Capturing a bird with sharp focus as it’s flying directly at the camera is one of the biggest challenges in nature photography. The problem is compounded when you are using a telephoto lens and the subject-to-camera distance is close. This is a black-collared hawk from the Pantanal region of Brazil. We throw fish into the river to bait the birds, and this is the only way we can predict exactly where the bird will be at a given moment. By focusing on the fish, and using a fast frame rate, there is a reasonable certainty to capture a sharp picture. Once a bird grabs the fish and flies out of the focus zone, the success of getting more shots in focus is a function of frame rate, autofocus tracking, hand-eye coordination, and luck. My settings for this picture were 1/3200, f/5.6, 800 ISO, and the frame rate was 14 fps. You can see the fish in the Hawk's talons.
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