I hope that you don’t think I am arrogant, but I want to turn myself in to the very best bird photographer that is possible. I am trying really hard to perfect my flight photography, and no expense is being spared but at the moment I am OK with the kit that I have. There is no chore involved because it is good fun, and really enjoyable. Today, with a bit of bright sunshine I went back to my spot on Dartmoor where I knew that I would be able to practise and hone my skills. There is something a bit special about going out on a Monday morning when in the earlier part of my life I would have been unable because of work. As I said, the sun was shining as I got on to the moor and also, when I arrived at my spot, I was relieved to know that there was no one else there. I parked the car and put some food out. Almost immediately, there was dozens of birds coming and going. I decided to get some nice portraits first and concentrated on the Marsh Tit that is ever present here. I took a few nice portraits of him. I don’t know if he is a male but it just appears that way. I have literally thousands of portraits of at least 300 species and now I want to capture action, interaction and behaviour. I have been thinking long and hard about the best way to capture the action of birds in flight. Small birds are so quick and it is hard. If you try and guess where they are going to be, then you have no chance. I have worked out that you need to pre-focus your camera on a given spot and then adjust the camera constantly to make sure that you have the best available shutter speed, and the maximum depth of field given the conditions at any given moment. Anyway, today paid off and I have definitely made some improvement, getting some good photos at last.
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