A Cooperative Dove

While Pica was sketching yesterday at the Arboretum, I went on a little photo stroll, having packed both my macro lens and my long telephoto lens (an Olympus 75-300mm for micro four-thirds cameras). The macro lens is meant for Arboretum outings, with flowering shrubs everywhere, but I have always found the 75-300mm lens difficult to use, especially when photographing birds. The reach is there, but it is challenging to get sharp pictures.

I’ve resolved to practice more with this lens, and a mourning dove hanging around our backyard this afternoon gave me an opportunity. We often see one or two mourning doves in the backyard, not doing much other than pecking occasionally at the ground. I took a few photos, and was happy with the focus on several of them, including this one. I think the key is to have a fast shutter speed and small aperture — I settled on 1/800th of a second at f/8, with auto ISO. But even at f/8, there is not much depth of field to play with at this magnification, so one really has to nail the focus point (the eye and face is preferred).