there are times when you don’t have the luxury of shooting it both ways so you must commit. It’s a question that never goes away … which way to turn?
