Rise to the top

There are some good photographs showing birds of prey in flight. This approach is quite complex and requires a lot of skill, patience and practice. Wildlife photographer Matthew Maran emphasizes that stubbornness is the key to such shots. He spent hours trying to catch a bird in flight, he was on his guard all the time, but most of the photos turned out to be useless. Discover the best ways to photograph majestic predators.

“The light was bad,” Matthew admits. “The eagle was flying in the wrong direction or didn’t want to get up at all… However, waiting all day in this place and returning the next day made me even more involved in this task, I began to watch the bird. I tried to feel the signals indicating that I was ready to fly and anticipate his behavior in advance.

“The ability to respond quickly is extremely important. It's good when the camera has a burst mode of at least 5 fps. It helps a lot as it offers a large selection of photos that can be finalized with the best ones.” If you are just starting your bird photography adventure, the best place to start is at the nearest zoo. You will be sure that you will meet specific species there, and their flight paths will be easy to predict.

If you feel ready to go out into the field, don't go too far into the wilderness alone. “Approaching birds is not easy. Instances that are accustomed to human presence are less easily spooked and easier to photograph. This is a big help, because when shooting in the field, you often have to spend many hours or even days before you can get an interesting and powerful shot. ”

Would you like to go out and “hunt” a predator now? Please wait a little more! Read our tips first...

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• Attach a telephoto lens to an SLR camera and set the camera to shutter priority, focus tracking, and burst mode. You need 1/500 of a second to freeze the movement.
• While waiting for the subject to fly to a specific location, take a test shot and check the background. If it's mostly leaves, the histogram will have a few peaks in the center. If the background is in shadow, the histogram will be focused towards the left. Conversely, if you are shooting against the sky, the highest values ​​in the graph will be focused to the right, depending on the brightness of the sky.