{"id":82267,"date":"2020-02-28T05:44:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T12:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=82267"},"modified":"2020-02-28T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T21:10:18","slug":"black-billed-magpie-the-ultimate-photobomber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/28\/black-billed-magpie-the-ultimate-photobomber\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-billed Magpie – The Ultimate Photobomber"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re using a DSLR camera you aren’t photographing what you’re seeing through the viewfinder. Two days ago that phenomenon was responsible for me photographing a magpie that I had no clue I’d photographed.<\/p>\n

Here’s the deal.<\/p>\n

A magpie with a twig in its beak that was intended as nesting material had just landed on a bush near the nest. Immediately after landing it dropped the twig onto the dense bush in order to get a better hold on it before flying with it to the nest. I took a single photo (not part of a burst) as it was picking the twig back up.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

This is that photo. When I took this shot I didn’t even see the photobombing magpie in flight in the foreground (who also has nesting material in its bill) through my viewfinder. I had no idea I’d photographed the photobomber until I got home and looked at my images on my computer.<\/p>\n

So, why couldn’t I see that rascal?<\/p>\n

With DSLR’s we’re actually looking through the lens when we’re looking through the viewfinder. Most of the time an angled mirror reflects the image upward to the viewfinder so we can see what we’re about to photograph. But for an instant when we push the shutter button the mirror must be moved out of the way to allow the light to pass through the shutter and onto the image sensor. While the mirror is in that “taking position” the viewfinder is dark creating a brief phenomenon called “viewfinder blackout”.<\/p>\n

So we can’t actually see what we’re photographing at the instant the photo is taken.<\/p>\n

That’s what happened here. In the instant the photo was taken my mirror had moved out of the way so the light could pass through the shutter and reach the image sensor so my viewfinder was blacked out and I couldn’t see the photobomber. By the time my mirror returned to its normal position the fast-flying magpie was out of my field of view.<\/p>\n

One of the most famous acronyms in the digital world is WYSIWYG (pronounced “wiz-ee-wig”), standing for “what you see is what you get”.<\/p>\n

But in DSLR photography what you see is what you don’t<\/em><\/strong> get because that damn mirror has to move out of position while the photo is being taken.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/p>\n