Category: Bird Photography Methods

Catch Lights in Bird Photography

Broadly defined, a catch light in photography is a reflection of a light source in the eye of a subject.  In bird photography, that light source is often the sun and typically appears on the shiny, wet cornea of the bird as a single point reflection.   However, as we will see, there are variations on that theme.   Catch lights are highly desirable, to the point that many avian photographers simply delete virtually all photos that don’t have them (a painful process, to be sure).   Others resort to artificially cloning them into the eye when they don’t appear naturally – a practice that I find distasteful, even dishonest for a nature photographer (that said, I’m not adverse to running an extra round of sharpening or a Levels adjustment to enhance a subtle catch light that already exists). Natural catch lights that are a direct reflection of  the sun will appear in the upper half of the eye, usually from the 10 o’clock  to the 2 o’clock position, depending on the angle and position of the sun behind the photographer.  If the sun is behind the bird (back light) or too high in the sky, that kind of catch light will not be produced.     Without “light in the eye”, viewers perceive the eye to be lifeless, “dead” or even evil.  For this reason, cinematographers often deliberately eliminate catch lights on “the bad guys” in movies and television.   There is almost no difference between the two American Kestrel images above except for the slight head turn in the first shot that allows light from the sun…

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Lamenting the Loss of a Favorite Perch

This was a perch I had a love-hate relationship with for almost four years.  It was a small, very old and sun-bleached snag along the road down unit 1 at Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area.  I loved it because American Kestrels liked to use it as a hunting perch, it was close to the road, not too high and it was natural and photogenic.  I hated it because it was on the east side of the road (I could only shoot from the road in my vehicle – open the door and the kestrel skedaddles) which meant that I was usually shooting into the sun in the morning which is my favorite time to photograph birds.  Back-lit kestrels are generally not a pretty sight… That road down unit 1 is closed for the nesting season (March through September) and I was very disappointed to see on my first trip down the road this fall that the snag was gone.  It may have fallen down on its own, been removed by refuge managers (which I doubt) or perhaps it was vandalized – I just don’t know.  But I will miss it, as will the kestrels I’m sure.  Avian photographers on this continent are well aware of how difficult this species is to get close to – they’re very skittish and almost never allow a close approach for photography.  That changes in mid-winter when it’s very cold.  They simply are much more reluctant to fly when it’s that frigid and the photographer can occasionally get quite close to them, especially when shooting from a vehicle.   But most nature photographers…

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Just A Shot That I Like…#4 – Cliff Swallow In Flight

I’ll admit that part of the reason I like this image as well as I do is the degree of difficulty involved in getting the shot.  Swallows are small and very fast which makes for a difficult flight subject.   For years I’ve tried getting sharp, well-lit, frame-filling images of them and failed miserably.  My best shots seemed to have one or more of  the following issues – soft, too small in the frame for good detail, poor head turn or no light in the eye.  But the most common flaw was poor light on the underside of the bird.  So I decided to change my tactics – yes, I’m a slow learner at times…   Cliff Swallow 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 800, 500 f/4 It finally dawned on me that to consistently get light under the bird I had to shoot when the sun was very low, morning or evening.  But when the sun is that low the light is also relatively weak which means higher ISO’s and apertures that provide less depth of field.  To help mitigate that problem I took off the teleconverter (at times swallows can be relatively easy to get close to) to give me a little more light, faster shutter speeds and more responsive autofocus.   And it worked!  I got this shot and several others I liked on the first morning I tried the new tactics.   Don’t get me wrong – swallows in flight are still extremely challenging (on this morning I took about 600 shots to get 3 or 4 I was pleased with) but at least it was now possible.  Another…

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Bald Eagle Nictitating Membrane

The nictitating membrane (nictitan) is a membrane or “third eyelid” found in some vertebrates that can be drawn across the eye for protection and to moisten and lubricate the surface of the eye. It is either translucent or semi-transparent so the animal maintains sight while it covers the eye.    Birds, sharks and some reptiles have a fully functional nictitating membrane while in most mammals there is only a small vestigial remnant in the corner of the eye.  However camels, polar bears, seals, aardvarks, marsupials and monotremes do have fully functional membranes.   1/2000, f/8. ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This nearly adult (head not yet completely white) Bald Eagle is neither tame or captive.  But for several days in 2009, beginning on a bitterly cold Christmas morning, this adult adopted a favorite perch (a relatively short pole) that looked out over a pond with fish in it.  The pole was so close to the road that I sometimes had to take off my teleconverter to get the entire bird in the frame.  It warmed my heart that the eagle was so comfortable with me this close and that was a very good thing because Mia and I almost froze to death over the many hours of photographing this magnificent bird. This is the normal appearance of the Bald Eagle’s eye.  In adult birds, eye color is typically some shade of yellow with a distinctly visible pupil (though juvenile birds have much darker eyes).         1/2000, f/8. ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But every few seconds the bird swipes the nictitating membrane across the…

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Critters Among the Sunflowers of Antelope Island

Antelope Island is ablaze with color this fall, provided by the common sunflower Helianthus annus.  The sunflower display is really quite spectacular this year – the most prolific I’ve ever seen it.  I suspect it’s because of the very wet spring we’ve had.  The sunflowers can provide a very pleasing setting for wildlife photography, whether the flowers are in focus along with your subject or out of focus to show off some  pleasing and unusual color in the background bokeh.      Canon 40D @ 72mm, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 320, EV +0.33  It’s unusual for me to get so close to a pronghorn that I don’t have to use a telephoto lens but these bucks are in rut right now and they’re so intent on herding their harem of females that they’re not nearly so wary of people and vehicles.  So I quickly pulled out my old 40D and shot this handsome fella at only 72mm while he was right next to my pickup and staring intently at his ladies close by.  This allowed me to keep many of the sunflowers relatively sharp and gave a different “feel” to the image than I usually get with my big glass.       Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 640, EV + 0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In contrast to the previous image, this Vesper Sparrow was shot with my 500mm and 1.4 teleconverter (1120mm with the crop factor of the 7D) at f/5.6 which gave me very little depth of field – just enough to get the sparrow sharp but the sunflowers in the background…

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Strategies for Photographing Birds at Take-off

Photographing birds at take-off is very different from shooting them in flight, for a variety of reasons.  In fact in some ways it’s more difficult.  First, I’d best define what for me is a take-off shot.  I think it’s a take-off and not a true flight shot when any of the following conditions are met: a.) the bird’s feet are still touching the perch, b.) the feet are still extended down or behind the bird from the effort of pushing off the perch and not tucked up against the body in an aerodynamic position or c.) it’s obvious from the flight posture of the bird or the presence of the just departed perch in the image that it has just taken off.  I realize that this is an arbitrary definition and that technically as soon as the bird has left the perch it’s in flight but that’s how I’ll define it for this discussion. Take-off shots have lots of appeal for many, largely because the effort required for lift-off often provides a very dynamic flight posture with the wings, tail and legs/feet in exaggerated positions compared to “simple” flight.  Many novice bird photographers are intimidated by the difficulties of flight photography and attempt take-offs instead, in the mistaken assumption that they should be relatively easy.  Not so.  Following are some strategies and tips for getting good take-off images that have worked for me.  I hope they’ll be helpful to some of you.   Plan ahead to avoid clipping body parts – particularly the wings: Many novice avian photographers are unpleasantly surprised by the amount of wing extension during take-off and they cut…

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Red-tailed Hawks of Utah’s West Desert

Red-tailed Hawks are common and widespread throughout most of North America but I typically find them to be wary and difficult subjects to approach and photograph.  However we did have some pretty good luck with them a couple of mornings this past week in western Utah.   Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/6.3, EV -0.67, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We found them deep in a canyon of one of the many “island mountain ranges” of Utah’s west desert.   There were at least a half-dozen of them hanging out together, many of them juveniles.  The lighting at the bottom of the canyon in early morning was often filtered and spotty and the perches were usually dead trees with lots of branches going every which way so the backgrounds and settings were typically busy.  This is one of the cleaner shots I got of one on a perch in the canyon bottom.      Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640,EV -1.00, 500 f/4 This one chose a juniper perch which would provide a clean background for a takeoff shot so I tried to leave room in front of the bird just in case.  I was looking slightly down on the hawk when it launched and I liked the good look at the topside of the bird in this shot but do wish it had been looking more my way.  But then I probably wouldn’t have any light on the eye – sometimes you just can’t win…     Canon 7D, 1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 640  EV +0.33, 500 f/4 Shooting these hawks in flight was very frustrating!  Each morning they would pretty much…

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The Challenges of Photographing Birds in Flight in Low Light

Photographing birds in flight in relatively low light (dusk, dawn, cloudy conditions etc) isn’t easy.  In addition to the expected challenge of locking focus onto a fast and often erratically moving target, in low light you have the problem of getting enough shutter speed to get a moving subject sharp.   A potential solution to the problem is “opening up” – increasing the size of the aperture, which is the same as reducing the f-number – say as in changing your setting from f/7.1 to f/5.6.   This lets more light into the camera in the same amount of time, allowing for an increase in shutter speed to freeze the motion of the bird.  Opening up however has another effect – reducing depth of field, so less of your subject is likely to be tack sharp.  Another potential solution is to increase ISO.  Increasing ISO in digital cameras has the effect of seeming to increase the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor to light so that faster shutter speeds can be used but the downside to increasing ISO is that it can increase digital noise in the image. Sometimes in bird photography fantastic opportunities with birds in flight present themselves in less than ideal light.  Your best chance at an acceptable image under those conditions is to understand the interplay between your camera settings – how changing aperture affects shutter speed and depth of field and how changing ISO affects shutter speed and the production of digital noise.      Male Northern Harrier, 1/1250 @ f/11, ISO 800 It’s not often I get a…

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The Frustrations of Unnatural Perches

Most bird photographers prefer their subjects to be on natural perches.  We are, after all, nature photographers.  The definition of just what is “natural” becomes a slippery slope for sure but for my purposes I’ll define a natural perch by exclusion – it does not include buildings, telephone poles and wires, chunks of concrete, signs, or most anything else that is obviously man-made. Now for my exceptions.  Some objects that are man-made and have a “rustic” quality are often acceptable.  Weathered fence posts, old barns and rusty barbed wire would be examples.  One of the major frustrations of bird photographers is to be able to finally get close to a beautiful subject in good light but the bird has chosen an ugly or inappropriate (for us) man-made perch.  It is typically very difficult to approach many bird species close enough to get excellent detailed photos, even with big expensive lenses.  So it can be aggravating in the extreme to finally get close enough but the bird has chosen an unappealing perch.  Some folks choose to largely avoid this problem by shooting at “setups” where the bird has been unnaturally lured into an artificial situation by provided food with attractive perches arranged close by.  To many of us this is not nature photography but more like studio or zoo photography.  Good bird photography ain’t easy.  If it were it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying when I do finally get the shot I’m after – even though the pursuit has often been frustrating.  Below are some of the situations where I’ve been frustrated by these unattractive, unnatural perches.        Most bird photographers know…

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A Bitter Lesson in Depth of Field

  I have spent many hours photographing Burrowing Owls over the past two summers but it’s a real challenge to get clear shots of them as they typically stay on the ground and are usually at least partially obscured by vegetation.  For me it’s a real coup to get one on an elevated, natural perch in good light. Last week I had a wonderful opportunity with them and simply blew it.  As we approached our “owl spot” we noticed that there were three of them perched up high on a sagebrush in beautiful early morning light.  I maneuvered my pickup for the best light angle I could get and to obtain separation of the owls from each other.  Everything perfect.  And all three birds gave us a variety of interesting poses for several minutes.  I had noticed that the owl on the left was perhaps a foot (or slightly less) closer to us than the other two birds so I was concerned about depth of field.  I seldom shoot multiple subjects and typically with only one bird I’m shooting at f/6.1 – f/8 depending on the situation.  Knowing I needed more DOF here I dialed in f/13 thinking that would be plenty to get all three birds sharp.   The image below is typical of the results I got.  Burrowing Owl – Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/200, f/13, ISO 500, cropped to 77% of original image   The owl on the left is noticeably soft.  That is quite apparent at a larger image size, say 1200 pixels, though not quite so obvious at this…

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How I Photograph Birds

     Tripod shooting at the Great Salt Lake wetlands  Tripod shooting is certainly not my typical method of photographing birds.  My best estimate is that less than 10% of my bird photography is from a tripod.  When circumstances demand it however there’s simply no substitute for a sturdy but relatively lightweight tripod and a gimbal style head, especially for shooting birds in flight with my large, heavy lens.  Some folks are able to hand hold this lens for hours on end and get spectacular results.  I can’t, partly due to back problems.   Lens Cart   Because of back problems I can’t carry my heavy lens, camera body, tripod and associated gear further than about a mile.   To help solve that problem I came up with this lens cart.  It’s a  pull-type golf cart that I modified to be able to carry my heavy 500mm lens with attached body in the pack and my tripod with Wimberly head attaches under the “tongue” of the cart.   There’s room in the pack for other assorted gear and I often hang a water bottle and extra body with my 100-400mm zoom to the pack.  It’s very light and pulls effortlessly.  The wheels are large enough to handle fairly rough terrain.   The main limitation of this outfit is that it can’t negotiate tall vegetation or narrow paths between trees.  Without this cart some of my favorite birding spots would be unavailable to me.   My typical method of photographing birds  This is how I do most of my shooting – from…

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