Essential Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight Over Reflective Waters

^{Note: This tip comes from Will Goodlet’s article - Bird in flight tricks for photographing over water.}

When birds fly over the water, they exhibit one of pro bird photographers' favorite photographic traits: Repeated behavior.

QT #1 – When birds fly low over the water, they hunt or scope out a place to stop. If neither happens, they will circle and do it again, repeating their behavior. This gives the knowledgeable bird photographer time to plan and prepare.

If you prepare correctly and observe, you should be able to identify individuals and locations to target. You can then consider lighting, weather, and timing and put yourself in the ideal spot to catch some of the action.

Some species of birds, like terns and swallows, enjoy long low overflights, frequently dipping their bills into the water.

QT #2 - If you find it challenging to track these birds' erratic flight, then try this technique. Instead of following the birds in the camera viewfinder, track their shadows or reflections on the water. The size of the reflection will grow or shrink depending upon their altitude. As your bird subject approaches the water (where you want to photograph them, right?), the shadow/reflection grows large, and the bird enters the shot just before they hit the water.

At this point, you should have achieved good focus on the reflection and, incidentally, the bird as well!

The advantage of this little trick is that you should be able to move your lens in predictable panning sweeps rather than all over the place tracking the bird. And that also helps to keep your exposures from jumping around as well.

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)