Dropping in for lunch

[Slovensky]

A Jackdaw decides to stop by

So this is my current mission:

There are 4 Jackdaws who come to stuff their faces at the 'bird cafe' and I want to shoot them together - three sit on the fence whilst one eats and then they swap around if they aren't disturbed.

But that's the problem they are SO flighty that the slightest movement scares them away.

The above shot is not the best by any stretch of the imagination, it was shot with a remote release and the lens focused as best I could without anything there and then switched to manual.

Any better ways to get a sharp focus on something that isn't there yet....?

 

[CT]

Well done! You've probably approached it the best way. You could try servo AF and enable all the AF points and continuous hi speed drive, but there's no guarantee you'll get a better result.

Jack himself looks a bit noisy I'm guessing you've had to recover from some under-exposure due to shooting against that bright sky? Use spot metering if you have it or give a couple of stops more exposure, assuming there's enough light, but getting a fast enough shutter speed is obviously your overriding consideration.

Any chance of changing your angle to eliminate that bright sky as the background? Definitely worth persevering with. Have a think about using flash too.

 

[Slovensky]

Massive under exposure look, although according to the camera before shooting it wouldn't be.

The light keeps changing so fast here today - sun in, sun out, black clouds and buckets of rain all then back to sun out again in a matter of minutes :bang:

I shot this through the utility room window so flash would just bounce right back at me.

The only other place I could go and be close enough would be upstairs but then I'd be looking down on them - could provide an interesting alternative view

 

[oldgit]

good capture, shame about the exposur tho... go ask it to do the same again, but this time...

 

[CT]

THis is one of those occasions when the evaluative metering will let you down most of the time. :shrug: