Yesterday afternoon my son had a appointment in a little office park with two lakes surrounding the complex. I decided to walk around the complex to see what I could find. I didn't find anything unusual, but I did find a tree with two Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers and a Northern Parula actively feeding. They seemed unconcerned with me. Some times the Gnatcatchers would fly within feet of my head to catch bugs and then return to the tree. I got some of my favorite pictures of the gnatcatchers all within a span of about 15 minutes. I got photos of the parula too, but I'll save them for a later post.
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
These photos were taken in a mostly shaded tree, so my shutter speeds were quite slow, ranging from 1/80sec to 1/320sec or so. With a 400mm lens non image stabilized lens and a moving subject, this means there's a high degree of likelihood that my photos will not be sharp. A tripod can't help much here, since they can't stop the gnatcatchers from dancing around the trees. So the only solution, especially with my equipment, is to take lots of pictures.
These are such cute birds, I love the second image the most because of the head turn!
ReplyDeleteI am wanting to purchase a photo or two
ReplyDeleteplease contact me on details. Eric@marriagecanbemurder.com