Anticipation

I had some time to kill while working in St. Louis last week and decided to see what I could find in Forest Park. Thankfully, I had the forethought to bring along the 500mm f/4 lens. One thing that I readily admit is that I am no wildlife photographer. Photographing birds and mammals is a skill I am still working on. It takes a lot of patience, time, and...er...patience.

So I set up at a little wetland area at Forest Park and just sat and watched the sun come up and listened to the birds when a group of wood ducks started swimming in. While photos of waterfowl on the water are nice, I really like well-executed shots "on the wing." The action as the water splashes right at takeoff, or the way a goose's foot kisses the water as it steers in on final approach is something I love to watch. I new as soon as the wood duck spotted me, he would get spooked and take off and I'd have my shot. Sure enough, events unfolded just as I thought they would. The only problem...I didn't anticipate.



I had the lens pointed right at the guy. He took off and all I got was water and feet. Should have led him a bit to get the whole body. Sigh.

After a few minutes, another group of woodies swam by. The female went up onto land first, and of course I missed that.



But I could tell from her body language that she was about to leap again to another rock and this time I'd be ready. I aimed right at her and flipped the big lens to manual focus so it wouldn't accidentally lock on to the rocks behind her and ruin the shot. Turns out I didn't need to worry about that at all since I managed to ruin the shot myself.






When will I learn? Well I had another chance a few seconds later.







Ok...keep going.






Yes...I'm trying to overcome my urge to stay right on you...leading just a bit...



Finally. Nothing stunning. Will never be seen in print. But at least I finally started to anticipate.


I played around and watched several more pairs of woodies and mallards move through when I decided to see what was going on in another part of the small marshy stream.














Pretty. I new as soon as this one saw me I would only have a split second to read his body language, figure out which way he was going to fly, recompose, and press the shutter.















I think I twitched my nose or something and that was enough to set him off. The windup...




And he's off! Now I'm starting to get the hang of this...a little. I'm no wildlife photographer. But I'm trying. A few more years of this fumbling, and I might get a bird photo that is actually publishable!