Soooo Close

I have been trying for this shot, it is like the reason I have the camera. Well, I guess I need to keep trying. I was tracking something else, and saw the duck come into my view. I switched and started tracking it down to the water. Being sunset, I didn't have much light to work with. It's the exact moment that he touched the water. His left foot is just starting to disturb the surface, and the vivid shadow....just took it a few hours ago.

I guess it is a little soft... If it had only been in focus. Sharpened in lightroom, and a small amount of cropping.

Feel free to post your perfect mistakes also. (aka the one that got away)

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Can't see the pic...

Now it's there...hhmmpphh.
I like your idea of of capturing that moment, keep trying, it will be awesome when you get it!

Its not specifically that moment, it is more of a quality shot of ducks/geese taking off or landing. The behavior seems to be for them to do it facing away from you, at least in the areas that I shoot.

Also, I wish I had the money to change this, the Tokina 80-400mm lens is not very good. It is slow focusing, and has been in for repairs twice in 2 years.

I turn the manual focus ring slowly towards "near focus" as they are coming towards me, takes some practice, but it's worth the effort. If your lens/camera combo AF is not up to par for fast moving bird shots, stick to manual focus, that way the camera will not try to grab onto the background, or hunt for ages. There's a tips section on getting landing takeoff shots that mentions positioning yourself in an area where the birds are constantly jumping up and down from an object/doc, railing etc.. giving you plenty of opportunities to practice the timing. Here's a mid jumpup/flight shot between the takeoff and landing, not the best of shots, looks better in color, but it's just one of many that I got where the ducks go up and down from a ledge near the water, where it seems like EVERYONE comes down to throw crumbs out for the birds. I'd be the one laying in the mud near the waters edge :P

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

A critical timing shot for sure, looks like he's on ice. As regards birds landing they will almost always turn into wind so check your wind directions.