I Went Out To Find Some Birds To Photograph

Nothing more than a 'record shot' of this juvenile Bald Eagle that has not yet fledged.
OM-1 II; 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens @ 600mm; 1/1250 sec. @ f/6.3; ISO 1000
(click to enlarge any image)

Note: Over the next few weeks, if any of my posted photographs look ‘off,’ such as in white balance, saturation, contrast, luminance, I would appreciate you letting me know.  After 41 years of using a PC, I bought a MacBook Pro and am still in the process of setting up everything and learning an entirely new way of computing.  At 74 years of age, I figure I was ready for a new challenge!  I’m not yet confident that my photos will render as I have edited them but I’m working on it.  Thank you.

I've been slacking off.  I admit it and I'm paying the price.  I have not been out to photograph birds this year.  Additionally, for the first time in about 23 years, I missed my winter bird photography excursion over to Virginia’s eastern Shore.  Regardless, I normally like to get out on occasion and photograph Bald Eagles, other birds prey such as Osprey and hawks, as well as songbirds.  Nada.  None.  Nyet.  Have not been out and it is my own fault.  Kind of…

The price I pay is a) I get photographically rusty.  My trigger finger isn't nearly as quick as when I get out often and photograph fast moving subjects of any kind and b), I start to forget species as they aren't in the forefront of my mind.  So, I went out the other morning just to see what I could see.  Sadly, it wasn't much.

I drove to a local park so I could get a look at a Bald Eagle's nest nearest to my home.  It has been there for years but, occasionally, eagles will abandon one nest and build another nearby.  Thankfully, it is still there.  Also, the park has quite a few songbirds.  Additionally, nearby, there are two osprey nests with four osprey currently in residence as well as gulls since there is quite a bit of water in the area.

This eagle has not yet fledged.  I watched it 'practice' flapping its wings.  Interesting to watch.
OM-1 II; 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens @ 600mm; 1/1250 sec. @ f/6.3; ISO 800

My gear of choice was the OM-1 Mark II with the OM 150-600mm f/5-6.3.  They were mounted on my sturdy tripod equipped with a gimbal head.  My OM camera had previously been set up as C1 for perched or wading birds and C2 for birds-in-flight.  So, it was good to go.  But was I?

Arriving at the eagle's nest I saw nothing.  No adults and no juveniles.  After about 15 minutes, looking at the next through my EVF at 1200mm (FF field of view) I detected what I thought was the top of a head.  I waited and, sure enough, a juvenile Bald Eagle climbed up from the depths of the nest and (kinda of) made itself visible.  The problem is that the nest is very distant.  I had previously measured the nest at 500 ft. (152m) from the closest place to view it.  That is a long way for even 1200mm lens.  But, there is no other viewing choice,

Was I ready?  No, not really.  I was rusty as could be.  I did make a number of exposures of the eagle, many or which were slightly out of focus.  Hmmm.  Why is that?  I discovered that, with a small square of 9 autofocus points, the AF would grab on of the branches or pine cones right in front of the eagle.  I rectified that easily by changing to a single AF point.   Additionally, when using 'bird subject detection' and a single AF point, the camera started locking onto the eagle even though its back was facing me most of the time.  

Secondly, I found out, with this particular lens (and I have not used it much since I bought it last year), that it functions better when mounted on a gimbal with IBIS turned off.  So, in the future it will stay off.

Both of these are 5mp crops of the image files above.

I'm pretty satisfied with this lens' performance.  It is not OM’s ‘premier’ lens, but for my
purposes it is just fine.

In the end, I was there for about an hour.  I wish I had more time but I had other tasks that needed accomplished.  I got a few exposures of the eagle that were just okay.  Record shots, more or less.  But I couldn't get the doggone bird to turn around and face me.  The other thing is that although I could hear songbirds in the trees, I didn't see a single one.  I could hear them but didn't see them and I looked and looked.

As far as this lens goes, I'm pretty satisfied with the sharpness and detail rendered.  It isn't the $9000 OM 150-400mm f/4.5 1.2X 'super’ lens that the pro wildlife and bird photographers use, but it will certainly meet my standards and needs. 

Lessons learned:  Don't let yourself get rusty.  Practice with your new lens or other gear.  Put aside more time to photograph and not be a slacker like me!  lol.

Oh!  One more thing.  I did manage to photograph another bird flying over.  a 'whirlybird!'  One of the Virginia State Police helicopters.  Just for fun.

1/1250th of a second is not fast enough to stop the movement of the blades.  But then if I did
stop the movement, it wouldn't look as though it was flying but just 'hanging' in the air.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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