The challenge with photographing two animals, even if they are close together, is getting them both in focus when using a telephoto. I photographed these great egrets on their nest in Florida with a Canon 500mm f/4 lens, and as you can see the bird on the right is a few inches further from the shooting position. That meant I had to be cognizant of the focus falloff. Had one of the birds been soft, the picture would have been a failure, in my opinion, and I wouldn’t be sharing it except to explain what NOT to do. The only way to insure I had enough depth of field was to use a small aperture, but the questions is, which one? I erred on the side of caution and used f/16. My shutter was 1/640, and the ISO was pushed up to 1600 due to the small lens opening. I usually don’t use a tripod with bird photography because I need the flexibility in being able to shoot quickly as they move. However, with static subjects on a nest, a tripod is good to have. Besides the stability, it enables me to rest my arms and shoulders when using a big lens.
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