The Right Moment

Keeping our minds open and watching for the right moment can result in some fun photos like this one I took of my grandson playing at Lake Sheridan.

And this one my granddaughter took of her friends leg as she played in the sand at the waters edge.

In Flight: Catch Me If You Can

For a year now I have been wanting to capture some shots of a cardinal that likes to hang out around our home. Either he is camera shy or he just doesn't like me because every time I go out and sit with my camera all ready, he goes into hiding only to come out again when I don't have my camera or like this when I am photographing something else.

I was taking this next shot when I saw a quick flash of red out of the corner of my eye and heard his sweet call.

Not wanting to miss out on yet another chance to capture the Cardinal, I quickly moved to a position where I could see him in the tree and captured the shot shown at the top of this post. Knowing that any shot would have to be taken in a hurry I did not take time to change my settings, I just tried to get the focus as clear as possible. Sure enough, he took off almost as suddenly as he landed. I did manage to get this last shot of the Cardinal and an airplane both in flight before he got away.

[Canon T3, lens EFS 18-55, f/8 1/320 ISO 200] Top Shot Submission

Although the Cardinal has a motion blur and I had to crop the image to get the frame I wanted, since I didn't shoot it with a zoom lens, I am still pretty happy with the shot.  

The perfectionist in me says the motion blur is an obvious sign of lack of skill, which I am not ashamed to admit my skill when it comes to action photography has a long way to go, especially with birds. At the same time the artist in me actually likes the motion blur, maybe even more than I would like it nice and crisp.

What do you think, would it be better without the motion blur?
To all of you bird photographers out there, any tips on capturing these lovely creatures is greatly appreciated.

Linking up with:

Skywatch Friday

and

Action Photo Session

Action photo sessions are probably my favorite to shoot. Here is a peek at yesterdays session with my granddaughter and grandson.

 This next photograph is actually a multiplicity photo, which combines two photographs taken only moments apart from the same angle. The rest of the photos in this post are SOOC shots.