Bird Chaos

Bird photography is exciting. Now, I am not a birder, but I enjoy photographing birds. First, the birds are beautiful and entertaining. Secondly, their behavior is challenging and fun to photograph. In different places, I like to photograph birds doing different things. At home in Massachusetts, I love photographing various shorebirds, raptors, and seasonal visitors. At my camp in Maine, I enjoy capturing the details of colorful songbirds perched at my natural feeders. In Florida, I love photographing wading birds in their natural environment. And when I go to Bosque Del Apache, I embrace the action of birds in flight. Typically, bird photography, anywhere, involves long telephoto lenses, fast autofocus, and high, continuous frame rates. However, now and again, you can do something completely not typical. Late one afternoon at Bernardo Wildlife Management, we encountered thousands of snow geese and sandhill cranes feeding feverishly at the edge of a cut cornfield. The chaotic action was only feet away. Putting down my Nikon camera and long telephoto lens, I grabbed my smaller Fuji camera and a lens more suited for wider landscapes. I quickly composed a shot to capture a sense of the action just as a group of snow geese blasted off the ground. This is a favorite of mine from the trip for a few reasons. I love the action, but I value that it is not perfect. Nothing is perfect. It also serves as a reminder that there is always more than one way to do something. Or look at something.

Photograph What You Feel

Fuji XT5

Fujinon 16-50mm f3.5-4.5 Lens

ISO: 400

APT: f7.1

EXP: 1/50th of a Second Hand Held While Hoping Not to be Pooped On