Birding and Bird Photography

Photography first!

 

It's sad, I have this fantastic Nikon FE with incredible 55mm macro and long lens. But just pretty useless for bird photography now in comparison to the DSLRs. Will probably do more birding than offroading so, yep, camera first.

 

The good news is you'll find a good camera on an off-road trip go well together

 

X3, or at least hope so In 2 weeks I will be in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for a week. Can't take the truck into it so will be dogsled and snowshoes. Hopefully some decent pictures but starting to have my doubts...

Last summer a raptor was around, never got a good look at it and only saw it darting in and out of the trees and shadows. And the occasional feathers from a kill. Haven't seen him in several months so thought he went south with the rest of the hawks. Monday pulled in the driveway and saw a glimpse of him and then some goldfinch feathers in the driveway from a kill. So grabbed the camera and went back outside, -17F and -40 windchill hoping to see him. After 20 min. saw something on a branch ~40 yards away, sure looked like him but was pretty thick. Took half a dozen pictures before he flew away but none were in focus. Not even close.

Figure I need to work on focusing in brush and trees and might be easier to start with larger objects. So tonight stood in the living room and waited for a few deer to come up the ravine and practice shooting them through the window. Had several come by and took somewhere around 40 pictures. And not many are in focus but I have great shots of trees and branches..

This is going to take a LOT of work and practice. Most of my shots ended up totally out of focus like this young 8 pointer



I did have a 10 point that passed through in a more open spot and was able to get a couple of decent shots only because the branches were not in the way



Eventually a young forkhorn came by and the camera wanted to focus on the trees on either side of him. I let it do that and manually focused just a little bit further toward infinity and got a somewhat decent shot.



I tried manual focus, auto, viewfinder, display and every combination. Nothing really seems to nail it solid every time. Spent the night reading about the different focusing modes and will keep experimenting.

So how am I supposed to focus on a tiny bird in the trees when it is difficult to even get something as large as a whitetail in the woods?!?! The pictures you all have posted are even more amazing now than they were before.....

 

Branches are a bitch to focus through. Especially for a moving subject. If you're not careful, it's possible to follow and have the focus change to a branch that is closer to you.

You can try center point focus, try one-shot to focus first then follow using that focus. You could also use live view and manually focus.

 

^^^this is what I do. Center point focus and manual if I need to. The nice thing about the 400mm lens I have is that the focus ring is full-time manual (not sure if that's the right term), even in auto focus mode, so I can still adjust the focus after the auto has locked on.

 

Thank you everyone! Center point focus, live view, and reading glasses so I can actually see the screen clearly it will be. And lots and lots of practice! Beats sitting inside no matter what the conditions are like outside.

 

Habit management is something I consider one of the more important jobs out there. Next month a few of us are getting together an event to improve ruffed grouse habit in SE Mn. The State will match private funds 10 to 1 but getting people involved is one of the hardest things to do. Grouse need early successional forest and shrub habitat adjacent to existing pockets to successful survive when the broods break up. It isn't just grouse, many birds and wildlife need it. But trying to get landowners to cut isn't always easy, even selective cutting.

South Dakota recently pulled much of the land out of CRP and last year it showed in the pheasant population. Farming practices there are better than most states, however the impact is already noticeable.

Good luck in your new position and best wishes doing a very important job!

 

I dont know much about manual settings or fucusing. I usually set the lens on autofocus and put it on the sports setting on my nikon D90 and that seems to work well for me.

 

Thanks so much. I think the university has been getting fairly good cooperation with farmers not harvesting until after the tricolored blackbirds are done nesting. CRP is so important for the grassland birds - it's a challenge to make that seem important when the economy is still difficult. I'm facing trespass issues between one of my preserves and the national wildlife refuge adjacent. we have these crazy narrow endemic plants and a ground pupating butterfly and now this dumb drought. This will be my year of public outreach and hopefully some photos of the birds and butterflies in these folks' backyards. If I could just get this camera to focus . . .

 

Learning about manual, aperture and shutter priorities as well as the different focus methods will help you improve your photography a lot.

Don't get me wrong, auto will get you there most of the time but knowing how to overcome some of the shortfalls of it and will allow you make better creative decisions.

 

Golden Crowned Kinglet I helped out about 1/2 hour ago

 

That's crazy! What's going on with all these birds you're helping?

 

Nice job, helping out a stranger.

 

I'm the Bird Whisperer of Ozcatraz Island

 

Are they flying into windows or are they just tired and resting at your house lol?

 

No he definitely hit the window , I heard it and went out and found him upside down on his back

 

I agree people respond better to visual presentation especially if it is local it has a much stronger impact, good luck! While I am hoping to get pictures of moose, wolf, pine marten and lynx next week in the BWCA Wilderness I am after ruff grouse pictures first and foremost. With luck exploding out of a snow roost but limb chicken pics will do if that is all I can get LOL. This thread has been most helpful for me and the advice has been spot on, the more you practice the better you get at it. I have a ways to go but getting there with a little work at it each day. And you have a great resource close to you for photographic help

This is a common theme I have read on most all photo sites, and I have already seen it to be true. Wildlife move most in low light conditions which are difficult for the camera to pick up and snow causes the auto exposure and white balance to go off in the wrong direction a lot of the time. I purchased

$14 Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera

this book which has been recommended by many people and IMO is deserving of the high ranked reviews that it has received. For me to actually put it into actual use with all the thinking and button pushing and knob turning... that is another story. But I can see how, again with enough practice, it makes a very big difference in the capture.

 

Nice pics, i agree with the low light thing. I need to take the time to change my settings to sharpen my photos...one thing i did change was setting it on center point focus which seemed to help quite a bit. I need to read up on shutter settings tho. And as for snow, i live in south tx, and it hasnt snowed here in like 8 yrs lol.

 

Money!