This is a sacred ibis about to land on a tree on the shore of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. I used my standard camera settings for birds in flight -- 1/3200, f/11 and the ISO varies based on the amount of light available. In this case, the early morning light required 1600. I used a Canon 100-500 plus a 1.4x teleconverter giving me 700mm of focal length. On every one of my tours, clients ask me what lenses they should bring with them on any given day. What they are really saying is, 'Do I have to carry all of my equipment because it's heavy and I'd love to get away with only one or two lenses.' That puts me between a rock and a hard place. I want to say sure, make it easy on yourself and just take one zoom lens. But what happens if we need a long lens, like if we spot a bird that's worthy of photographing? And that's the problem. In this situation, we were on a boat headed to shoot a monastery with beautiful 14th Christian art. No long lens needed, for sure, except that we came across a tree full of birds. I always carry a long lens just in case, and I always bring with me a 1.4x teleconverter for the same reason.
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