TW Blog :: Archives for March 2009
Words are but the images of matter, to fall in love with them is to fall in love with a pictureFrancis Bacon
Common Kestrel in Flight
Relates to Photography
Walking from Perseverance Hill to British Camp on the Malvern Hills yesterday we were lucky enough to see a Common Kestrel hunting prey. This magnificent bird of prey was using ridge lift on the Welsh side of Jubilee Hill to soar above the scrub.
A perfect opportunity to test out the telephoto lens which was on the camera ready to go. The Kestrel was about 100 metres away from us and there was a brisk breeze blowing making stabilising the lens a challenge. Even so the Canon 200m f/2.8 L-lens showed off its abilities by locking in perfectly on the soaring bird and keeping focus in AI Servo AF mode.
f/3.2 @ 1/2500s, ISO 200
f/3.2 @ 1/800s, ISO 200
Both pictures have been further cropped in Aperture but still show excellent clarity and detail on the Kestrel's plumage. Shutter was a little slow on the second image but I was shooting in AV mode (on a slightly dark backdrop) rather than manual at the time.
More than happy that this Canon lens is perfectly usable handheld - despite the 320mm cropped focal length on my Canon 40D.
Posted on Monday, Mar 02, 2009 at 10:36:31.
