BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Questions

PT.2- How To Capture In Flight Bird Captures

I wanted to continue with some more tips for you on this topic, another important factor to look at is the type of card
you use in your camera I.E. wether it is a SD Card or a
Compact Flash Card, wildlife photographers will almost always look for the fastest cards possible- it is the Max Read
Speed & the Write Speed of a Card which is important the
Data Transfer, when using a motor drive on your camera shooting 8-10fps -(not uncommon for flight birds) your card will have to keep up with that. Here is the cards I use:
Lexar 8GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 800x UDMA 7 excellent product, another tip is to set you camera
in Aperture Priority Mode, if you are using a tripod to pan &
track birds in flight a good large Blallhead that pans smoothly will help greatly - one of the best products is a
Gimbal Head there are several to chose from. ( I swear by using a Gimbal Head for most of my photography!) I hope some of these tips will help you, let me know!!
Best of Luck!!!

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0 January 15, 2015

	Owl in Flight f/6.3, 1/250s, iso200, 185mm - handheld panning. Carlton Ward

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0 January 15, 2015

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0 January 15, 2015

Your Owl capture is excellent, I Like the motion blur in the wings, with a shutter speed of at least 1/600th and higher you will be able to obtain the wings in full sharpness as well,
Crank up your ISO to 400 and see what shutter speeds that will give, also don't forget about Fill Flash on those cloudy dark days, fill flash will will keep your shutter speeds at least in the 1/250th-1/320th range vs, a much slower shutter speed due to the darker cloudy days this will also let you keep your ISO at a lower range. One item I use is the
Better Beamer Flash Extender excellent product.
The cards you are using are very good. I have found that
the Lexar Cards are excellent. In Flight Bird Images take
practice, patience, good technique, and some luck won't
hurt either!! I hope this helps, let me know.
Best of Luck!!

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0 January 16, 2015

Yes I would recommend that you get the fastest cards either
an 8 or 16GB, you will notice a big difference, a motor drive is very important for wildlife photography especially for
bird photography, I don't know what camera you are using check the manual to see what the frame rate is and see what motor drive they recommend to use with your camera
a motor drive will increase your frame rate-FPS- it is different
than a battery pack, a motor drive with the new fastest cards
will greatly improve your In-Flight Bird Images.
I hope this helps, let me know!!
Best of luck!!!

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0 January 16, 2015

"In the digital camera era, some users continue to refer to continuous shooting modes as "motor drive". Many camera models refer to different shooting modes—single shot, burst, continuous, self timer—as drive modes, thus keeping alive the terminology of film. An external battery grip is occasionally referred to as a motor drive as it tends to increase the frame rate."

I currently use a Nikon D90 and a D300.

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0 January 20, 2015

I see that you are using a D300- (I use the same camera)
what I am referring to is a separate unit that will attach to your camera, you can either use the Nikon Motor Drive or
the Motor Drive made by Vello ( excellent company that makes all different products for Nikon, Canon ect.) the cost of the Vello is excellent compared to the Nikon one they both do the same job, the model no. that is for the D300
is the BG-N8 made by Vello-- Battery Grip/ Motor Drive
same thing, this is the item I use on my D300, as far as your camera settings shot in Aperture priority Mode, set your
dial to CH-( continuous high) and set the front dial to the letter C, go to your cameras menu select Autofocus- then select Dynamic AF Area- set your camera to 21 Points-this is a good setting (Lens will focus faster in this setting that the 51 Point setting) tracking birds in flight requires SPEED- the faster your lens can focus the better -that with the addition of the Motor Drive you will be able to keep up tracking your subject and get many many more images.
I hope this helps!! Let me know.
p.s.-I did not receive an email??

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0 January 21, 2015

Here is a link to B&H Photo and the Vello Motor Drive
this is the one I use on my D300- excellent product great price! The Nikon on is much much more the both do the exact same thing.-- see link..

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/875844-REG/Vello_BG_N8_Battery_Grip_for.html

Let me know if you have any questions

Jeff

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0 January 21, 2015

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0 January 21, 2015

Yes the Battery Grip/Motor Drive allows you to shoot more Frames Per Second- sports photographers live by them some shooting 10-12 Frames Per Second, wildlife the same thing, the faster memory card will be very helpful you will see a difference.

Best of Luck
Jeff

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0 January 21, 2015