Photo Safaris By Region AFRICA - Botswana Wildlife - Madagascar - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya ANTARCTICA - Ultimate Antarctica ASIA - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - India—Rajasthan & Puskar Fair - Japan's Winter Wildlife - Laos & Vietnam - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival EUROPE - Best of the Greek Isles - Eclectic Holland - Finland's Arctic Wildlife - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Tuscany - White Horses of France's Camargue NORTH AMERICA - Alaska Overland - Aurora Borealis—Fairbanks, Alaska - Bald Eagles of the Chilkat River, Alaska - Bosque del Apache & White Sands, New Mexico - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Summer - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Colorado Fall Colors - Denali National Park in Autumn - Exploring Lake Powell - Florida Birds—Best of the West - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Great Smoky Mountains - Horses & Icons of the Wild West - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Mexico's Colonial Heartland - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - Olympic National Park, Washington - Predatory Animals of North America - Springtime in Callaway Gardens, Georgia - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Washington's Palouse Country - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Yellowstone & Grand Tetons in Autumn - Nature & Digital Photography Seminars with John Shaw PACIFICA - Midway Atoll SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA - Galápagos - Patagonia's Mountain Landscapes - Ultimate Dolphins Wildlife Models Shoot - Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal Photo Safaris By Date JANUARY - Ultimate Wolves - Nature & Digital Photography Seminars with John Shaw, Dallas, TX & Raleigh, NC - Ultimate Yellowstone FEBRUARY - Japan's Winter Wildlife MARCH - Florida Birds—Best of the West - Nature & Digital Photography Seminars with John Shaw, Phoenix, AZ & Boston, MA - Midway Atoll - Aurora Borealis—Fairbanks, Alaska - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - White Horses of France's Camargue APRIL - Springtime in Callaway Gardens, Georgia - Galápagos - Finland's Arctic Wildlife - Patagonia's Mountain Landscapes - Eclectic Holland - Great Smoky Mountains - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Mexico's Colonial Heartland MAY - Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Ultimate Dolphins Wildlife Models Shoot - Best of the Greek Isles - Tuscany JUNE - Washington's Palouse Country - Predatory Animals of North America JULY - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Summer - Olympic National Park, Washington AUGUST - Washington's Palouse Country - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage SEPTEMBER - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Denali National Park in Autumn - Alaska Overland - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Madagascar - Yellowstone & Grand Tetons in Autumn - Botswana Wildlife - Colorado Fall Colors - Predatory Animals of North America - Horses & Icons of the Wild West - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival OCTOBER - Exploring Lake Powell - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - India—Rajasthan & Puskar Fair NOVEMBER - Laos & Vietnam - Ultimate Antarctica - Bald Eagles of the Chilkat River, Alaska DECEMBER - Bosque del Apache & White Sands, New Mexico

		John Shaw Nature & Digital Photography Workshops Click here for locations and dates Mexico's Colonial Heartland March 17–24, 2007 Horses and Icons of the Wild West August 26–September 1, 2007 Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya September 7–21, 2007 Australia Wildlife November 1–20, 2007 Photographing birds in flight has always been a challenge. Well, I really should modify that sentence to say, "Getting a sharp picture of a flying bird has always been a challenge."  After all, from my own experience, I know it's pretty easy to take out-of-focus blurry photos of blobs that may or may not be birds positioned up against the sky. But how do you get a good shot? Camera technology developed over the last decade has made flight photography much easier — but not foolproof. Autofocus is, of course, the major development that has helped all action shooters, bird photographers and sports photographers alike. But owning an AF camera is, by itself, not a guarantee of results. Here are some points to consider. LENS CHOICES Bald eagle: 300mm AF-S lens handheld, Provia (normal) Your choice of lens comes down to two major divisions: (a) whether the lens is going to be handheld or tripod-mounted, and (b) the distance between you and your subjects. The latter point is rather obvious. You would not use a 20mm to photograph geese if you're working them at 100 yards and want more than "goose dots" to record on the film. The appropriate lens, whether for landscape photography or for action, is dictated by the subject framing you need for the photo. Having said that, for flying birds you will most likely be working with focal lengths in the 300-600mm range. Sure, at times you might be able to use an 80-200mm at its long end, but generally that will be too short a focal length. For handheld work you want a lens that's easy to carry and quick to focus. Since I'm a Nikon shooter I'm most familiar with Nikon. If you use Canon or some other brand please just substitute the equivalent lenses. My most-used focal length for handheld flight photography is 300mm. But... I own two lenses of this focal length, the f/2.8 ED AF-S and the new f/4 ED AF-S. The difference in field use really boils down to a matter of which lens I happen to have with me at the time. For example, on some trips I might carry my 300mm f/2.8 plus teleconverters and leave my 500mm big gun lens at home. But if I take the 500mm, the odds are that my 300mm will be the f/4 version. In the past I've broken my back carrying both the fast 300mm and my 500mm, but with airlines becoming even more restrictive, especially in light of current events, the smaller and lighter 300mm is now my choice. Both of my 300mm lenses can take a 1.4X teleconverter if need be, yielding a 420mm focal length. The resulting maximum apertures are still fast enough to allow the use of action stopping shutter speeds, while the ED glass maintains wide-open sharpness. This is an important point. For flight shooting you need speed; for practical purposes you want at least f/5.6 and a lens that is usable wide open, as that's exactly the aperture you'll use the majority of the time. Sandhill crane: 500mm AF-S lens on tripod, Provia (pushed one stop) Autofocus works quicker with big aperture lenses. That's true with all systems. You can lock onto your subject faster with an f/2.8 lens than with an f/5.6. But a fast lens is always bigger and heavier — hence more difficult to use. Look at my 300mm lenses — the f/2.8 weighs 6.6 pounds while the f/4 lens is less than half that at 3.1 pounds. Hold that f/2.8 lens up to your face for several hours of handheld shooting and the weight difference seems to increase exponentially. All things considered, I would choose the f/4 lens as far easier to use. Nikon owners: please note that I'm talking about the AF-S lens (the new one, and not the older 300mm f/4). That lens is optically great, but it lags behind in AF use. After all, it came on the market about a year before the Nikon F4 camera body came out, which in camera terms was back in the Stone Age. For action work you'll want to set your camera body to "dynamic AF." Once the subject is acquired by your chosen AF sensor the camera will maintain autofocus as long as you keep the subject within the framework of all the AF sensors. That's harder to describe than it is to use. The first time I ever used autofocus on my F5 camera, I set the body to "dynamic AF" and have never changed it. With my F5 I also use the central AF point to pick up my subject. In fact, I've used the lock feature to keep this as my primary active AF sensor. I make fewer mistakes — not accidentally switching to the wrong sensor while I watch my bird fly out of the frame. Nikon's "dynamic AF" feature will hand off the subject to other AF points. Atlantic puffin: 500mm AF-S lens on tripod, Provia (pushed one stop) You'll also want to use the "continuous" mode of autofocus ("AI Servo" in the Canon system, "Continuous Servo" in Nikon). With this setting the AF system will theoretically continuously track the subject as long as you maintain pressure on the AF activation button. I've found that I often have to let up on the shutter release, and then touch it again. Many cameras have the choice of activating AF either by the shutter release or by using a secondary button. I would strongly urge you to use shutter-release AF when working flying birds as it makes the process much easier. Nikon F5 owners: you might run into a problem that I've encountered. The secondary "AF-on" and "AF-lock" buttons are positioned directly under my right thumb as I grip the camera. At times, especially when I'm wearing gloves in cold weather, I find I'm activating AF with the shutter release while also accidentally hitting one of the other buttons with my thumb — resulting in the system not knowing what to do. The solution is easy. When shooting handheld flight shots I make sure that my thumb is jammed up against the bottom of the viewfinder (directly under the eyepiece there is about -inch overhang of the detachable prism). For the longest time I couldn't figure out what was happening, until I finally realized where my hand was positioned. Speaking of hand position, make sure you hold your camera and lens properly. Your right hand is of course on the shutter release, while your left hand should be positioned far out on the lens barrel. In other words, your hands should be placed well apart on the lens. I've seen some photographers try to work while holding the camera body with both hands, while the lens waved around in all directions. The worst case I've ever seen was a photographer who gripped the camera body with his left hand while his right hand manually focused the lens. I never did figure out how he could possibly trip the shutter. Osprey: 500mm AF-S lens on tripod, Provia (normal) 400mm is about the practical limit of handheld focal lengths as all longer lenses are far too heavy to hold for long periods of time. Canon has a 400mm f/5.6 lens while a 1.4X converter on the Nikon 300mm f/4 lens yields a 420mm f/5.6. Canon also makes a 100-400mm zoom that works well. Nikon's 80-400mm zoom has far slower autofocus response, although it works well on slower flying birds. (Yes, I know I'm going to get a bunch of emails about this statement!) If you're going to do much flight shooting with big lenses mounted on a tripod, you should definitely purchase one of the gimbaled action heads on the market — either the standard Wimberley or the Kirk King Cobra. You can do good work with your normal ball head, but the gimbaled models are in a class by themselves. Designed specifically for action work, they make panning with flying birds easy. Using a very long focal length — 500mm, 600mm, or one of these with an added 1.4X teleconverter — can actually be more productive than using a shorter focal length. If birds are hovering above you, no problem for short lenses. But those flying past you, from one side to the other, or coming directly toward you, are changing their position in greater relative amounts the closer they are to you. Let me make up some numbers here to illustrate this point. Suppose a bird is 100 feet away and flying towards you at 10 feet per second. In one second it has changed its relative position by 10%. But if it is 50 feet away, during that same one second it has moved by 20%. The closer you have to work the bird due to shorter focal length lenses, the worse this becomes. Longer focal lengths allow you to work at greater distances with less effective change in subject position. Birds going across the frame are much easier to track, particularly with a long focal length, than those coming directly into the camera, since they stay at roughly the same distance. FILM CHOICES Arctic tern: 300mm AF-S lens handheld, Velvia Film for flight shooting is a personal choice. I like to use Velvia whenever I can, but its slow speed limits its use to bright light. Remember the "sunny f/16" rule? This states that correct exposure for a medium toned front-lit subject in bright sunlight is 1/ISO for a shutter speed at an aperture of f/16. Another way of stating this is "fast f/5.6": take the ISO of your film, add a zero, and that's the shutter speed at f/5.6. Velvia comes out to be 1/500 second at f/5.6. And that's in bright sun. Consequently, most bird photographers tend to use faster films. My choice is Fuji Provia F 100 pushed one stop. I see no real difference in grain or color between this film used straight and when it's pushed one stop, so I almost always push it for the extra shutter speed. That it is a lower contrast film than Velvia also helps to hold shadow detail. LIGHT Light is, of course, the most important factor in all photography. Unless you're working birds such as Arctic terns, which transilluminate against the sky, you should be photographing in the good light early and late in the day. The most effective lighting situation is front light, with the bird flying into the light. Make sure you are working on birds coming toward you into the light, and not any which have passed your position and are now flying away from the light. You should be aware of the wind direction also — birds land into the wind so ideally you want the wind at your back. And of course you need to be aware of compositional concerns, as with all your photography. Combine the current fast autofocusing lenses with the right conditions and your percentage of keepers should be high. Yep, my 500mm on a Wimberley, stiff wind at my back, late afternoon golden light, Provia pushed, birds hanging in the air...like Joe says, hold that button down and make a movie.

	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383   Fax: (206) 463-5484    Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.