Blonde's guide to bird photography

blonde wrote in post #3881873
never going to happen, i am a married man

Well thanks anyway for the great Guide!

KAC

Excellent work!

Your shots aren't very good though. No, hang on, they're awesome. I hate you. I wish I had the time, location, knowledge, gear and everything to do this properly!! Looks like something I'd be really into. Great guide, very nice.

thank you guys. i added another VERY important section at the end which i should have done the first time.

Thanks and great job Snir!

Thank you ... much appreciated.

blonde wrote in post #3884685
thank you guys. i added another VERY important section at the end which i should have done the first time.

Critique is a tough thing to dish out, you have to consider the skills of the poster and keep in mind that some critique may be personal preference. If someone puts C+C wanted in the post I'll do it but otherwise I usually let it be. I find something wrong with most of my shots in hindsight. I've found some posters are not 'serious' and they just want to post for the fun of it while others really want to improve.

I think we are all our own worst critics. I get a lot of great shot lines, but many, maybe even most of the shots I post are not really that good when I compare mine to Allens or Gary Fairheads shots. In my opinion. But to others, they may be great shots. Either way, it doesn't really bother me and I don't think less of anyone for what they post about them. I know what I like, and I am always looking at the EXIF of other peoples shots and I think I have learned more from that than anything else, barring answers to specific questions I do ask. All in all, I'm just here to have fun and share what I see and shoot and I can't remember a day I haven't learned something.

Hey Mitch, I couldn't find a beanbag I liked so I bought 10 pounds of small dried beans, put them in a heavy plastic bag, sealed it with tape and inserted that into the cutoff pants leg of a set of worn-out camo coveralls. Sewed up both ends tight and, HEY PRESTO!, a waterproof beanbag.

When I had the digiscope, my tripod and head, although nice for normal lenth lenses was just to wiggley for such a long tube, so I bought a set of those rifle bench sighting beanbags. Two to a set, they are small but heavy, being filled with sand, and worked very well over the tool box or the hood of the pickup. But they are far too heavy to carry around and, there's two of them, although one would work for a short lens.

I still like the zipper bag idea and fill it with M&M's. It would be much lighter for the trip back to the parking lot. :LOL:

Thanks for the good tips. I have also gone "bird crazy" in the last year. I really appreciate the crisp detail in some of your photos. Especially the first one and the gull-like bird. How close were you, and what lens? I am having trouble getting consistently crisp images with a 300mm & 2x extender. Especially if the bird is more than 50 feet away. How do I calibrate my lens to make sure the equipment in functioning at it's best? I am having trouble determining what my expectations should be.

I'd be surprised if you got any crisp shots with the 2x. Mine never did give good images on the 400L. Also, every lens has a sweet spot, where it will be the sharpest at a particular f/stop. My 300 happens to be f/4 and f/7.1, but you have to do some test shots with yours, from a tripod, then look closely at them on a monitor.

I use Av Mode, on a tripod, remote cord, mirror lock up on a bright day with no wind. Shoot at a still object about 20 feet away and use auto focus. Something flat with some text on it is good, maybe a flat plastic can of motor oil.

Shoot from the lowest f/stop number up to about f/22. Take a couple or 3 shots at each f/stop. Then go pixel peep them on your monitor and make a note of the top 3 sharpest f/stops and start using them if you have the light for it. This will test the lens. The camera is another story. Test it on different lenses.

Very helpful and very much appreciated!
--Erik

Snir, excellent write up, very usefull, and fantastic captures you have posted. Thanks for the effort you put into this.

Mitch, for a beanbag, have you tried those "magic bags" that you heat in the microwave...they are full of grain. I would suspect that any granular substance could be used if the right material can be found to hold it.

That's why I said M&M's, you can eat those.

Or bird food.