Birds Gallery - Honorable Mention

I go to Taiwan searching for Black-Naped Monarch during June of 2011, which is the breeding season of that species in Taiwan. The day this photo was taken, in Taichung on June 11, 2011, was a hot summer day with bright sun light, and the bird couple were busy for feeding their hungry babies. My schedule was tight and I only had a half day to shoot at that location, so I tried different angles and positions to get better lighting and background. I waited for a cloud, hoping to get some diffused lighting despite needing to decrease my shutter speed or open up the aperture wide. When a parent touched down on the perch with prey, the tiny vibration stimulated babies to wake up and wide open their mouths, shaking their necks. This made it difficult for me to pin point autofocus so I switched to manual focus and preset my focus to the correct distance, taking shots every time the couple touched down on the perch. I took hundreds of pictures, just waiting for the beautiful male to touch down with a good mouthful of prey and a good pose.

Equipment Used: EOS1D mkIV, EF600/4.0L IS, Sachtler FSB6 fluid head, RRS TVS-33 tripod
Setting: ISO640, f4.5, 1/400s, manual focus

About the Photographer: To see more of this photographer’s work, please visit his Flickr site.