Shutter (with plenty of Sun)

I was lucky enough to go to Egypt last week and whilst there I pretty much spent the whole of my time with my camera practising what I had been learning over the last few months.

One thing I was able to take advantage of was the SUN, not something we see here often and often means we have to compromise where light is concerned.  With this now available one of the areas I wanted to revisit was Shutter Speeds.

For my Nature theme I want to freeze movement in the birds and this was not so easy when in poor light conditions, having to increase the ISO which resulted in quite a lot of noise.  With the sun now on my side I was able to use a really fast shutter speed and keep my ISO set at 200.  The only challenge left was to find some birds and although there wasn't many the ones I manged to find were perfect.

There were approx three pairs of Kestrels on the resort, these are usually a very hard bird to get near to in the UK and mostly seen seen hovering over motorways or fields looking for voles.  However, they were simply hoping about looking for food in the grass and surprisingly didn't seem bothered by me following them.  With a great opportunity like this I was able to get some really good shots and also catch them in flight.

ISO 200F/9.0, S 1/200

ISO 200F/9.0, S 1/200

ISO 200F/5.6, S 1/640

ISO 200F/6.3, S 1/800

ISO 200F/6.3, S 1/800

ISO 100F/9.0, S 1/200

ISO 100F/5.6, S 1/200

ISO 100F/5.6, S 1/640

Whilst down by the beach I spotted another great bird of prey, the Osprey.  Although we do have these in the UK there are only approx 200 pairs which are found in Scotland, with the odd pair in Wales.  These birds migrate to Africa each year for the Winter and return to the UK in the summer and feed on a diet of fresh water fish from shallow unpolluted waters.

Camera at the ready as always I was really lucky to see this bird and to get these amazing shots, again using a fast shutter and making the most of the sun.  I was aware that this bird was flying up and down the sea edge so it really was just a matter of waiting for the bird to come my way.  I had a really good view point and also next to me was a lifeguard look out point so I was able to climb up this and when the Osprey did appear I was sometimes looking down on the bird as he would fly quite low getting ready to dive into the sea.

ISO 200S, 1/320



ISO 200S 1/320

ISO 200S 1/400

ISO 200S 1/400

ISO 100S 1/640

ISO 100S 1/640

ISO 100S 1/640

ISO 100S 1/640

This last picture was actually the first picture I managed to get of the Osprey, it just appeared whilst I was eating so I just grabbed the camera and took a picture quick, thinking I wouldn't get another chance.  Lucky for me I was able to get the images above the next morning when going down to the sea at 06:30 and was amazed when the bird appeared with a fish in its talons.

ISO 100S 1/80