Bird Photography - Tips & Tricks & Unasked-for Advice

Due to exams, this week's post is rather belated. Whoops. Oh well, enjoy :)

My love of photography began with a simple, black Nikon point-and-shoot, and I immediately was unsatisfied with it. Earth-bound, its short focal length was a poor choice for capturing anything but the largest of subjects. I desired a telephoto lens desperately; I wanted to photograph birds.

Black Skimmer

However, birds can be challenging subjects for even experienced nature photographers. At the same time, the allure of dramatic photography is great, and these are animals that are worth the extra effort to photograph. 

So what would you tell me if I have never photographed birds before, but want to start?

As with many fields of photography, it's important that you begin with the correct equipment. You will need a telephoto lens and a tripod sturdy enough to support your gig. How long of a lens? Well, basically the longest one you can afford! You will need a lens in the range of 300-600mm. If you intend to shoot songbirds and other small species (or birds in flight from a distance), you'll want the 600mm glass. If you're more interested in photographing heavy water birds or large game birds, you can survive with a shorter lens. Don't forget you can purchase a teleconverter to increase your lens power if you want.

Snowy Egret

Okay, so let's say that I have an appropriate lens. Now what?

Well, you of course need a location to shoot. One of my favorite places is Anastasia State Park, but a quick google search should produce the best birding locations in your area. Try different areas, making sure to scout out several locations before you give up.

The other two considerations are season and time. Early morning is best for nature photography for many reasons. Not only are you shooting during the best lighting conditions, but you also are out at peak bird (and other animal) activity time. So your best bet of finding your subject is to get up early.

Yup, no one said that nature photography was easy.

Additionally, bird species will vary seasonally in your area. For example, winter is a very good time for bird photography in Florida as many migrants fly through on their way to South America. Do a little research about your local bird populations.

Wood Stork

Assuming, then, that I manage to wake up early enough for this, do you have any advice for actually photographing birds?

Well, yes. If you aren't familiar with shutter speed and aperture, you should read my Intro to Photography Part 1 and Part 2 articles before continuing. 

Okay, ready?

When you are shooting birds or other animals, you have to deal with the fact that your subject just doesn't care that you are photographing them. That's right - they don't give a damn if they ruin your shot by moving, or looking the other way, or generally being rude. What's that mean for you? You want a fast shutter speed so you can capture these rapidly-moving animals and avoid the dreaded motion blur. 

An easy way to ensure you are always shooting at the fastest shutter you can is to set your camera to "aperture priority." This setting means that you pick the aperture, and the camera's computer will automatically calculate the appropriate shutter speed for you. Keeping your lens "wide open" (setting it to the largest aperture) will allow you to shoot the fastest. This eliminates the problem of you fiddling with complicated settings while your subject flies away. Oops.

Ruddy Turnstone (Winter Plumage)

Final Considerations:

Please remember, that as a nature photographer, you are a visitor in someone else's home. Many species of animals are sensitive to human presence and encroachment. If your presence is causing an animal to change its behavior, you are too close. Please be respectful, have fun, and maybe learn something!

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One Small Square

Continuing my mini-series about insect photography this week, I've decided to talk a little bit about biodiversity. Last week, I wrote about the importance of developing a theme or a purpose for your work. Well, one of my personal themes is to showcase the local biodiversity available within easy reach - right in your backyard, if you will.

Wheel Bug Nymph (as far as I can tell - correct me if you have a better idea!)

This is part of the beauty of insects - they are weird and wonderful, and a lot easier to access than classic "great" subjects of animal photography (eg, lions, elephants, etc). If you haven't spent some time looking at our six-legged neighbors, well, you're missing out. Insects are the most successful group of animals in existence. In fact, there are more species of beetle alone than of any other animal.

Ironically, I don't have any beetles in this post. Whoops.

Why are Insects Important?

Insects are an important group of animals for many reasons. Firstly, they form the base of the food pyramid, supporting small mammals, birds, and reptiles. These smaller vertebrates (insects, as you may recall, are invertebrates) can then support larger predator animals, which, eventually, support us.

Additionally, insects directly support the human population by pollinating most of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy. This is why colony collapse disorder, in honey bees, is such an important issue. If the honey bee disappears completely, the negative impact on our food supply would be catastrophic.

Ok, so I screwed up here also, and didn't manage to include any honey bee images. How about a carpenter bee?

What does this have to do with photography?

As photographers, we have the choice to use our skills to bring awareness to different issues, whether they be social, political, or environmental. Don't be defeatist and think that no one wants to hear your opinion - with photography and other visual arts, you can show people your opinion, and force them to think about current issues. I believe that this is the best use of nature photography, to inspire people toward greater environmental stewardship and engagement.

So what's with the title?

Well, now it's time for you to try a little experiment for yourself (did you try the challenge in last week's post?). You will need a notebook, a macro lens if you have one, your smart phone, or some other device capable of recording what you see. Pick an area of ground - it can be a flower patch, a tree, a stream - and sit. I hope it's a nice day outside where you are! Watch what comes by - fish, mammals, insects - and record them. When's the last time you did something like this? How many species did you find? This is a measure of your local biodiversity, and a reminder that, without your help, it may vanish, forever.

Great Purple Hairstreak

So, what's your passion? Whatever it is, remember that there are many ways you can help forward progressive causes in today's "information age." Don't be silent.

Interested in insects? See my insect photography tips.

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Perspective & Photo Challenge

The Art of photography is just as much a challenge as the Skill of photography. Photography hangs in a strange world, a balance between the vision of the artist and the abilities of the equipment. This is another post about the Art of photography. (You can read my last post about the art of photography here.)

Little bug, big world

One of the struggles of artistic photography is to produce images that are more than just physical documentations of the subject. Sometimes this seems easy, but other times it can be more difficult. This begs the question:

How can I push myself to produce more artistic images?

There are, of course, many answers to this question. One thing I would suggest would be to determine what your goals as a photographer are. What are you trying to convey to the viewer? Are you trying to persuade them, amaze them, terrify them? Or are you trying to capture abstract emotions, melancholy, love, peace? It's up to you, but there's very little chance of achieving your goal if you don't have a clear idea of what it is.

So, besides having a "mission statement" for my work, what else can I do?

Photography is, of course, a visual art. Ergo you must force yourself to produce visually unique and captivating images - you will not be able to achieve your goal if no one wants to look at your work. 

Do this exercise.

I've mentioned this somewhere before, but a great trick to force yourself to expand your visual horizons is to constrain your subject matter. What does that mean? Simple: make yourself take 10 (or 5, or 15, or 20) different images of the same subject.

Dramatic backside view

Challenge yourself to think of different "themes" for each shot, and push yourself to demonstrate different aspects of your subject in each frame. This brief series I've done involves a Reduviid nymph (I believe it is a Wheel Bug but I cannot confirm this). Each picture is distinct in evoking emotion in the viewer, although they were all shot on the same morning, at the same location, of the same insect.

Detailed side view

When I look at these images together, they form a story (for me) about the Wheel Bug nymph. It's small, but is a ferocious predator (look at that vicious proboscis!), and is patterned beautifully. Other people probably look at them and think, "gross, that looks terrifying, why would anyone go near that thing???"

Well, to each her own. If you aren't that person alluded to above, you may want to check out my post on insect photography here.

What do you think about this challenge? Are you going to try it weekend? (If you do and  you upload your photos somewhere, feel free to leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see!)

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By the way:

Entomophilia: Insect Photography Tips

By now, I've spent a lot of time on the blog talking about insects - about how much I like them, what great macro subjects they make, and how beautiful they are. However, I don't actually have a post in which I discuss tips for insect photography, so I thought I would remedy that today.

Hairstreak butterfly

Tip #1: If you haven't already, you may want to read my post on macro photography basics.
This is because, in case you hadn't noticed, insects are small. If you want to capture the intricacies of insect bodies, you will need macro equipment. The basic rules of macro photography apply, of course, regardless of your subject matter. I won't cover these here because they've already been covered, but feel free to post questions if you have any!

Damselfly

Tip #2: Find you some bugs!
Now is an excellent time to find insects. As the weather warms, larvae hatch and adults wake from hibernation. The best time to photograph insects is, unsurprisingly, in the early morning. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the light is best in the morning. This should always be your favored shooting time. Secondly, it's coldest in the morning. Okay, okay, I know I just said that now is a great time for insects because it's warming up. However, insects are fast little buggers. It can be very difficult to capture sharp macro images when your subject is buzzing around so quickly you can't even see its wings beating. Shooting in the morning allows you to take advantage of the slowing effects of cold on insects, increasing your chances of getting the shot you want.

Okay, that sounds reasonable, but, where can I find some cool bugs?
Well, if you can't find bugs, you aren't looking! There are more insects on the planet than any other animal. But, I understand that many of us have grown to ignore insects; the literally fly under our radars, out of sight, out of mind. You'll have to break this habit.

Insects can be found in pretty much every habitat there is, but a flower bed can often be the easiest place to start hunting for bugs. Find a spot that you like. It's even better if multiple plant species populate your flower bed - the more species of plants there are, the more species of insects will likely be attracted. You might have to sit for a little while, but soon your brain will start recognizing the multitude of flitting, buzzing, and feeding critters around you. From then on, just hone your awareness.

Skipper Butterfly

Any other advice for photographing insects? As in, how can I avoid getting stung?

Ah, the stinging question! I get it a lot. Truthfully, the vast vast majority of insects are completely harmless. Don't believe me? Pick some up! They're generally pleasant to handle, surprisingly. Of course, some insects do bite and sting - notably bees and wasps. I won't discourage you from trying to photograph these animals, though, as I believe that they are very beautiful.

In fact, bees and wasps (order Hymenoptera) usually won't sting unless they feel threatened or you invade their territory (ie, damage a nest). Granted, if you bump into one accidentally they may think you are attacking them and thus retaliate. So I would recommend keeping relatively still to photograph stinging insects.

Feel free to leave any questions about insect photography below, and, as always, thanks for reading!

(Did you see my previous post on landscape photography with a smartphone?)

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How To: Landscape Photos with your Smartphone

So I've had several requests to write an article about smart phone photography. In fact, I have an article here about taking photos of your pet with a phone, but I realize that there's more to be said on the subject.

So, what are some of the keys to great smartphone photography?

Well, the most important thing is to choose your subject wisely. With a phone, you are limited by a fixed (short) focal length, lower resolution, and mediocre exposure metering software. Thus, you want to select a subject that is large, easy to get close to, and evenly lit. In other words, landscapes are excellent subjects for the smartphone photographer.

Anastasia State Park - read more here.

What are the basics of landscape photography?

Well, lucky you! If you are using a smartphone, a lot of the basics of photography are out of your hands - so I won't talk about them here. Normally landscape photography requires a discussion on aperture and depth of field, but you can't control those things with a smartphone. This means that your photographs won't always turn out exactly how you like, but you can still create beautiful images with these simple cameras.

Okay, so what are some of the things that apply to me?

Pick an evenly lit scene. As discussed above, most smartphones do not have advanced exposure metering modes like DSLRs will, and thus they cannot compensate well for scenes with large dynamic ranges. The dynamic range is a description of how much variation there is between the lightest and the darkest part of the image.

This is an example of a scene with a large dynamic range. Notice that in the middle-right section of the image, the subject is almost entirely black. Conversely, in the top left, the sky has been bleached white. This results in loss of detail in both areas of the image, and is considered poor photographic technique.

The dark areas of the frame are termed "underexposed" - that is, they did not get enough light during the exposure. 

The bleached areas of the frame are referred to as "overexposed" - they received way too much light.

Overall, I do still find this photograph pleasing, but it's not a technically great image.

Well, fine, but my phone has HDR, which I know expands the dynamic range.

That's true. Many phones (and DSLRs) now come equipped with HDR (high dynamic range) technology. There are several ways to create an HDR image, but the most commonly employed method is to take several photos in quick succession using different exposure ratings. For example, the camera may take a globally underexposed photo, a globally "normal" photo, and a globally overexposed photo. Computer software then combines these images into one. (Yes, the iPhone HDR feature works like this - I believe it takes 3 images). This does result in an increased dynamic range.

However, this does not solve the dynamic range problem for smartphones, which allow for little user control of exposure. The above image is an example of a nightmare scene for a smarphone camera - dappled light, creating areas of dark and bright scattered randomly across the image. This photo was in fact taken with the HDR setting, and while it is improved against photos of that scene without HDR, it is not great. In short, it's best practice to avoid shooting these types of scenes with smartphones.

(They are no cakewalk with a DSLR either).

What are some other things I can do to improve my smartphone photography?

Well, like I've said before, the basics of all types of photography are the same. Photographs are composed of three main elements: subject, composition, and lighting. Lighting can be broken down into four components: Ambient light, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO rating. With DSLR/SLR photography, we have greater control over the latter 3 items. However, with smartphones, we are largely at the mercy of whatever creative decisions the software makes for us (the amount of control you have of course varies from phone to phone). As a result, it's important to capitalize on the things we CAN control.

Ambient Lighting

Seek out dramatic lighting to illuminate your images - it can transform even the most drab frog into a princess. (Note here that this is one of the few situations a high dynamic range photograph is successful).

Composition

Presumably we do photography because we want to show the world what we see. Bring your photography to life with images that are descriptive, poetic, and unusual. Think carefully about your composition before you click that button - you've got plenty of time; that gazebo's not moving. I find it helpful to do composition "exercises". Challenge yourself to take at least 5 different images of each of your subjects. Then, if you can do 5 easily, stretch to 10. Force yourself to think outside the canonical box to produce artistic images.

You can click here to read my article on pet photography with a smartphone.

Okay, I've talked enough - now it's your turn. What do you think about smartphone photography?

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Tiny Delicacies

As a follow-up to last week's post on macro photography, I've decided to dedicate this post to flowers. Not sunflowers, or over-enthusiastic roses, but tiny, delicate flowers, wildflowers, weeds. In other words, flowers that are great subjects for macro photography.

These are the sorts of flowers, just centimeters across, that are trampled by hikers, unnoticed in the great outdoors. In last week's post, I talked about the wonder of macro photography stemming from the artist's ability to expose an unseen world to the viewer. In many cases, these flowers appear strange or unusual simply because we never look at them.

Here are my tips for macro flower photography:

1. Angle

Many of these little flowers hang downward. Unassuming from above, their petals often hide intricate structures or patterns that make for appealing visual subjects. Don't be afraid to sit in the dirt to get these kinds of shots - it's okay. No one's looking, right?

Additionally, you can use the angle at which you approach your subject to either emphasize or downplay their tininess. 

 2. Appreciate Detail

As mentioned above, these flowers often hide complexities that we otherwise do not appreciate. Don't be afraid to get as close as you can, even taking extreme macros if you have the equipment to do so.

Bluebonnet

Even familiar flowers, like this Texas bluebonnet above, can become exotic and unusual when captured with a macro lens. Notice how the detail in the varying flower structures keeps the image interesting, balancing the vibrant blue tones.

3. Stability

Macro flower photography suffers from the same difficulties that any other macro photography does - namely, the magnification of unwanted motion in the frame. Particularly for flower photography, the wind can be a frustrating enemy to battle. 

The best advice I can give you, short of buying this device, a clamp designed to hold plants still in the wind, is to shoot in the early morning. You are probably doing that anyway - look at you! The morning tends to be the calmest time of day, in terms of wind. However, some days the weather just won't cooperate with you, and you'll have to find something else to shoot.

Of course, you could always play with artistic effects using a slow shutter speed and wind, but that discussion is for another post.

4. Accept Surprises

One of - in my opinion, anyway - the best things about macro photography is that you sometimes discover one thing while looking for another. Incorporating other wildlife always adds interest to a static shot.

Reduviid bug on Foxglove

So, are you going to try miniature flower photography this weekend? Or is this style of macro not for you? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and thanks for reading!

You can also check out this post I wrote about composition in flower photography.

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Very Small Rocks: Macro Photography Basics

Macro Photography Basics

Baby reduviid 

You may have noticed that I kinda have a thing for arthropods. Okay, maybe not "kind of", but definitely certainly. Quite frankly, I love bugs. And while I believe that insects are amazing photography subjects, I realize that macro photography is not as intuitive as other forms of nature photography. Firstly, you need specialized equipment (should I do a post on this? Let me know). Secondly, you need to understand the technical hang-ups with macro work. Finally, you need to really like small things.

So what even is macro photography?

There is actually a technical definition of a "macro" lens - it must render the subject with a 1:2 or 1:1 reproduction ratio. In other words, the subject must be at least half as large on the film as it is in real life. Make sense? (Note: Some sources only consider 1:1 ratios to be true 'macro', but I believe that this is nitpicking).

Dew-laden flowers

Okay, so besides being small, what's the difference?

The main technical difficulty of macro photography is learning how to handle the magnification power of the lens. In short, the extreme magnification creates problems for the photographer.

1. Focusing Problems

At very high magnifications, the depth of field becomes very shallow. Thus it is imperative to focus your images carefully. A few millimeters' change in the focal plane can create entirely different images. Pay close attention that your desired subject is actually the point in the frame you are focusing on. I would recommend using manual focus. As a corollary to this tip, a tripod is helpful in ensuring that you don't accidentally twitch and move your subject out of focus.

Hornet Clearwing Moth

You can see in the image above how shallow the depth of field is. Unless this is the look you are going for, I would suggest stopping down to a very small f-stop to maximize your available depth. 

(If the above discussion about depth of field is confusing you, you may want to head over here to read my article about f-stops.)

2. Choosing the Right Subject

I've spoken (and written) before about how I believe there are 3 main components of a good photograph: lighting, subject, and composition. Depending on the type of photography, these individual elements attain greater or lesser importance. For macro photography, I believe that choosing an appropriate subject is paramount.

Parasitized Tobacco Hornworm Caterpillar

You should seek out subjects with interesting patterns, textures, or behaviors. Okay, you say, I'm supposed to be doing that anyway. And that's true -  but the key here is to discover subjects that are not easily appreciated with the naked eye. With the magic of your macro lens, you are transporting the viewer to place she cannot otherwise go. In short, your camera becomes a tool with which to expose a hidden world. In my obvious opinion, insects make wonderful macro subjects, as their bodies are etched with color and detail we rarely notice at our native scale.

Hover fly

3. Lighting Difficulties

Because of the issues discussed in tip #1, macro photographers often stop down very far. This results in little available light to shoot with, and thus blurry images. To combat this problem, many photographers choose to use flash to illuminate their macro images. Personally, I prefer the appearance of natural light in photographs. However, if you like flash - go for it! But don't let anyone try to convince you that you "need" expensive lighting gear to undertake macro photography. None of my images are shot with flash.

Parting words:

So there are a few technical challenges posed by macro photography, but they are not insurmountable, even for beginning photographers. Overall, the same basics of light, subject, composition hold true with this, and any, genre of photography. While equipment can be expensive, there are entry-level devices that can help elevate your images to the realm of small (macro lenses are even available for smart phones now). Would you like me to write a post about macro equipment? Let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, it's insect season again! Get out there, and get CLOSE.

If you're interested, in this article, I talk briefly about finding great insect subjects.

Want to see more tips? Click here to follow me on Tumblr and here to follow me on Bloglovin! Don't forget you can also use the handy sidebar to subscribe via email or RSS feed. Check back next friday for a new post, and thanks for reading.