As I mentioned in my most recent “Image of the Week” post, I have been closely observing Cape Weavers building their nests. It is most fascinating to see them contruct their nests. Much of the building takes place inside the nest and they move out of the nest very quickly on the way to pick up more grass for building. I am intrigued when they leave the nest. They generally hang on the bottom of the nest and then suddenly drop and fly away. This is done incredibly quickly. I have over the years tried to capture the moments just after they let go of the nest, but have never been able to actually capture this movement. They also flutter their wings at a high speed, making it even more difficult to freeze the motion.
I tried out the pre-capture feature on my Canon R1 to see if I could get the sequence. After a few attempts I did manage to capture 5 images – my pre-capture frame setting was 5. Think I will increse that some more, although you end up with even more images in the editing process, especially as the camera is shooting at 40 frames per second.
The immediate five images below is that sequence. The camera settings were:
Canon EOS R1 with a Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens and a Canon extender RF 2x which gives an effective focal length of 800mm.
ISO 1600. 1/3200 sec @ f/6.3. The exposure was set manually. The pre-capture feature was enabled and the frame rate was set at 40 fps. This sequence took some 125 milliseconds which means that your eye, never mind your reflexes, just can’t see or capture the moment.
In the above images you see how the bird drops and simultaneously starts to turn over and spread it wings before any forward motion.
I have also included an image below that I captured whilst trying to get some sequences. You just never see a Cape Weaver’s wings spread out like this. They move so fast that the human eye can’t freeze its motion. It was a pity that the bird was not looking up, but it was looking down to where is was headed. Fascinating to say the least.
Canon EOS R1 with a Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens with and a Canon Extender RF 2x . Effective focal length 800mm
ISO 2000. 1/4000sec. @ f.5.6. Exposure set manually.