Birding

Bird photography is a very exciting and satisfying part of my wildlife and nature photography. It is easy to attract birds to your own yard, set up a couple of feeders or feeding platforms and birds of all kind will show up soon.  During summer time it is advisable not to offer too much since we want them to remain independent. I don’t use any kind of camouflage or even portable photo hides while taking pictures in my own yard, just sitting in a garden chair comfortably works for me. Looking for birds by the river, in a meadow or in the forest is a different story. Birds ” in the wild ” behave far more skittish and movement has to be accordingly. I don’t approach birds of prey because they’re on high alert all the time and just take off. Birding keeps photographers active, one has to cover a lot of ground and knowledge of habitat is essential. Since I walk a lot I don’t want to carry heavy gear like a 600 mm on a tripod, the canon 7D II with canon 100-400 II is my preferred set up.

Birding sure  is a lot of fun, and I encourage all beginners to try it – you won’t regret it.

Happy shooting

Photographing moving subjects like running deer or flying birds is a challenge and it needs a lot of practice to come home with usable pictures eventually. First step to success is to understand your camera settings and choose the right one in order to get the job done. You need speed !! I usually use 1/640 to 1/800 for capturing moving deer and bigger birds like cranes, blue herons  and pelicans. Smaller birds are much faster and always on the move, means speed has to be set higher to avoid blurry pictures, therefore I use 1/800 to 1/1250 shutter speed. Hummingbirds are quite a challenge and to freeze all the motions of that tiny birds needs ever more speed between 1/2000 to 1/4000 .

If you want to learn more about how to take pictures of moving subjects I recommend youtube, there’s a photography channel for everyone.

Go out and practice and have fun.