Do Your Bird Photographs Have Enough Substance?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 เม.ย. 2024
- Photographing a 'bird on a stick' might not give you the satisfaction you crave. By paying attention to bird behaviour and the play of light, you can stay motivated and keep inspired. Here's my tips on taking photos with more meaning.
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This video was filmed with a Canon M50 and 15-45mm lens.
Equipment: Canon R6; Canon EF 300mm F/4 Lens
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I glass birds for various reasons. First, I enjoy being outdoors and experiencing nature around me. I also photograph birds to learn about them including behavior, feeding, mating, etc. I also photograph them for artistic purposes (calendars, prints, etc) and for stock photography. Perhaps it's the thrill of the pursuit that pulls it all together. Having taken over 6,000 bird portraits of 100+ species I haven't tired of it yet... and I'm 67 years old.
I have done bird photography since 1980, I like to see free birds in their natural environment, today too many crop their images of birds too much, so often you can only see the bird, I think it is a big problem, because many today take photos of birds in captivity and pretend that it is wild birds, I hope there will come a new trend, so we will see more photo images with free wild birds in their natural habitat.
My backyard is literally a condominium for golden finches. We have hundreds which of course attract the peregrine falcons. The falcons don't make out as well as you think they would. The whole fence is covered in honeysuckle which the finches use for their defense. Really quite the dynamic.
You’re absolutely correct. When the technical part works , it’s time to look for more substance. Thanks for sharing.
Great video Paul have pheasants in the garden all the time and take photos when sun's out so high shutter speed !
That certainly helps, especially if displaying.. it's really fast! I had cloudy conditions so it was quite tough.
I was burned out of photographing birds on a basic perch so I moved my set up towards an ever-green, whacked a ton of branches off that were dead, and closed my aperture a little from the f/5 it can do to f/7.1, it adds a little more background detail and now you see a bird in an evergreen.
Great work Paul. Sometimes I feel you need the subject to take a certain Substance . Normally a Tranquilizer, but often a Stimulant in my experience 🙂
Haha! Yeah, maybe.
Great work, Paul and great tutorial about the birds are natural wildlife photos.
Many thanks. Glad you enjoyed this video.
Always love your video's and awesome images Paul.👏
Very kind, thank you!
Great advice. As a relative newbie to bird photography I appreciate your work.
Another great video. I enjoy your relatable style and seeing you out in all weather.
Thank you. Very much appreciate that.
Another great video Paul.
i have been concentrating on birds in fliht with the r6 mk2 and have had sone great results, mostly down to watching your videos.
still lots to improve on with the new kit but am enjoying my self.
Iagree with what you are saying here! As a long time nature photographer, I still like to capture what used to look good on film. Too many images these days are close-ups or highly edited crops with the natural "clutter" edited out. Birds are busy creatures that exist in nature and that is how I like to see them photographed.
I think there is a place for everything but I would probably agree I see more close ups and a lot of cropped images these days. Personally I like a bit of both.
Another great video Paul.
Good video. The tips about the birds are great. I've always got my camera on burst. Single shot just doesn't cut it with animals often. Maybe a lazy elephant or so. I've been very happy with what I can get with my 70 - 300 mm. I got this great shot of a squirrel eating the berries in a tree in our yard one day. As I looked at the photo on my pc screen, I realized the little ham was looking directly at me nibbling his snack. Actually struck me as quite hilarious and I was thrilled it came out so nice.
Very interesting video, and thanks for the tips again.
Birds in flight is something I'm going to work on, just to get away from the photos on water, land or feeder.
Informative as usual Paul
Good stuff Ian. There's a lot you can do - try some slower shutter speeds too.
Best time of my week is when i get a notification that you have released a new video!
You're too kind. Thank-you!
Great video, Paul! I have found several ways of inspiring myself to improve.
1) I look at the work of other photographers to help me break patterns or habits in my own shooting that are not necessarily bad, but can become boring and result in stale images.
2) I also look to other photographers who vlog on TH-cam, like you, to learn new methods and techniques for making images. You and a few others who do this are excellent teachers. And like you, some share their own mistakes, which I think are among the best ways to learn.
3) I look for new ways to challenge myself in my limited time. For example, for the first time I photographed a solar eclipse on April 8 (I live near Chicago, which was near the path of totality here in the U.S). I purchased the necessary filter, set up before it was supposed to start, and began taking photos immediately, both to ensure I used the filter correctly and to find the proper exposure.
4) I look for alternative ways of photographing nature that are both challenging and interesting. Over the six years or so, for example, I have taken up macrophotography in addition to my "normal" nature photography. This takes me into a part of the natural world that many people miss. But it also forces me to better plan my shots, and has forced me to learn an array of new skills.
Thanks for inspiring people like me with your own craftmanship and your own vision of the art of nature photography. You rock!
Your comments are very kind. And I like the way you challenge yourself in different ways.
Good video, thought provoking and interesting comments too.
Great video as always Paul, and some great tips. The one regarding spending more time studying your subject is very true. I spend a bit of time each year in Scotland photographing mountain hares, and spending time with them (several hours on many occasions) you are rewarded with great opportunities of watching them groom themselves. On the last visit I spent about an hour and a half watching a Slavonian Grebe, which also treated me to its bathing routine - some slow shutter speed opportunities! Thanks again for the regular videos and guidance
Fantastic. That is absolutely the best way to get more rewarding images, in my opinion.
Lovely video as always, I've probably confused the Merlin app by putting it on for the video, it picked up Chiffchaff, Wren & Blackcap 👍
Yes, i heard all those. Also woodpigeon and blackbird.
I think there's a natural journey. We get interested in the challenge of capturing birds. We might just have a kit zoom lens and realise we need longer lenses. We want to get as much detail as possible. That's how we end up with a bird on a stick using our big lenses. I think it's a route we all take. It's a good learning curve. Also we might want to capture lots of new types of birds developing a bit of a tick list. After 3 years I've realised it's about the picture not the bird. Different light, different locations mean it's a never ending search for what we think is the best photo. Being out there trying is as important as what you get.
I like your approach. Absolutely agree - the opportunities and possibilities are endless.
Very interesting tips, thank you Paul. I think I do already try to consider most of these things in my photography. Yes I would certainly like to see a video about shooting with shorter telephoto lenses. My longest lens is a Canon EF-S 55-250mm 1:4-5.6 IS STM with which I take most of my photos on my Canon 70D. I think it's a lens which punches well above it's price point and I reckon I get pretty good results but I'm always keen to learn how to improve. Birdsong in your video? Well mainly Chiffchaff, some Wren, and yes I think that was Blackcap (couldn't hear it well enough to say 100% whether it might have been a Garden Warbler). Don't know why I haven't already subscribed but I will do now! Do check out one or two of my humble offerings if you get chance - I'm currently doing a series of monthly videos about the photos I've used for my 2024 portfolio calendar. 👍🤓👍
Thank you for subscribing.. and pointing out the birds! yes - was Blackcap for sure. I plan to make a video on shooting with a shorter lens, e.g. 200mm or 300mm
👍
Hi there how do you find your 500mm pairs with your R6, is the auto focus still quick and does the frame rate go down with the MK 1
It is excellent. Mechanical shutter frame rate drops to 7 or 8 maximum
Chiffchaff, Crow, Blackcap, Wren, Blackbird
Excellent.