Need pointers on how to photograph Offsprays in flight.

[dlw3]

Found an Offspray's nest beside a lake two days ago. Will return in a few days to see if I can get some good shots. Need help on how to.

Want to get a shot of the Offspray 'hovering', about to dive into the water after a fish.
I have an XT with f4-5.6, 75-300mm IS lens, polarizer filter.

The sky will be a brilliant blue. Might need to use polarizer to darken the sky.
May not be able to use polarizer in order to get a better EV.
Assuming a fast shutter speed (500, 1000) to try to freeze the wings.
Assuming 4.0 to try to prevent a silhoutte.
ISO of ???? The lower the better.

Shooting 'RAW' only allows for a burst of 5 shots.
Jpeg would give me more.
This 'servo' thingy might come in handy.

2g CF can give me over 200 shots until I have to move them into my laptop.
I can always delete the garbage first.

Any ideas or suggestions short of buying a faster lens.
I wonder what it would cost to rent one for the day.

Thanks,
Don

[cecilc]

Found an Offspray's nest .....
Don

An "Offspray" you say !!?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm pretty sure that you're speaking of an "Osprey" ......

Yea, the "servo thingy" might indeed come in handy ....

[StewartR]

Offspray?? Osprey!

If you're after an image like this amazing one in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:OspreyNASA.jpg#filehistory) then it's not just the speed of the lens that's an issue, it's the focal length.

The sensor in your XT is 22.2mm across and your longest focal length is 300mm. The ratio of these is 300/22.2 = 13.5. That means that an object will fill your frame if it is 13.5 times as far away as it is big.

An adult osprey has a wingspan of about 1.5m, though when it's hovering the wings aren't fully extended. Say it's 1m across. Then it will fill your frame if you're within 13.5m of the bird. Can you get that close? I'd be quite surprised - for starters I think they tend to hover quite high. I suggest you might want to think about where you'd be relative to the bird and maybe think about getting / hiring / borrowing a longer lens.

In the UK, Fixation (http://www.fixationuk.com/rentlist.htm) seem to have a good reputataion for equipment rental. They'll rent a 600mm f/4 Canon prime for £50/day, which sounds affordable. I've no idea what prices would be where you are though.

Good luck - they're magnificent birds! And post your results here if you get any good shots...

[PacAce]

Found an Offspray's nest beside a lake two days ago. Will return in a few days to see if I can get some good shots. Need help on how to.

Want to get a shot of the Offspray 'hovering', about to dive into the water after a fish.
I have an XT with f4-5.6, 75-300mm IS lens, polarizer filter.

The sky will be a brilliant blue. Might need to use polarizer to darken the sky.
May not be able to use polarizer in order to get a better EV.
Assuming a fast shutter speed (500, 1000) to try to freeze the wings.
Assuming 4.0 to try to prevent a silhoutte.
ISO of ???? The lower the better.

Shooting 'RAW' only allows for a burst of 5 shots.
Jpeg would give me more.
This 'servo' thingy might come in handy.

2g CF can give me over 200 shots until I have to move them into my laptop.
I can always delete the garbage first.

Any ideas or suggestions short of buying a faster lens.
I wonder what it would cost to rent one for the day.

Thanks,
Don
Yes, what you need is as long a focal length as you can muster, not a wider aperture although it won't hurt to have it, especially if you plan to use a teleconverter to "stretch out" your lens. If you're going to be directly underneath the bird as it's circling overhead looking for fish, then 300 to 400mm should be more than adequate.

For metering, especially with a blue sky, evaluative metering will serve you fine. Just be conscious of the fact that if the sun hits any part of the osprey's white feathers, they will get over exposed unless you dial in a fracton of a stop of -EC or two.

And, of course, you want to use AIServo mode and turn off IS if your lens has it.

Good luck. Ospreys are fun to take pictures of or just to observe, especially when they're circling around, looking for fish and then they go into a hover just before doing a Stuka dive towards the fish. :)