In the Field

Gulls in Flight. West Coast Trail, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 1981.

When photographing birds in flight I take one of two distinct approaches: I try to choose either a shutter speed fast enough to really freeze the action or one slow enough to really blur it. I try to avoid operating somewhere in the middle* - too fast of a shutter speed to nicely blur the movement but too slow to freeze the action. The shutter speed zone I avoid is between about 1/60s through to about 1/750s - I look at shooting faster OR slower than this.

This shot was taken while hiking along Vancouver Island's West Coast Trail back in the early '80's. We were hiking along the beach and this flock of gulls would repeatedly take-off as we approached them (enroute to that night's destination) and then land a few hundred metres up the beach. So, by simple chance I ended up having multiple opportunities to get the shot. I took about a half dozen shots (hey, I was a poor student at the time and shooting film!) - this one was my favourite. It has won a number of national awards.

*Photography is about guidelines, not rules! I'm sure many great in-flight bird shots have been shot in this "middle" shutter-speed zone that I warn about - but it's my experience that it is decidely more difficult to get a memorable image using these shutter speeds!

Behind the Camera

Gulls in Flight. West Coast Trail, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 1981.

Film Capture; Ektachrome 200; ISO 200.

Minolta film SLR (likely a XD-11) with 50 mm F1.4 Rokkor-X lens - handheld.

Exposure information not recorded - likely around 1/8 to 1/30s at f8.

At the Computer

Gulls in Flight. West Coast Trail, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 1981.

Details to follow.

Conservation

Gulls in Flight. West Coast Trail, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. August 1981.

Information to follow.