Reflex Action

I recall reading somewhere that photographers fall into one of three groups; those who delight in telling you what their camera/lens combination can do (but never get round to doing it themselves), those who delight in telling you what your camera/lens combination can't do, and the rest of us who just get on with it and take the photos.

If you've been following this blog you'll know that I take almost all of my wildlife photos using a small portable telescope mounted directly to a DSLR, thus getting the benefits of an apochromatic lens built to astronomical standards (while also having the option of popping in a diagonal and an eyepiece and using it as a conventional scope). Now I'm the first one to admit that this method has its disadvantages (namely: no autofocus, no aperture control, and no image-stabilisation), but that hasn't stopped some keyboard warriors from confidently reeling off lists of things that such telescopes are supposedly no good for, with "small birds in flight" ranking high on their chart of photographic no-nos.

So with that sage advice in mind, clearly I should give up all thoughts of trying to photograph Sand Martins popping in and out of their burrows like winged champagne corks...

I should also stop entertaining fanciful notions of catching a Swift screaming through the summer sky...

I really should abandon hope of trying to photograph a freewheeling House Martin gearing up for the autumn migration...

And I shouldn't even dream of trying to catch a low-flying Swallow hurtling across a windswept beach...

See also:
More "things in flight" photographed with a Tele Vue-60 and a DSLR.