Getting three takeoff shots in a series like this is pretty unusual for me, especially since I didn’t clip any body parts. Yesterday was mostly a good day at Bear River MBR but I saw some very disturbing conditions while I was there.
This photo is on the short list of my favorite shots of all time, partly because of its high degree of difficulty but certainly not limited to that. But the version I’ve posted in the past needed some tweaking.
A double dose of serendipity with the two related events being separated from each other by eight years. To the day.
Photographing hummingbirds during the landing process is more difficult than one might think so of course I missed the shots of the most incredible landing I’ve ever seen, from any bird of any species.
If you time it just right even the wings of a hummingbird in flight can be reasonably sharp at relatively slow shutter speeds.
Another reason I tend to shoot at higher shutter speeds than most bird photographers and this time it still wasn’t enough.
The American Bittern is solitary and cryptically colored. Throw in its secretive nature and inaccessible habitats and you have a species that I rarely see so getting photos of one taking off and in flight made my day yesterday.
