My appreciation of magpies as photographic subjects continues to grow.
They’re not easy to photograph well. Those bright whites and light-sucking blacks are an exposure nightmare, their extremely long tail makes composition difficult and clipping body parts easy, their tendency to constantly flash their nictitating membrane can be aggravating to the extreme and their gun-shyness (I believe caused by generations of “hunters” taking pot-shots at them) means they generally take off as soon as a long lens is pointed at them.
But when I occasionally get it right I love the results.
1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, Cannon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
This one is from yesterday morning on Antelope Island. I like it for a variety of reasons, among them the fact that the magpie is landing and not taking off. Landing shots are difficult because you never actually know where or in what position the bird will touch down and you must already have it in focus as it does so. There are two main strategies for getting this kind of image – try to keep focus locked on the bird as it’s coming in to the perch or pre-focus on the presumed perch and hope that the bird actually lands there. In this case I mostly got lucky – I didn’t notice the bird coming in until the last second so I quickly raised my lens and fired even before I knew that my focus had locked on to anything, bird, perch or something else. I owe the fact that the magpie is sharp to the quick focusing abilities of the Canon 7D Mark II and to the gods of bird photography…
This image illustrates an interesting point about Black-billed Magpies. It was taken in early morning light and typically I’d have had significant iridescence in the bird but there’s none showing. That’s because the feathers of this species only have iridescent qualities on the dorsal side of its wings and tail and in this shot we only see the ventral surfaces there. I’m fine with that and think that the gloriously fanned and interestingly shaped tail more than makes up for it.
I was curious about where my active focus point actually was when I took the shot so I pulled it into Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (software that comes with Canon cameras) to see if I was locked on to the bird or the perch or something else. The red focus point is the one that locked on (I had 5 center points activated) so you can see how lucky I was. I might just as easily have locked on to the front of the bush which would have made the magpie fairly soft. This version of the image is full frame and not sharpened or processed (other than conversion from RAW to JPEG and addition of focus points).
Ron
PS – I was tempted to rotate the image to level the blue “horizon line” at the top of the image but in the end I didn’t for three reasons:
- the interface between blue and brown isn’t horizon, it’s the shore of the Great Salt Lake and I believe this version represents its actual sloping angle
- rotating the image made the angle of attack of the magpie look somewhat unrealistic to my eye
- rotating would have meant that I’d have to add canvas up top to get a composition that appealed to me. I try to avoid adding canvas whenever possible
One additional point. You’ll notice that the colors are more vivid in the first version of the image than they are in the second. I suspect that’s because of a difference in the way colors are rendered in Photoshop versus DPR. No saturation or other kind of color manipulation was done to either version of the image
I love it when you get “all technical” in a post. It’s incredibly helpful and inspiring for me. I have just over a year of experience shooting with a DSLR and I have learned a lot from your posts like this. I also appreciate your posts on your ethics as a nature photographer, you’ve influenced me in that regard as well. You and Mia both do great things with your blogs, keep up the great work.
Your comment means a lot, Shane – on both the technical and ethical fronts and not necessarily in that order. Thanks very much.
Boring us? Cue hysterical laughter here.
The techno-geeks learn, the avian obsessed learn, the lovers of beauty inhale and absorb… And the photographic wannabe’s have their dreams ignited. And many of your regular viewers squeeze their heads into more than one of those hats. There is noooo room for boredom in that equation.
In that first image the white on the magpies body looks like panda fur. Soft and enticing. The landing pose is incredible too.
I thought you said that quite eloquently, EC and I hope it’s all true. Thank you.
Fantastic shots Ron
Charlotte
Thanks, Charlotte,
Ron,
The lack of underwing/undertail irridescence is interesting, isn’t it? So, the irridescence could be part of mating. I guess the female magpies are so blown away with the male’s dorsal irridescence that they don’t look any farther. The female birds of paradise, however……….
The thought of you and your camera in New Guinnea makes my heart soar, and, the beauty of you and your camera is that wherever you are, you document the natural beauty around you, with love and respect.
Thank you, thank you!
SUE
Many of the exotic birding places don’t have a lot of appeal for me, Sue, but I’ll admit that New Guinnea does and has for a long time. And not just for the birds. Thanks very much for the kind words.
Ron, I have visited Papua New Guinea – not as a birder – and I can tell you that it is a fascinating place. Definitely worth a visit, and the birds would be an extra added attraction. We visited Alotau on the south eastern corner of the island, and Madang, which is up in the north. I would definitely want to go back.
Hi Ron,
Very Timely post as I prepare for a an extended photo trip. I’m still figuring the 7Dii out and I look to Mia’s your images and post for guidance and inspiration. Selecting the right focus mode is an art in and of itself with the 7D. Well done, as always.
Neil
PS. Kris’s comment is spot on
I’m still “figuring it out” too, Neil. I hope you have a wonderful trip and get some great photos. Thank you.
The Magpie is also one of my favorite birds and you’ve made an amazing capture with this shot. Lucky or not the composition is very pleasing. You are the master and I appreciate your willingness to share information on the subject, camera settings, and environmental issues concerning the critters we all love. One note of caution—-your annual Antelope Island State Park pass is only good for 10,000 hours of visitation time per year, and I’d be willing to bet you have far exceeded your allotment, and it’s only April. Looking forward to your next post.
Ster
Dang, Sterling, you actually made me laugh out loud at that one – a feat that I thought was impossible because I’ve been working on taxes all morning…
Thanks very much – for the nice compliment and for the belly laugh. Hope to run into you again soon on the island!
I always love to see images of “magpies the magnificent”…these didn’t disappoint. The technicabl stuff is beyond me, floats right over my head, but I like what I see!!! Am a liitle worried that Jorge’s new gear may be related to the evil iPad somehow…I hope not!!! Jorge–tell me it isn’t so……
Just ignore the technical stuff, Patty and I’ll try not to overdo it in the future but I think it’s helpful to some folks occasionally. Jorge will get the hang of the new camera – something I’m still working on too!
Ron– while your equipment is the best , I’m convinced that a lifetime of love ( especially of magpie-challenge ! ) and dedication to one form of art makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE in the level of achievement that you
treat us to every day—and it is TRULY A TREAT—-thanks !
What a nice thing to say, Kris. Thank you.
This is an amazing photograph! I’m glad that there is no iridescence showing because I think it would detract from the image – it would be distracting. The way it is, we are drawn into the picture, into what it’s like to land. I can almost feel the landing in my muscles. Glad you were so ‘lucky’…
Interesting point about the iridescence, Susan. Thanks very much.
And again, this is something I would buy, frame and hang in my home. It’s perfection.
Thanks, Arwen. I like it a lot too.
Beautiful photo Ron. You are the master of magpie photography. Perhaps one day you can publish a photo book of your amazing images of them? You inspire me to get out and take some images of them. We have so many on our property that I take them for granted, decided to drive across the country to go photograph something “interesting” (ha… that is some strange human behavior :-)). In fact as I type this comment I am looking out back at a recent magpie fledgling being fed by mom (the fledglings are noisy).
Thank you the description of the AF strategy. Do you “sit and wait” for the magpie images you take, or do you follow more of an “opportunistic” approach and take their images when out looking for other birds? (it seems to me that magpies roam all over the place and less predictable than say a W. Meadowlark).
Thank you for the education (again) Ron. BTW, my 7D2 is at CPS now, due to inconsistent AF issues. I realize it is a very powerful “machine” when it comes to AF, and there is a good chance that operator error is a factor on my end, however, it just was not getting sharp images on simple subjects (and I did some controlled comparison experiments between it and the 5D3). Fingers crossed here that it comes back soon and working better than before.
Interesting to know that your magpie chicks have already fledged, Ed. And yes, they are VERY noisy.
Sorry to hear that you’re having problems with your Mark II. When I was having issues with my relatively new 500mm lens, used in combination with the new Mark II, I didn’t really know if it was camera or lens having the problem. My dealer was at a trade show and asked the Canon rep (who he knew personally) if there had been any significant problems with the MARK II and he said no – that virtually all of the “issues” have, in the end, been “operator error”. But from the testing you’ve done perhaps it really is a camera problem. Either way I hope you get it all resolved soon and as painlessly as possible.
I use both strategies you mention when shooting magpies, though often it’s “sit and wait” because I’m in the vicinity of their nest and they often land on perches in the area. Shooting from my truck helps a lot since they (like most birds) are less suspicious of a vehicle than they are a person on foot.
Ron – you have such wonderful talent w/your camera. Your photos of magpies also makes me sad that we don’t have them in FL – would LOVE to see one out in my backyard!! Not a chance though!!
“Your photos of magpies also makes me sad that we don’t have them in FL”
Jo Ann, And to think that many folks around here don’t like them at all and consider them to be pests, largely because they can be raucous and loud. Personally I like their big personalities. Thank you.
Thank you very much for today’s lesson. You can’t imagine how helpful it was.
I’m still trying to understand how that “little devil” works (7D mark II) and your information is priceless.
Do you always have five center points activated?
Wonderful image. Great catch.
“Little devil” is right, Jorge. It’s a complicated camera and is capable of so many things but using all of it’s capabilities isn’t always easy.
Yes, I do usually have 5 center points activated for flight shots but only a single point for static shots.
And thanks very much for the comments on the “photo-geek” content of this post. It’s feedback like that that allows me to more accurately decide on blog content so I’m not boring folks, at least not all the time…