The Wood Stork leap is the second most coveted flight shot at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery (after the stick shot). Photographers stand shoulder to shoulder with their long lenses trained on a perched Wood Stork in the treetops, watching for signs of agitation, for the first hints of flight. When the bird finally goes, it goes with a spectacular leap and those huge wings flash out and cup the air in a mighty stroke. Often the bird drops in the first second, until it develops the lift to take it gliding up above the treetops. You want to catch the whole sequence. On this set I was a fraction of a second late to catch the first wing-rise, but the power of the first stroke is evident. You can hear the artificial motor drive sounds all up the boardwalk each time it happens (interesting point…a digital camera is, by nature, completely silent in capture…yet we program in the sound of a mechanical drive moving film ???).

Sandwiched in there somewhere between all the 300 and 600mm lenses with my little Nikon Coolpix, I feel like the boy scout photographer with a toy camera…but the results speak for themselves. Not, again, quite DSLR quality, but very satisfying.

Here is another sequence. The bird is further away. I am zoomed out to 500mm equivalent field of view on the Coolpix P500, and the images are cropped from the full 12mp frame. This sequence has the virtue 🙂 of combining the leap with the stick shot. (Note the green iridescence on the Wood Storks’ wings in motion.)

Yep…my camera may be a toy compared to the DSLRs at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm…but I am having fun!

These are all auto focus, auto exposure shots, using my User programmed flight mode on the Coolpix P500, which includes center metering, continuous focus, follow focus, and high speed capture. The first set were at the normal compression setting and 8mp size…the second set are at fine compression and the full 12mp size.

Processed very lightly in Lightroom for clarity and sharpness.