On cloudy days or for a change of pace, flight shots taken in front of colorful landscapes are a great alternative to the more traditional shots taken against a blue sky. But auto-focus systems have a very hard time with birds flying in front of landscape backgrounds. Unlike clean blue sky there isn't much to provide the contrast your AF system needs. So what to do about showing a bird like this Horned Puffin flying in its environment?...One traditional approach is to acquire focus while the bird is in front of the sky and then track it on to the colorful background. But a great alternative is to focus on a perched bird and wait for it to take off. This isn't as hard as it sounds if you know a few tricks to use. First, learn the signs that a particular species of bird might want to take off. Many birds lighten their load right before takeoff. Others like this Puffin tend to shuffle their feet as if they are anxious about something. Second, if you lock down your tripod with the camera focused on the bird you can even be looking around or relaxing a bit and still have time to press the shutter when the bird starts to fly--without having to keep your eye glued to the viewfinder. For most perches and species of birds I leave the camera on the lower center AF point centered on the bird, with the framing a little loose. Third, give yourself some extra depth of field (DOF) so that the first few shots you take will be in focus even if your AF system hasn't started to track the bird yet.

This Puffin image was captured using f11 at 1/250s with my Nikon D700 and 200-400mm f/4 lens. I increased my ISO to 1100--no problem for the FX sensor on the D700--to allow the combination of DOF and shutter speed I needed. Another big reason I was working on flight shots in front of the colorful cliff on this particular visit to the rookery was the poor sky color--an ugly white as you can see from the highlights in the background of the image. So all these tips came in handy and helped create a shot I wouldn't have been able to get otherwise.