Birds In Flight

No doubt that anyone who thinks about wildlife in Antarctica immediately thinks of penguins. And then probably whales and seals. But there will be plenty of birds, too, including petrels and albatrosses. I am not a birder, but I do enjoy looking at birds when I see them. I’ve only recently tried photographing them, particularly in anticipation of our trip.

For obvious reasons, it’s not easy getting a focused picture of a bird in flight. But I’ve been reading up on this, and trying out what I’ve learned — use the continuous shooting mode (the most obvious suggestion), set your autofocus to continuous, use the most focus points, pan, try to capture the bird against the plain sky (to make it easier for the camera to focus on the bird), use a speed no slower than 1/250… and fire away in rapid bursts! And, quite frankly, hope you get lucky!

I think I did here:

(photo by turtles06)