Shorter is better!

The majority of photographers who appreciate capturing wildlife in general and birds in flight in particular will almost always prefer having more "reach" with their tools. I came to the conclusion that sometimes shorter is preferable while out trying to capture numerous Purple Martins in flight yesterday morning.

I've made a lot of excursions to the Ruthven Park Purple Martin colony in Cayuga, Ontario, but I've struggled to get any good pictures.

I had a tendency, like many photographers, to try to use a focal length that was too long. It is a good idea to try to "fill the frame" with a subject bird, but if you can't keep the bird in the frame for long enough to focus on it, it is useless. Note that despite my best efforts, my previous attempts to photograph Purple Martins in flight yielded almost nothing.

Like all swallows, purple martins fly very swiftly and aerobatically, making it challenging to get images of them in flight. I chose to spend some time observing particular birds to see whether there was any kind of regularity to their motions, despite the fact that their flying patterns appeared to be very erratic.

I saw that the birds used a few very common routes on their way back to their nesting boxes. Consequently, I reversed what I had previously done. My CX 70-300 was completely extended when I initially started capturing images because the temptation was too great. A light bulb ultimately went off in my old brain, which led me to back off the zoom and begin shooting in the 140mm-220mm focal length range after trying in vain for 15 minutes to take some BIF shots at that focal length.

The birds in the picture were obviously too little for me to enlarge, but at least I was able to track with them there for long enough to concentrate on them. The final images need some really drastic editing. As an illustration, the majority of the photographs in this article with smaller picture subjects occupy between 45 and 65 percent of the sensor surface area. The good news is that I did finally succeed in capturing a few images of these small feathered rocket ships.

I spent a couple of hours and came away with around a dozen decent photos. Even though it didn't win any awards, it was still a lot of fun.

That morning's most important lesson for me was to always choose a focus length appropriate for my level of experience, as well as the speed and size of the subjects I was capturing.

Hoping this article clears up a thing or two for you!