ducks in flight

[rdking647]

[HarveyDarkey]

1. Great shots there

I especially like the first one. Shouldn't that be "duck in flight"? I'm guessing that's the same bird. Welcome to the group, you've had a stellar start.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Wow, these are amazing!

So vivid and clear.

Where have you been hiding?

Just gorgeous!

[Solly Mack]

3. Sweet!

Love the first one.

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. And another. Have to ask what lens you are using and....

how you are set up for these shots. Tripod?

[rdking647]

5. no tripod

handheld.. usualy with a sigma 150-500 lens.. I set the aperture and iso so I can use a fast shutter speed. I find that 1/500 or greater is needed for a moving bird in the wild.
the 150-500 is a great lens for wildlife without spending huge amounts of money. I have a 1.4x teleconverter that I just got to go with it but havent trued that on birds yet. My gut is that will require a tripod or an even higher shutter speed. havent had a chance to take it out and tyr anything with it.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. Thanks for the info. I have been working on getting greater

clarity on the nature shots I have been taking. I initially started at too high an iso and have been trying out different iso's from 200 to 800 and my shots have been improving. I use a tamron 70 - 300DI lens usually hand held and, if I have the time, manually focusing.
I'm a work in progress.

[rdking647]

7. wildlife hints

heres what ive discovered in taking wildlife shots..
ISO is very camera dependent. I used to use a nikon d5000 and any ISO over 1000 was pretty useless. now I have a nikon d7000 and have had good results up to iso's of 5000.
i shoot with the lens stopped down to f8 or f11 for maximun clarity if possible. a lot of times I have to use f6.3
I auto focus,using spot focusing. if the bird is stationary I try and use the eye for a focus point.
I use spot metering.
I try and make my shutter speed 1/500 at the slowest if possible. if its something like a bird in flight Ive found that even 1/1000 isnt alwats fast enough
I dont use manual focusing,Im just not good at it.

[Bonhomme Richard]

8. Thanks again.

I am using a D300 and spot focusing when using auto focus. Thanks for the tips. I need to spend some real time working on my settings.

[rdking647]

9. more tips

when i go out to shoot wildlife im capable of shooting a couple hundred pictures. then i throw out 80-90% of them when i get home..