From Harold Wilion

I was starting to get bored of the same old Bluebird perch shots on the same perches and didn’t feel like finding new ones. So, I’ve been concentrating on trying to get some flight shots. I actually find it totally impossible to get them in a real fight scenario for a number of reasons.

One, is that they are so fast as soon as they jump off a perch the autofocus just can’t keep up. Also, I’m not shooting in bright light which I’m sure would help. So, I decided to just go with the jump shot, the first fraction of a second when they leave a perch knowing I can’t really follow them.

Unfortunately, my reaction time just isn’t quick enough because they really give no sign they are about to take off. So, I’ve resorted to using pre-capture on my Nikon. Unfortunately, Nikon only does JPEG for pre-capture, so couple that with low light, the quality just isn’t as good as if I were able to use RAW.

Also, with the shutter speeds I have to use in order not to get too much noise, pretty much everything has motion blur, which I actually love in the wings, but pretty much always need some Topaz in the head.

I’ll definitely try more in better light, but in the meantime, these are what I got. But it is what it is, and it has kept me occupied.