Nature Thru Photos

When shooting moving objects such as birds in flight, I like to use a zoom lens mounted on a Bush Hawk shoulder mount.  Using a zoom lens such as the Canon 100-400mm, that I used here, you're able to zoom out and locate the birds quickly in your view finder and then zoom in.  I find that the Bush Hawk makes it easier to track the bird and keep your lens steady.  This image was shot at f7.1 aperture with an ISO of 100 at 1/500 sec. to freeze the subject in flight.  Focal length was 400mm and I was shooting in Manual mode.

"Walking on Water" is what I call this shot, the bird is just taking off.  Not all shots are going to be there waiting for you.  I use a small one-man camouflaged tent and sometimes may wait a couple of hours to get the picture I want. Getting up "before breakfast" is the other most important thing. Shooting just about day break with my 5D Mark II using a Canon 100-400mm lens set to a focal length of 400mm.  Shooting in Manual mode my ISO was 800 with an aperture setting of f8 and a shutter speed of 1/1600 sec. 

This Hummingbird was just getting ready to land, again waiting and know where the object is going to be is most important.  To get a image like this I use my Canon 580 flash with a Better Beamer Flash X-Tender mounted to my 5D Mark II with a 100-400mm lens set at 380mm focal length.  With my camera in Manual mode and the aperture at f5.6 and an ISO of 400 I was able to get 1/4000 sec. shutter speed.

This photo was taken on a bright sunny afternoon and I had the shutter open for 6 sec. in order to get the light streaks.  The image is of a motorcycle's tail-lights going through a tunnel.  I had my ISO set at 50 and had a Polarizing Filter plus an ND Filter and a Cokin X121M Filter all on my 24-105mm lens.  My aperture was set to f22 with a focal length of 58mm.  My 5D Mark II was set on a tripod and I was using a remote shutter release.  All this just to get the right exposure!