This was the first picture of a lilac-breasted roller I was able to capture in flight. I took the picture in Kenya. I had tried for years on every trip to Africa to get a picture like this and always failed until I went digital in 2005. The features of fast autofocus, a fast frame rate, and instant autoexposure has enabled photographers to take pictures of action that were virtually impossible in the past. The original shot of the roller had a solid blue sky in the background, and that was fine. In this version, though, I wanted to add some drama using the Sky Replacement feature in Photoshop. My settings were 1/3200, f/13, and 640 ISO. I try to anticipate the direction of movement when I expect a perched bird to fly, and I often prefocus about three feet in that direction. Too often, I've focused on the bird at rest and the flight shot isn't sharp. Focusing on a point on the anticipated flight path works sometimes, but if the bird chooses another angle to fly, all is lost. It's a gamble.
0 Comments