Behavior

I wanted to talk a minute here about animal behavior and photography. Knowing what an animal is going to do or how they might behave is half the battle of getting a good photo or an awesome one. I attended a lecture by top nature/wildlife photographer George Lepp and he said "behavior, behavior, behavoir"...."know your subjects habits and be ready".....so I have been using this when photographing birds particularly. If you watch them long enough, you start to notice behavior patterns which are quite helpful in anticipating a moment and capturing that moment.

I started noticing this with the ducks at the local preserve I like to go to near my home. I noticed that when they started preening, they would dunk several times and then flap their wings. I started shooting fast when this occurred to try and catch it. I bumped my ISO to 800 and started shooting at 1/1600...it worked...I got several worthwhile images including the one to the right here of a Green Winged Teal. These ducks are fast but knowing what they are going to do takes practice and observation!