First BIFs

[purplehaze]

I'm so excited! I actually caught a bird in flight! I was out trying to catch my bro doing aerials on his kiteboard yesterday when this pelican came along to distract me.

My DOF was perhaps too shallow, but I am delighted just to have caught it. Five of the six frames at least had the eye in focus.

Here are two I have done some quick edits on. I only popped into town to go to dragonboat practice and pick up some more groceries, so I don't have a lot of big screen editing time.

Both were shot with my Nikkor 70-200 f/4 plus 1.4 teleconverter at 400 ISO and f/9. Shutter speed was 1/1250 for the one and 1/1600 for the other. Both images have been cropped.

If I have time tonight, I will post some of the kiteboarding shots. I had my most consistently good results yet, due to the fact that I was on a tripod.

#1
_DSC5358.jpg by Janis Hughes, on Flickr

#2
_DSC5357.jpg by Janis Hughes, on Flickr

[BCrose]

Good job, BIF's are not an easy task

[Stagecoach]

Janis, well done.

The real challenge is getting them both in flight and in the frame where you want at the same time

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Grahame and Monte. I honestly thought this was beyond me, but putting my camera on the tripod made all the difference. I have small hands and so have difficulty holding all my bulkier lenses steady and tracking smoothly. Lucky for me, my Acratech GP ballhead does double duty as a gimbal head, so once I flipped it, and got all the knobs loosened off just enough to allow me to swing the camera smoothly on all three axes, whole new worlds of opportunity opened themselves to me. The next thing will be to try it out on my monopod.

[IzzieK]

Uh oh...now you are hooked on BiF...careful....it can be addicting... like as if I know... Now if you can get your brother and a BIF in the same frame as Grahame suggested, it will be a win-win situation no one has ever uploaded here before...unless someone did before I joined CiC anyway...No, I am not suggesting you transplant a BIF with your bro's kiteboarding image either as that will be cheating...hahaha..but it is a thought...

[purplehaze]

Oh my goodness, I had not read "both" as including my brother, Izzie. But that would be a challenge, wouldn't it? Fact is, I think the birds give the boarders a wide berth, as one might give a novice bike rider or driver.

Which reminds me, a friend and I were paddling side-by-side on paddleboards on Saturday when a pelican flew straight at her, deviating only slightly to glide right on by. It was so close that a normal lens would not have captured its full length. Paddleboards and kayaks are great for getting close to the birds. But, unlike Monte, I do not have the confidence or courage to carry anything other than my waterproofed phone for shooting.

[Dave Humphries]

Welcome, Janis, to the wonderfully (if often frustratingly) addictive world of BIF

Good results, Dave

PS, I did wonder about your choice of position the bird when cropping - I assume there has been some cropping in PP - but I tried moving the Lytebox about my screen edges to see alternative positions and decided you have it just right as shown, for the wing positions in each shot.

[TrishBJ]

Brilliant work! I'm envious.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Dave. Yes, they are both cropped. I was looking at the wing position in each, but I might revisit the cropping in the second one another time. So much processing to do in so little time! My brother is eager to have finished copies of his and his friend's aerobatics and I am wondering when the deadline is for submissions to our little village newspaper...

[purplehaze]

Brilliant work! I'm envious.

Thank you, Trish. Believe me, if I can do it, you can, too.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, looks like you could have zoomed in closer; good enough for a first attempt.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John. The EXIF reads 280 mm, which I think means I was fully zoomed (200 mm x 1.4). What I could have done was have faster reflexes and capture it when it was physically closer. But my reflexes are notoriously slow.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful! Very well done! Forewarned photographing pelicans and BIF can be addictive.

[bnnrcn]

Very succesful shots Janis

[John 2]

Nicely caught and framed Janis.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Christina, Binnur and John. I have visions now of capturing the osprey and eagles in the neighbourhood too.

[joebranko]

Well captured!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Joe; looking forward to the next opportunity.