For many of us (all of us that don’t focus primarily on bird photography), capturing images of birds in motion can be a real challenge. The culmination of lots of standing, waiting, and frustration only to result in 1/2, 1/3, 1/10 of the bird in the frame! Well, this has generally been my experience… until Saturday!
While at an expo a few weeks ago, we were introduced to PGD Tracker, by Photo Gear Designs (https://www.photogeardesigns.com/). A device that attaches to the hot shoe of your camera (ANY make) and aids in acquiring the bird (or animal, race car, motorcycle, athlete, etc) in the frame and tracking it alongs is path, allowing you to have the best opportunity possible to make an image! We knew immediately that this would be a great company to be affiliated with. Run by two photographers, one an engineer and the other a machinist, they knew exactly who they were helping with this device. In fact, they were inspired by their own challenges of capturing images of the eagles at Conowingo Dam.
I can’t rave enough about my experience last weekend at Conowingo Dam. I had fun! Although, not every image was tack sharp (that’s on me by the way), I had incredible success at having a bird in the frame! Historically, I would have trouble keeping the bird in the view finder, often losing track and having to take the camera from my eye to re-find it, to only realize that the decisive moment had passed; the mid-air conflict, the snatching the fish from the water, you name it.
It was FREEZING cold, which generally makes me impatient, since I know I will not get a decent image made, so I am suffering for nothing. But I decided I was going to give it a solid try and pretty quickly I realized that the tracker was allowing me to stay with the eagles, keep them in the frame, dramatically increasing my odds of success.
It can take a little while to get used to holding your camera away from your eye and looking through the sight, but once you do it a few times, it is pretty easy. Marrying the sight to my camera only took a few minutes and minor adjustments in the field were easy to do. Honestly, had I not had this tool, I would have been pretty miserable and grumpy in the cold missing all the good shots. This tool made my day!
If you think you might benefit from this device, don’t hesitate to check it out. For a good discount on your purchase, just use our promo code: ROADRUNNER.
Here are some images from the adventure!
David Herron
14 Nov 2017So where can I buy this???
Denise Silva
14 Nov 2017http://www.photogeardesigns.com
If you use our discount code: ROADRUNNER, you will receive a good discount.
Denise
14 Nov 2017What NM lens do you need to get close enough to this kind of action?
Denise Silva
14 Nov 2017Not sure what NM is. I was shooting a Fuji XT2. I used a 100-400mm with a 1.4 teleconverter. In some cases the birds were quite close. At its most telephoto, I would be at just shy of an effective 850mm (400 times 1.5 crop, for 600 times 1.4)