Ornithology Pictures
Does anyone know how to take good quality pictures of a bird in flight? I try to but you can never tell how distinct the bird is plus it is really hard to aim my camera at the bird while in motion. I just need some tips to help perfect it. Attached I will have a picture or two of birds I have taken. I hope they enjoy and any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!
~Kevin
A bird feeder is not a bad idea, but your original request was to capture birds in flight. I do quite a bit of this type of shooting and it does take a great deal of practice. It also calls for quite a bit of camera. I'm not familiar with the Coolpix L340 but I suspect that it may not be up to this task. Specifically in regard the focus system.
When shooting BIF the biggest challenge is to be able to lock focus on your subject and then be able to track it's movements while maintaining that focus lock. It's not easy to follow some of these birds as they can be pretty erratic. Add to that the fact that their movements can be from any direction, away from you at any angle, toward you at any angle, up, down and all of the combinations in between. The picture below is a perfect example. These two got into it over something and were flitting around in every direction, so following them was tough. But that's when you get the really fun stuff.
I don't think the L340 has a sophisticated enough focus tracking system. In fact, it may not have this feature at all, and that is something that you (OP) will have to look into. Without it, shooting birds in flight is going to be next to impossible.
I would suggest looking at some more sophisticated DSLRs. There are a great number of them on the used market. Again, I shoot Canon so I don't know much about Nikon's models. I can tell you that I started shooting BIF with a Canon 600D and the Canon 18-200 and my results were just ok. 200mm is just not long enough to get really great detail that most birders want.
Maybe this will give you some ideas to at least get started with.
Bryston3bsst wrote: Not sure if the OP is still around......I realize this thread is a little old.
A bird feeder is not a bad idea, but your original request was to capture birds in flight. I do quite a bit of this type of shooting and it does take a great deal of practice. It also calls for quite a bit of camera. I'm not familiar with the Coolpix L340 but I suspect that it may not be up to this task. Specifically in regard the focus system.
When shooting BIF the biggest challenge is to be able to lock focus on your subject and then be able to track it's movements while maintaining that focus lock. It's not easy to follow some of these birds as they can be pretty erratic. Add to that the fact that their movements can be from any direction, away from you at any angle, toward you at any angle, up, down and all of the combinations in between. The picture below is a perfect example. These two got into it over something and were flitting around in every direction, so following them was tough. But that's when you get the really fun stuff.
I don't think the L340 has a sophisticated enough focus tracking system. In fact, it may not have this feature at all, and that is something that you (OP) will have to look into. Without it, shooting birds in flight is going to be next to impossible.
I would suggest looking at some more sophisticated DSLRs. There are a great number of them on the used market. Again, I shoot Canon so I don't know much about Nikon's models. I can tell you that I started shooting BIF with a Canon 600D and the Canon 18-200 and my results were just ok. 200mm is just not long enough to get really great detail that most birders want.
Maybe this will give you some ideas to at least get started with.
Very well said! Everything bit of information you mentioned here is really learning and useful.
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