Tips

My Creative Lens If it Moves I'll Shoot it "With a Canon"

First Rule and most important:

Remember you are uninvited guests in to the birds life. As uninvited guests you have a duty, a code of Ethics. You need to be mindful of what effect you could have on the environment and on the birds. Stress out a nesting bird one day and the next you might find the eggs kicked out of the nest and the birds gone. How good was yesterdays photo now? Just be careful and have respect for their world.

My Tips!

1: The eyes! The most important part of the bird that needs to be sharp and in focus are the eyes. We are drawn to the eyes first in a bird picture, so concentrate on getting the eyes spot on. A pic that is slightly not perfect will still be good if the eyes are sharp.

2: Always be ready! You never know when that bird is going to shoot past or stop on a branch and do a hoola dance. I have taken more great shots after sitting for 4 hours glued to the eye piece with nothing, then stopping for a drink or a spell and suddenly everything is dropped and snap, could of been a great photo, so always be at the ready.

3: Two eye photography!. Learn to shoot with both eyes open! Again the amount of great photos taken because you are watching both your targeted bird and the one on the side and guess what, the one on the side starts the hoola dance.

4: Know your subject! This is key, if you know what your bird does, like a little neck movement just before he sticks out his tongue and smiles, you have a good chance of getting a great photo.

5: Timing! The rule is Early morning, Late afternoon, are usually the money photo shot times. Morning is good as the birds are feeding or telling everyone they are still around and the lighting is nicer. Afternoons the lighting is good and they are heading back to there sleep areas, BUT, I have also found that midday with the heat means they are happy to sit in a cool place and not fly away so fast giving you more time to get a shot. So this is a real experimental one. If you are targeting a type of bird, a full day trip on several occasions will be needed to work out the birds time table. Remember though the next day it can and will be different. So work that out.

6: Go Slow! Ok we live in a fast paced world were every thing is fast or faster, now learn to slow down and when you think you are going slow, slow down some more. Who’s got a $15,000 600mm lens hands up, my hand is down too. So we need to get in range with what we have. So we do this mm by mm, as slowly as you can, try not to look at the bird, be as unaware of it as you can. Use as much cover as possible, but go slow, you will be surprised at how close you can get if you take your time. Remember birds are curious and they can and will come to you so just sit and be ready. You know your invisible when they land on you!

7: Movement! Try to get shots of the bird doing something. A static bird just sitting is great if it is a lovely looking color full bird, but a bird moving, singing, talking, preening or flying is much more interesting and of cause harder to get. This is what I try and achieve, it is a lot harder but Wow it has its rewards.

8: Practice! A real no brainier, to get great shots you have to practice. Birds in flight are probably the hardest and I suggest you go down to the beach or rubbish tip and take shots of Seagulls. Why Seagulls, I recon they are everywhere in the world there are lots of them and they move. You might have a common breed where you live so use the ones that are easily accessible and there are lots of them.

9: Sharp Photos! Tripods, Monopods, Trees and any other stable item you can find, the key here is to be as still as possible to get clear and sharp photos. Now the hard part, Birds move very fast, up down and side ways, bit hard having your camera on a tripod and trying to get a bird in flight shot. So use tripods when you are taking ground dwelling or stationary birds. Monopods when your walking I use these even if I am up to my elbows in water. If you cant use either use trees your elbows or any thing else you can find to stabilize your camera. I have now switched all my lenses to Image Stabilizing, this helps but is not the total answer.

10: Flash! Yep, I use a 400mm lens with a flash out in the sun. The flash can make or brake you, get used to using it to fill in the shadows, great in the bush where the Birds are always in the Sun and Shade, go practice take a bright plastic bird or a doll and place it under the shady trees or up high in a tree and take shots with and with out the flash, you need a minimum of 250 to be able to stop the birds action and even then 500 and above would be perfect, but just practice the great thing with digitals is you can take a 1000 shots in a day and it cost you only time to see the results, so GO PRACTICE! Best advice for everything .