Birds in Flight : Bee-eaters (40-150 pro)

The Rainbow Bee-eater is my favourite bird and after a few sessions capturing them with excellent results I thought id'e try my luck with flight shots only. I looked at my exifs and from my 1st shot to the last Bee-eater shot there was just over 2hrs on the clock. I was really happy with the results and got about 40 good keepers.
I won't try post them all but here are some of the results.

I didn't use the EE-1 for these but felt confident as I still get a lot of swallows without it. Mines playing up (reticle seems to shift) but I found my framing a lot better without it. harder to keep them in the EVF but better centred once in and found I had less wasted shots due to mis focus as I can see when the camera lost focus in the EVF. I do shoot with both eyes open (1 on bird and one on EVF) which is hard at first but after getting use to it it helps me get the bird back in the EVF if I lose it in the EVF.

Here are some of my best ones

100% crop of the 1st photo to show detail captured

regards, Vas

what a great set of images Vas, I'm envious, we have nothing like this in the UK.

I haven't seen them for ages. Great set.

As good as it gets...can't imagine dslr boys getting better...superb...

Dave...

Vass,

Just gorgeous shots !

Thanks for posting.

Regards

Absolutely nice set. A very good lens, and a good photographer behind the camera.

Cheers

Vass,

This series top out all of what you have posted. You have once again outdone yourself. The shots are sharp with nice color. Well done!

very very good, 210mm is that with a convertor?

WOW! WOW! WOW!

Envy doesn't begin to describe how I feel lookingat these pictures.  Luck to be in the right place at the right time and skill to capture what you see.  Your gear really did its job.

Keep 'em coming!

Absolutely top class work Vas !!!

Brilliant shots!

Technical question: Assuming your high shutter speeds can stop the outer reaches of the wings (where I see de-focus), it seems the depth of field is only a body-width or two. So, it's STUNNING that the camera (and you) manage to catch the body, only a fraction of the scene, in focus. How much of this is luck...that is, is it shot selection that gets you the body at the center of focus? Or, is the camera focus that good, technically? Very hard for me to imagine. With wings nearly vertical (shot 7), why wouldn't the focusing system prefer the expanse of the wings, over the body?

With the apparently narrow DOF, I was surprised the f-stop was mostly 5.6-6.3.

Thanks Trevor
Yes with the mc-14 (1.4x)
The one that doesn't exist on DPR lol, can't tag it

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

very very good, 210mm is that with a convertor?

Thanks Boxerman

I got pretty close to them on some occasions there which means thinner DOF. I try to focus on the front of the bird, head and neck area which is why the body is in focus when it is. I find the lens with tele has a very narrow DOF, guessing teleconverter doesn't help here.
I'm pretty sure on shot 7 the wings are in focus, just slightly blurred from movement. Not sure if you ever seen a bee eater fly but they are very fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhrhLb1EDcY this will give you idea of how they fly

boxerman wrote:

Brilliant shots!

Technical question: Assuming your high shutter speeds can stop the outer reaches of the wings (where I see de-focus), it seems the depth of field is only a body-width or two. So, it's STUNNING that the camera (and you) manage to catch the body, only a fraction of the scene, in focus. How much of this is luck...that is, is it shot selection that gets you the body at the center of focus? Or, is the camera focus that good, technically? Very hard for me to imagine. With wings nearly vertical (shot 7), why wouldn't the focusing system prefer the expanse of the wings, over the body?

With the apparently narrow DOF, I was surprised the f-stop was mostly 5.6-6.3.

vass wrote:

Thanks Boxerman

I got pretty close to them on some occasions there which means thinner DOF. I try to focus on the front of the bird, head and neck area which is why the body is in focus when it is. I find the lens with tele has a very narrow DOF, guessing teleconverter doesn't help here.
I'm pretty sure on shot 7 the wings are in focus, just slightly blurred from movement. Not sure if you ever seen a bee eater fly but they are very fast.

Yes, I was thinking you must have gotten pretty close, and noted the TC would, indeed, further reduce DOF.

I looked back at shot 7, and given three things, I'm still leaning toward OOF, and not motion blur.

1. The blur of the tip of the back wing is noticeably more than the front. Motion blur should be mostly symmetrical.
2. The wing is at the top of its "travel," so should be going "slow" (comparatively), compared to its maximum speed.
3. Good heavens, 1/2500 sec! I tried to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of wingtip speed, but couldn't find data (and wasn't willing to search for high enough speed video to determine) on frequency of wing flapping, to give a good estimate of wing-tip speed.

Anyway, I have seen bee-eaters in Africa, but I don't think I got any good BIF shots. Lilac-breasted rollers, on the other hand, I have a few! Both rollers and bee-eaters are spectacularly colored birds.

Beautiful set, Vas. Well done, mate. Thanks.

A really superb looking bird. I've never even seen one IRL ...

SUPERB and especially in 2 hours !! Fantastic Vas, love the colours and wing positions. Truly excellent flight shots of a smallish bird. Timing is bang on and so is the lighting, my favourite position for the sun that brings out those gorgeous colours and details. All bang on.

#9 .... bang there ya go The best bee eater shot in flight I've ever seen on all the nature avian forums. Print that out large mate, its worth it.

All the best Vas, again superb work and shots.

Danny.

Truly excellent series Vas.

Dicky.

I am green with envy! Not only that you have such beautiful birds as subjects, but of your technique, equipment and the results! Utterly gorgeous images, thank you.

Maggie

Probably full metering with some at centre, can't remember really but I use all metering types depending on subject, how far it is and colour of subject. CAF H @ 9fps with 9 box focusing area.

EDIT: Photo's taken near Sydney, Australia

John Byrne wrote:

Beautifully done, a really pleasing set of photographs. What metering and focusing modes were you using Vass and also where were these photos taken.

Thank you,

John