While I enjoy making a nice portrait of a bird in nice light I tend to enjoy capturing and displaying bird behavior just a bit more. There’s a feature in the OM System (formerly Olympus) cameras that make it easier to complete this task. Check it out.
Pro Capture
I call Pro Capture ‘Shooting into the Past.’ “Say what Bob?” Shooting into the past. How many times have you been waiting for a bird to take flight? You’ve studied what happens just before the flight occurs. Perhaps noting a change in body position or there is an evacuation with bird poo making it’s way to the ground. You know it’s just about time… And, you still end up missing the moment with a lovely picture of a ‘bird butt’ exciting the frame because you were a hair late on pushing the shutter button.
Here’s how Pro Capture works. When you activate the shutter button with a half press it begins to record the scene, but it is not saving the images. Once you see the behavior for which you are looking you complete the full press of the shutter. The camera then saves the images that were being recorded in the buffer. Viola! you have captured images that were in the past.
Camera settings
OM-1 Pro Capture lets you decide the number of images to record in the buffer once the shutter is activated. You will need to determine what works for you. I recommend not saving too many of those images or you will be throwing away a zillion pictures of the static subject while you were waiting for the behavior to occur.
You can decide how fast the images will be captured. For example, with the new OM-1 Mark II you can capture from to 5-120 frames per second (FPS). Obviously, you’ll make decisions as to how many frames you wish to record depending upon the behavior you are trying to capture.
While the newer OM Systems cameras have very high FPS, older used Olympus cameras are nothing to sneeze at. I’ve made a list with links below of cameras with the Pro Capture feature.
OM System and Olympus cameras with this feature
Available used only
Post processing
You can choose to show the best single image of the the series as a single photo. Or, one way I enjoy presenting the behavior of the birds is to extract individual frames and composite them into a series in a single frame. This makes it possible to show wing positions, or flight patterns as you choose. You can also show the behavior as a series of individual images. The post processing world allows unlimited possibilities. Use your imagination and run wild!
Yours in Creative Photography,
Bob