Why another bird-shot? Because I really love to take images of birds. They became my favourite subject. In spring I shot around 600 images per weekend almost all the time at the Neusiedlersee NP, a place famous for it´s rich birdlife. My first attempts back in 2001 ( with my Nikon F100 + AF 4/300 ED ) were horrible: A field with some unsharp white dots ( great white egrets ).

Despite the early dissapointments I tried it again and again. With the change to digital photography I made a big step forward. Beside the tighter crop ( 1.5x ), the higher sensitivity 200ASA ( or even 400ASA or 800 ASA ) and the possibility to learn very fast ( EXIF-data or the chance to correct settings in the field ) it is the chance to take a lot of images without worring about the cost that makes the difference. In my "analog"-days every frame costs money. So I didn´t take shots with little prospect of success. Shots of bird in flight or things like that was nothing but a waste of frames ( money ). Now I don´t have to care about success rates - I can throw away dozens of shots for just that special one. Today I start to fire when my subject starts to move.

Two years ago I wouldn´t expect to take images like this someday. I´m really curious how my images will look like two years from now.

More bird shots can be found in my bird - folder. birds

Settings: A-Mode, 1/1600s@f6.7, Exp.comp. -2.0, WB cloudy -3, NEF.