A Little Trick I Use to Shoot the Grey Heron in the Eye

Whenever Possible Use a Tripod

 

 

Why does an old geezer like me carry a tripod along with the heavy camera and lenses ?

It helps steady everything when, I'm shooting in rapid fire and, I do that a lot.

The tripod, also holds my position when, I make manual adjustments.

Here's a screenshot taken while processing a RAW file of the image above.

There aren't any cross-hairs present inside the camera viewfinder.

The image is enlarged and the cross-hairs appear when I decide to do some cropping.

They show the exact point, I was focusing on, when the shutter was opened.

The Trick: Use a tripod and, focus on the bird's eye.

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Aim for the eye:


Most of the time, the wildlife shots I take, are with the camera handheld. This is not the ideal way to shoot if you’re setting out to win a photography contest. A sturdy tripod and cable release would be the way to do that. But, I prefer to travel light and move fast so, the best thing I can do is work with the higher shutter speeds. At least 1/100 for every 100mm of length on the lens is what’s required to do handheld shooting. I like to use spot metering and move my focus point, aim and when I see the sun light up the bird's eye, shoot.

A Black Pacific Reef Egret taken 28APR2009 7:56AM f/8 1/800 ISO 200 Pentax K10D Sigma 50-500@500mm.

You Are The Boss

CAUTION: YOU MAY HAVE DIFFICULTY LOOKING YOUR EMPLOYEE IN THE EYE WHEN HIS NOSE IS UP YOUR ASS!