Flamingo marina and campsite area in the Everglades National Park is a remarkable location to shoot many species of birds and reptiles. Many of the birds are so used to humans they just ignore you. Brown pelicans are particularly comfortable around humans, as they associate us with a source of food – often via generous fishermen returning with their catch after a day out on the Bay. Brown pelicans are particularly interesting as they perform a crash-dive technique to catch their food, with some of the repeated impact stress being taken up with “air-sacs” located beneath the skin. Two pelicans had decided to work a section of water close to where I had set up, and would dive vertically down within a few yards of me. Because the birds were close and diving at high speed, I used a high shutter speed (1/1250 sec) and the fastest focusing lens I had with me – a 300 f2.8. The image is really about technique – most photographers associate panning with capturing movement in a horizontal plane at slower shutter speeds to blur the background. In this case I used vertical panning. Initially I used my tripod with a mounted gimbal head or a monopod, but neither set up would allow a rapid pick up and smooth tracking of the birds in their dives. As a result, the only way to achieve the framing and sharpness was to hand hold the lens and pan with the bird as it dived. This technique is really just about correctly setting up the camera (including the AF settings and an AF point lower than the center point in the viewfinder), then picking up the bird early and panning so that the spot remains on the bird’s head. For this image I also disabled the Image Stabilizer on the lens. While in many cases this can be an incredibly useful aid to ensuring sharp hand-held images (even with long lenses), the system can actually overcompensate and move the sensor off the desired area when moving the camera rapidly. As with most technology, just because it is there it doesn’t mean you have to use it. Only use the technology when you need it and for what it does best!
Image available for purchase as Open Edition Print.
