Category: Bird Photography Methods

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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