Terns at Preston Docks

So the most recent photo walk I went on with Preston Photographic Society was at Preston Docks shooting Terns and for me it was completely out of my comfort zone. Don’t get my wrong I’m a photographer but bird photography doesn’t really appeal to me, it’s unplanned as there is no control as to when the birds are going to do something like fly or have a brawl. So it involves sitting somewhere patiently waiting for something to happen and for me this is chaos, as I like to plan things.

For example landscapes are always going to be where you want them to be, you will often find exciting people wandering round the streets and for me portraiture is the most exciting of all. The Reason for this is with studio work you can decide on props beforehand and people are always exciting because every person expresses himself or herself in a different way and you can see that through photography.

This is why for me I don’t really understand birds, but I’m willing to try and I do like looking for unpredictable shots but if I’m going to try bird photography again I think I will try posing birds like owls or parrots.

But saying that I somehow managed to get some shots of the Kestrels I’m happy with by setting my ISO really high and my shutter speed to 1/1000 as the higher the shutter speed the more motion you manage to capture.

And I will say this time and time again never be afraid to step outside your comfort zone with photography because you might surprise yourself and although I couldn’t sit and shoot birds for hours the results actually surprised me.

Below is a selection of the Tern shots I took on the evening: