The colony of Little Shags that nests at Sulphur Point, Lake Rotorua, is a good indicator that spring is well and truly on the way. They started nest building a couple of weeks ago and now some are sitting and others still building. The birds nest in trees on a small island and some rocky outcrops close to shore so are easily accessible for flight photography. Evening is the best time as the sun setting in the west and the prevailing south westerly winds give the ideal flight situation of sun and wind from the same direction so that the birds approach into the light. Manual exposure is the best option as it eliminates the factor of changing backgrounds as you track the birds in front of water, distant hills, sky and foliage which can cause exposure variation of a few of stops if in an automatic exposure mode is used. It is important to expose well to the right to maintain detail in the blacks but you have to avoid clipping highlights in the white plumage. A ball park metering off the distant green hills fine tuned with the histogram can have you on the correct exposure with 2 or 3 test shots. Here are a few shots taken last evening. Nikon D800 with 500mm f4 lens. ISO 800 f8 1/2500-1/3200.