Black Skimmers

I’ve been hanging out at Bryan Beach for the past few weeks trying to catch some Skimmer action like I got in 2009.  They finally showed up this past weekend and let me get a few shots before flying off.  They didn’t stick around long but I had enough time to get off a few passes of shots. 

It’s a challenge to shoot birds flying that fast with a ground pod while laying on your stomach.  I tried hand holding the camera with my elbows planted in the muck but that didn’t work any better.  Just had to shift the ground pod around as they changed direction.  I messed up by trying to use four focus points and lost the focus on several shots.  Finally woke up and switched to only single point focus which worked much better.  It was cool when they would fly directly at me.

Taken with Canon 7D and 100-400 lens on ground pod, no flash.