The vast majority of detailed pictures of birds show them as stationary: perched in a tree, standing on ground, floating on water. Less often does one see a detailed picture of a bird in flight. This might seem odd given that the defining characteristic of (local) birds is flight. If it is a bird, it flies. Why not show this?
Unfortunately, getting such a shot is not easy. Merely framing a rapidly moving bird in the viewfinder is the initial problem. Then getting it in focus and freezing the motion of its wings compounds the difficulty. The problem is similar (maybe harder) than that faced by sports photographers.
Most of my bird-shooting friends have greater success than I do, but I continue to work at the skill. Here are four of my practice shots of flying raptors from last week.
A male Kestrel flies by.
A Red-tailed Hawk has dived from a perch.
A Rough-legged Hawk wings across the sky.
The plumage of this sub-adult Bald Eagle indicates that it was hatched in 2011.
You keep blowing my mind with your incredible photos, thank you for sharing them.
Anne
Remarkable. – And to pinpoint the 2011 eagle hatching.
Thank you for pointing that out, Alistair. So, a fully adult Bald Eagle would have no dark on its tail and be completely leucocephalic.
Nicely done!
Simply awesome. Raptors are amazing, as is their innate knowledge of flight.