tern fest?

jeff lapoint · May 31, 2005

with so many of us west coasters shooting bolsa this is turning into tern fest '05!

here are a few of my humble offerings. the vast majority of my attempts ended up in the OOF graveyard. any tips on how to imrove these shots (besides not cutting the wings off!

)?

the buggers are uber fast and change direction before i can even snap away most of the time. the F-18's of Bolsa for sure! (i'm thinking C-130 for pelicans and UFO for hummingbirds....)

thanks for the look!

-j

jwear · May 31, 2005

that first one is

we had very bad light for shooting rocket ships and as you get a feel for them ,they always hover but not a long time

nice shoots Jeff

Steve Cavigliano · May 31, 2005

jeff lapoint wrote:

with so many of us west coasters shooting bolsa this is turning into tern fest '05!

here are a few of my humble offerings. the vast majority of my attempts ended up in the OOF graveyard. any tips on how to imrove these shots (besides not cutting the wings off!)?

the buggers are uber fast and change direction before i can even snap away most of the time. the F-18's of Bolsa for sure! (i'm thinking C-130 for pelicans and UFO for hummingbirds....)

thanks for the look!

-j

You did just fine Jeff

For all the reasons you mention, terns are really tough to nail. I was trying to get some diving for fish, the other day, and pretty much decided that's almost impossible....

I kept losing them on the way down (I don't pan downwards very well....lol) And yes, I cut lots of wings off too....lol

My only advice is stake out a spot where the light off them is decent, wait til they come close enough and start snapping away in burst mode

They are pretty small and can get lost in the background quite easily (or the background can steal your focus

). The do hover ocassionaly and that's a perfect time to nail them

Thanks for sharing these,
Steve

jeff lapoint · May 31, 2005

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

You did just fine Jeff For all the reasons you mention, terns are really tough to nail. I was trying to get some diving for fish, the other day, and pretty much decided that's almost impossible.... I kept losing them on the way down (I don't pan downwards very well....lol) And yes, I cut lots of wings off too....lol

My only advice is stake out a spot where the light off them is decent, wait til they come close enough and start snapping away in burst mode They are pretty small and can get lost in the background quite easily (or the background can steal your focus ). The do hover ocassionaly and that's a perfect time to nail them

Thanks for sharing these,
Steve

good call steve. my shots need more thought beforehand i am finding. right now, im like a kid in a candy store when i go to shoot...what i call photography ADD. oooo that's cool...snap...something else moved...snap snap snap. time to graduate to a little planning

. i'm going to try downward panning with a tripod and ballhead next time...

bfjr · May 31, 2005

Yeah I see Tern Fest :cool
1st one

Man I threw a ton away and yours are tighter did you crop. Didn't think mine could hold up to a tight crop

It keep a couple of diving like Steve said but they are OOF I'm sure kinda funny though splash no bird and next shot bird coming out of water

Harryb · June 1, 2005

Hey Jeff,

Good captures of an extremely hard subject. These guys are small, they move fast, and worse of all they are black and white making them a nightmare to expose for.

As Steve and Jeff have said its best to focus on them when they are hovering right before they start their dive into the water. Shooting in bursts is the best method to catch a good shot.

ginger_55 · June 1, 2005

A good Tern, Jeff, two good terns, well, I will try to give you a good tern, too.

Don't know if I have one, don't know the category, just took them Sunday.

I ended up taking a couple of small birds on a damn telephone pole. Figured if that was where they wanted to be, well, so be it.

I really like your first tern. Sharp, love feathers.

ginger

tern fest?

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