Capture moving objects

1 Location and birds

The easiest place to shoot from is your own home, through a window. If you have the option of doing so it means you can bait the birds with seed and have them come to you. But if you can’t do that, head down to your local park with some bird feed.

3 Shutter priority

To freeze the action you’ll need a fast shutter speed. Follow the law of reciprocals, so if your focal length is 200mm use at least 1/200 sec or faster to freeze movement. Ideally you want your shutter speed as fast as possible for sharp shots.

5 Autofocus

Engage ‘group’ autofocus mode to give your Nikon a larger area to search for focus. Enabling continuous autofocus also negates the need for constant refocusing with the shutter button, which speeds up shooting and increases your hit rate when the birds are out.

2 Telephoto zoom

Since you’re likely to be a good distance away from your feathered friends you’ll want to use a telephoto lens to get close in to the action. We’re using a 70-200mm lens, which gives us a little space around the birds, making it easier to track them in flight.

4 Let the light in

To attain a fast shutter speed the Nikon will designate a wide aperture to let more light in to the sensor. But sometimes, even with a wide aperture, the image will be too dark at fast shutter speeds, so you’ll need to increase your ISO to compensate.

6 Slow down

Once the fast shots are nailed it’s time to experiment. Slow down your shutter speed just enough to blur the wings as birds land. You may have to lower your ISO accordingly. We used 1/100 sec. This creative use of blurring is quite flattering in the right situation.