
The number one rule in wildlife photography, and especially bird photography, is the eye must be tack-sharp in focus. Everything else is secondary. It is also the most difficult to accomplish, especially with relatively small subjects such as birds taken from some distance through a telephoto lens.

Birding is especially good this time of year in Florida. The winter migrants from the northern climes are here. Also, it is breeding season for many of our wading birds. With that in mind, I dug out my long lenses and went to a nearby Audubon maintained preserve.

There weren’t a lot of birds present. It was cool and windy. I was able to get a few decent photographs made and was quickly reminded how important it is to have the subject’s eye in tack sharp focus. The grackles shown here were a challenge because their eyes are black and not easily distinguishable.

It was good to be “shooting birds” again and I’m looking forward to more outings.

My Gear:
All of the images in this post were taken with an Olympus E-M5 Mark II or E-M1 Mark II and Olympus 300mm f4 Pro lens. Some also included a 2x telextender.

carol wilson
26 Jan 2020Birds are my favorite as you know. Your hummer picture is excellent . Makes me want to draw it.
Ron Mayhew
26 Jan 2020Thanks, Carol. When you do I’d like to see it!