I have tried, with very limited success, to photograph a nightjar in my fairly local forest. I have found a favoured spot and was fortunate enough to have the bird come and alight in front of me the other evening at about 10:45pm. I took the following photo, before both the bird and I disappeared into the night. I have not cropped the photo (the bird was only 20 - 30 feet away), and I had manually focused on the apex of the branch earlier, as AF struggled in the failing light. Does anyone have any advice on how I can take a much better picture? I used (for this photo) my Speedlite 550EX for flash. Should my shutter speed be much higher? Should I stop the aperture down more. Should I be using a tripod (this was hand held, resting elbows on knees as I was sitting on the ground)? Any help and advice on night shooting would be much appreciated. I realise that I'm not going to get too many opportunities for trial and error, and I also recognise that I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to get this close to such an amazing bird IMHO. Thanks.
