----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Rubenstein"
Subject: Re: Nice photo
> No kidding. I was once at a practice session of a pro Canadian football
> (not soccer) team and tried to take some shots with a 70-300 zoom. HA!
> By the time I figured out how a play was developing it was way too late
> to get a properly framed shot at 300mm. (It's much different watching
> from the field, and not TV.) I started to get the hang of passing plays,
> but that was only because I was watching the passing squad. Action
> photography with long lenses is not trivial; particularly non
> deterministic action.
I think over time photographers who specialize develop a feel for where
the picture is going to take place.
When I was younger, I was involved in the sport of fencing. After a
while, I started bringing a camera out to tournaments and trying to
photograph the action. I found that by "specializing" in the weapon I was
best at, I was able to get some very good action photos with a Spotmatic II.
I had a sense of what was going to happen by watching the body language of
the fencers, and that helped me get better photographs.
In the shot I posted the link to the fellow knows that birds land into
the wind, and knows that in order to get a well lit shot, the sun must be
shining with the wind. By knowing his subject, he has made his life much
easier.
This may have been a difficult shot, it could also have been a fairly easy
one. Prefocussing on a likely perch and waiting patiently for a bird to come
in for a landing may have made for a picture even a non AF camera could have
captured easily.
Either way, it is a wonderful photo.
William Robb
