BIRD IN FLIGHT ONLY -- share your BIF photos here

One of my dreams has been to photo puffins in flight with their beaks full of sand eels. These birds zip across the field of view like footballs. On Friday, we drove 300 miles to the Farne Islands to attempt this. Armed with my 5DIV + 400mm f/4 DO II, bare lens, speeds of about 1/5000s or so, IS off, the kit worked a treat. I got shot after shot while the guys with their 400mm f/2.8 and 1DXs on tripods didn't capture a thing. My wife used the 5DSR + 400mm II for static shots, and got some superb ones, plus the odd BIF.
 

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We also got some arctic terns with sand eels. My wife's one was pretty good, against a leafy background.
 

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AlanF,
Congrats!
That is a great place to shoot such interesting birds.
I used 7D2+70-200L2 handheld with fairly satisfactory results; though when I was there, the birds just started the homebound journey and were not in great numbers yet. They were mostly not nesting yet, either. What really helped was the wind from the ocean keeping the birds flying in place, giving me a easy shot, a bird flying but really more or less stationary.
You did a superb photography job, as did you wife!
-r


AlanF said:
One of my dreams has been to photo puffins in flight with their beaks full of sand eels. These birds zip across the field of view like footballs. On Friday, we drove 300 miles to the Farne Islands to attempt this. Armed with my 5DIV + 400mm f/4 DO II, bare lens, speeds of about 1/5000s or so, IS off, the kit worked a treat. I got shot after shot while the guys with their 400mm f/2.8 and 1DXs on tripods didn't capture a thing. My wife used the 5DSR + 400mm II for static shots, and got some superb ones, plus the odd BIF.
 
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lion rock said:
AlanF,
Congrats!
That is a great place to shoot such interesting birds.
I used 7D2+70-200L2 handheld with fairly satisfactory results; though when I was there, the birds just started the homebound journey and were not in great numbers yet. They were mostly not nesting yet, either. What really helped was the wind from the ocean keeping the birds flying in place, giving me a easy shot, a bird flying but really more or less stationary.
You did a superb photography job, as did you wife!

-r


AlanF said:
One of my dreams has been to photo puffins in flight with their beaks full of sand eels. These birds zip across the field of view like footballs. On Friday, we drove 300 miles to the Farne Islands to attempt this. Armed with my 5DIV + 400mm f/4 DO II, bare lens, speeds of about 1/5000s or so, IS off, the kit worked a treat. I got shot after shot while the guys with their 400mm f/2.8 and 1DXs on tripods didn't capture a thing. My wife used the 5DSR + 400mm II for static shots, and got some superb ones, plus the odd BIF.

Absolutely beautiful. I also can attest to the functionality of the 400; although it's still pretty heavy I have no desire to put it on a tripod for BIF. It really snaps into focus.

Jack
 
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bret said:
Osprey Catch.
Took this one last night out the car window.

ospreycatch-XL.jpg

Wow, that is phenomenal detail. How close did it fly?
 
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AlanF said:
One of my dreams has been to photo puffins in flight with their beaks full of sand eels. These birds zip across the field of view like footballs. On Friday, we drove 300 miles to the Farne Islands to attempt this. Armed with my 5DIV + 400mm f/4 DO II, bare lens, speeds of about 1/5000s or so, IS off, the kit worked a treat. I got shot after shot while the guys with their 400mm f/2.8 and 1DXs on tripods didn't capture a thing. My wife used the 5DSR + 400mm II for static shots, and got some superb ones, plus the odd BIF.

23rd? You lucky SOB.
We drove up there from Manchester on Sunday and were booked for today (24th) but it was cancelled due to the conditions. The weather that was supposed to happen yesterday stalled for 24h!
Apparently they are already lining up on the cliffs like swallows on the telephone wires and one night in the next few days they will all just up and go. So next year, for sure...

But you do have some fantastic shots. It just shows the gear ain't everything!!
 
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Mike
We had actually booked to go to Skomer on Thursday for birding on Friday but because of the forecasted rain we drove north to Seehouses instead of east. We were very lucky that the weather was fine on Friday and conditions were just good enough to land on Farne, but we were restricted to 1 hour there. Saturday was spent driving back in the rain and Sunday processing the 1100 images.
 
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AlanF said:
One of my dreams has been to photo puffins in flight with their beaks full of sand eels. These birds zip across the field of view like footballs. On Friday, we drove 300 miles to the Farne Islands to attempt this. Armed with my 5DIV + 400mm f/4 DO II, bare lens, speeds of about 1/5000s or so, IS off, the kit worked a treat. I got shot after shot while the guys with their 400mm f/2.8 and 1DXs on tripods didn't capture a thing. My wife used the 5DSR + 400mm II for static shots, and got some superb ones, plus the odd BIF.

Great shots AlanF. Ignore my question in the Bird Portraits thread.
 
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Osprey. Cropped 50%.

Trying out the M5/100-400L II combo for BIF. Didn't have enough reach without the 1.4x. Actually maintained focus pretty well with Smooth-Zone AF in Servo. Next time I'll try Tracking. Need a bit more practice - the balance is different versus the 1DX2. Not bad - just different.
 

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