About the Image(s)

These photographs were taken using a technique that’s often used to capture moving objects, e.g., speeding cars at auto races. The technique is to use a low shutter speed and pan the camera to follow the object, e.g., speeding car, so that the object is sharply focused and the background is blurred. I thought I’d apply that technique to birds-in-flight to see what it could produce. Cormorants are good subjects for this technique because they tend to fly in a straight line at a constant speed. I tried to keep the bird’s head and body as sharply focused as possible. The slow shutter speed and camera motion makes everything else (wings, background) blurred.

I’d appreciate any thoughts you may have about the photos as well as application of the “slow shutter plus tracking camera motion” technique to wildlife.

Photos like this would probably be easier to take if I had a gimbal mount for my tripod, but I don’t so have been taking these handheld. The settings were 1/40 sec, f/7.1 and ISO of 50 for the main image and 1/50 sec, f/11 and ISO of 250 for the related image. Both photos were taken using my Sony Alpha 1 with a 300 mm prime lens and a 1.4x teleconverter for an effective focal length of 420 mm.