MARKUS VARESVUO

FREEZING MOVEMENT

This chapter looks at freezing movement, fully or partially, in existing light.

Movement is probably easiest to freeze when photographing waterfowl that are calmly swimming. It gets more difficult with flying falcons, and the biggest challenges come with small birds that are flying fast and erratically.

The rule of thumb is that the bigger the bird, the slower its movements, which makes taking sharp action shots easier. So where a shutter speed of 1/500 second is fast enough for capturing a raptor calmly gliding in the sky, catching a small bird in the middle of its flight requires at least 1/3200 second if you want to freeze the bird all the way to its wing tips.

When focusing on feeding waders, I have found ...

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