Raptor fail

The more I know about this photography business, the more I realize how little I know. I do know one thing for sure, this new camera is showing me that I am truly ignorant and that my panning technique is awful and that I am a doof when it comes to understanding and utilizing the not so terribly complicated auto focus system. Basically I am maybe one rung up from a glorified point and shooter.

Yesterday I set the Wimberly gimbel head up on the tripod in the afternoon and took this picture of mama hawk in her nest. She took the next opportunity to soar. Hot damn, I was set up! Had the perfect rig and the subject, right where I wanted them.

Another massive fail. I was shooting at decent settings, perhaps the shutter speed was a little fast and the iso too low but it was a very bright day.

Ended up getting a bunch of out of focus and unusable shots like this one to the left.

I was shooting AF-S dynamic 9 point with the "release" focus setting and everything seemed hunk dory. I mostly shot AF-A on my old rig. Might have to go back. The pictures with a complicated background were absolutely dreadful.

I have shifted back to focus release instead of the other option. Maybe I need to use 3-D or a group shot AF? Or start using back button focussing?

I definitely need to improve my focus technique. Many birders use single point focus because it's faster and they aim for the eye of the bird but that is hard to do when the critters start flying around.

New technology can be very frustrating.