“Chickadee in Flight”
“Let your boys test their wings. They may not be eagles, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t soar free.”
― C.J. Milbrandt
This image was a surprising treat for me. I had been photographing a chickadee perching on some cattails along a local pond. As with many small birds, they tend to be a bit skittish and fast moving. This one seemed to be quite content but suddenly took to flight. I hit the shutter a split second after it took off. Thinking I had missed it, I proceeded to make a few other photos before going home.
When I got home and reviewed my images, this one startled me. Where I was expecting a frame filled with out of focus cattails, I found this wonderful image of the chickadee in flight and looking quite determined. The slight motion blur enhances the experience for me, accenting the motion of the quickly beating wings.
I probably could not have planned for this any better, especially considering that I had only my macro lense with me. My one saving grace was that I had set my shutter speed high to freeze the twitchy movement of the chickadee feeding in the first place. Sometime things just work out.
Also, shooting with my D800 made it possible to crop the original (see below), significantly, to get his composition.
Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100
High Resolution Image on 500px
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Ed Lehming Photography 
A lucky shot, indeed!
This photo, and your story behind it, made me smile 🙂
Thanks.
wonderful capture!!
Thank you
Love the color in the picture. Great click!
Thank you, all the elements just came together.
Well done! It is tough to take good pictures of birds that are moving.
Thanks, just a fortunate combination of events.
Awesome!!
Thanks
What a gift to a photographer. Absolutely perfect shot.
..when it all comes together 🙂
Sweet shot! 🙂
Opportunity and some luck 😀
Wow fantastic!
Thank you, good timing.
Excellent!!
Thanks, good timing and a lot of luck
This.ramks as one my favorites!!
Some days the magic works…great shot!
PHOTOROGR
True
Fantastic….wow…well done.
I love it.
Rosie from the Rhine-Highlands / Germany
Vielen dank aus Kanada!
I love birds and shooting them (with a camera, I mean)
Only recently was I enlightened to the concept that wildlife in some kind of action is more interesting than a static “portrait”. To me, a bird was a bird in my photos. Now I look for such opportunities as you’ve had here. Shooting too many sequence shots to catch that moment.
Nice work, Ed.
Seek peace,
Paz
Thanks again Paz.
Great captures, Ed! Really like the Chickadee. Luck goes along with being good at what one does.
Thank you