Ring Billed Gulls seem to be cooperative when I want to practice BIF shooting.
The main purpose of this exercise was to evaluate the AI Servo tracking of my new 7D. The verdict is that I am very impressed with the way that it performs. Once the AF achieved lock on the target, it managed to maintain track as the background went from clear sky to trees or even when I panned across some nearby tree limbs. Daylight was rapidly decreasing so I should have given ISO 800 a try. My XTi does good to just remain in focus against a clear sky.
In the first image, the shutter speed is a bit too slow so the wingtips have quite a bit of blur. However, I did like the fact that AI Servo maintained track when going from a clear background to one that was cluttered with trees.
I probably oversharpened #2 in PP since I now notice the bright outline.
Thanks very much to Harvey, Mitch, and others in Don's post for the great suggestions on BIF photography. I now know more about some of my mistakes which included:
- Shooting in Av mode
- Aperture too large
- Shutter too slow
The images would have been sharper if I had used my 400/5.6 lens (that's my story and I am sticking to it), but I wanted to see how much micro focusing helped the normally soft combination of the 70-200/2.8 with a 2X TC (it helped a bit).
