Birds in flight

One of the greatest challenges in photographing birds is to catch them in mid-flight. Stopping the action is only part of the equation. With birds generally flying against a bright sky, exposure becomes the critical element. If you use an auto setting, the camera is going to base its reading on the bright sky, and 90% of the time, the actual target (the bird) will be underexposed and turn out as a dark silhouette. I've found that if I take a light meter reading of mid-tone vegetation in the same general direction as I hope to shoot the bird in flight and then set my camera manually to those settings, I have a pretty good chance of getting the shot without underexposing the bird. We spent a couple of days in New Jersey this week in hopes of snagging an Upland sandpiper and any other cooperative bird in flight with fairly successful results. The thing about photography of birds is that there is always something new to try and always room for improvement. The images shown are (from left to right) the Upland sandpiper, a Common tern, and a Black skimmer.