For a few months now, I have been "keeping busy" with photography; I started with a Bridge camera but immediately opted for an SLR (digital, sooner or later I will try analog), because I am interested in using these "tools" in full manual mode. I absolutely do not want to make life easy for myself by obtaining questionable results that are difficult to achieve without various automations; for this reason, I only use lenses devoid of automatic controls such as autofocus, image stabilization, and regarding the camera, burst mode and other functions.
That being said, it is quite an arduous task to manage, first of all, to intercept both the birds I mentioned in the title and other species. There are two reasons: one pertains to the context (where I live there are pigeons, doves, kestrels, crows, seagulls, but also goldfinches, hoopoes, and other species I don't know), and the other relates to the speed of these birds, which makes shooting and everything that precedes it very difficult.
It is a reality that we all have before our eyes but do not notice, or we do not pay attention to it, but I assure you that in the end, you discover habits that you didn't even suspect before: for example, during this period in the area where I am, the kestrel usually leaves its resting place (?) in the morning between 6:00 and 7:30, most of the time literally tricking me, because I see it flying at a minimum of 400/500 meters from home when it is already too far away, but it has also happened that I found it less than 2 meters away, caught completely off guard.
I managed to photograph it in flight (but not decently) a few days ago, with a large lens (it is a Pentacon 500mm weighing 3.6 kg; after a few minutes, my arm risks giving out from the weight), manual, with a front aperture of almost 12 cm—something that, if compared to latest-generation lenses, would involve an expenditure of thousands of euros, but since I was able to buy it, we are talking very low figures, so don't worry.
Sooner or later I will publish some photos as soon as I take some decent ones (but not excellent; it is practically impossible to take photos of moving subjects, or so they say on the forums, but it is my intention to debunk this belief, and I have already partially succeeded; the quality of the images, moreover, is also due to the quality of the lens, certainly not comparable to those mentioned a moment ago).
In short, in this video it is possible to observe a hoopoe, very common in our areas but not always "visible"; I spotted it only once last year and 2 days ago, but I didn't have time to photograph it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CVNhe4a0tc
In the other video, the kestrel, a fascinating small raptor, very common even in cities, but how many can claim to have seen it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH3xsy0MSVA
