Photo of the Week: Close-up Quail in Half Moon Bay

I find quail extremely difficult to photograph without a very long and very expensive lens. They stay close to the ground foraging for seed making it difficult to get a straight-on shot. They move away as you approach, never staying in focus. An opportunity arises when a male perches on a branch to keep a watchful eye while the flock eats.

At Miramontes Creek, I happened across this quail that was close enough for a picture, while carrying my camera on a tripod and we both froze. I needed to cycle through a series of camera settings, tripod dangling from the camera while remaining very still to get this one good picture, my personal best of a quail, so far.

This was taken along Miramontes Creek, near the Links golf course. I used a Nikon D7000 camera with a 70-300 f/4.5 to 5.6 lens zoomed out to 300mm. This picture had a shutter speed of 1/125 sec, aperture of f/5.6 and the ISO at 800.

I will be teaching a basic digital photography class (in 3 easy lessons) this summer for the Half Moon Bay Recreation Department. Check out the online Activity Guide here.