Welcome to Jim Akers’s Photography Blog. It seems that I am taking more photos of birds than anything else over the past few years. I think this is because they are more available. It doesn’t mean it is easy just more available. Plus I live on the West Coast along the coast so it makes the availability easier. I shoot exclusively with Canon equipment. The other day I got up early as in 4 AM to go to Bolsa Chica State Park. It is one of the premier birding preserves on the West Coast. When I am bird shooting I use a Canon 500 mm f/ 4l IS lens or the 70-200 f/2.8 with an extender. Here is one of the shots I took at Bolsa Chica. I watched the pelicans diving into the water but from the distance I was at I could not see if they caught anything. I did not know the pelican had the fish in its mouth until I got home and loaded the shots into my computer. The 7:30am golden sun was to my back. My Canon 1DX settings were 1/1000, f/8.0 and the ISO was 800. My Canon 500mm was sitting on an Induro 314 tripod with an
Induro GBH2 Gimbel Head. I was ready, I had the right equipment and I anticipated the movement of the pelican. Now all I had to do is be patient.
As I continue to blog, I will share my secrets and wisdom of how to get good shots, particularly bird shots. In fact, I have a WOW list that is 4 pages long and still growing. WOW stands for Words of Wisdom. The WOW tenant for this blog segment is:
The gift shot or lucky shot is sometimes neither. Your preparedness and anticipation increases your odds of a good shot. Sometimes it is called Preparation meeting Opportunity.
Click here to see more bird pictures.
Tags: Bolsa Chica State Park, California, Pelican, West Coast
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