Bird photography made easy

I am lucky enough to have two great places to visit locally and over the years have taken many bird of prey photos with a variety of cameras from 35mm to modern digital cameras.

Bird photography equipment

First a zoom lens will help you get close up pictures even if you can't physically move closer to the birds because of the aviary. Taken without a zoom, small birds can sometimes only just be visible in a photograph even if they seem quite close at the time the picture was taken.

Having the ability to pick the aperture and shutter speed when photographing birds is also handy. By using a wide open aperture (along with a fast shutter speed) you can throw the background out of focus while freezing movement of the subject. You can get a similar effect on a compact camera with programmed settings, by picking portrait mode.

Bird photography tips

My own morals prevent me trying to pass off photos of captive birds for those taken in the wild, but I still prefer to take photos with natural looking surroundings.

Take the photo of a blue winged kookaburra, left. You can tell at a glance that this bird was not flying free! Of course for a record shot, to say that you have seen this species, that may not matter. But it is possible with a little care to take better pictures of birds in this situation.

Try moving around the aviary to see if there is a better looking background. If you find one, be patient and wait to see if the bird will pose for you in front of it.

Also take note of the lighting available. Bright sunny days, although not ideal for bird photography, can help you out. Often the bird will have a covered perch area towards the back of the pen which, when the light is right, can be thrown into shadow. If the bird is sitting out in the sun it may be possible to use this dark area as a background, especially if you can use a wide aperture to throw it out of focus.

Can you see the difference? Although these trees are not the natural habitat of this Australian bird, the picture looks more natural without the obvious signs of captivity that were present in the previous photograph. It was a shame, however, that I managed to cut his tail off!

That is another tip. If you are not trying for a close up of part of the bird, make sure you get the whole creature in the photograph!

All three of the samples of bird photography I have shown you so far, were of birds behind wire mesh. Here are a couple of tips to avoid spoiling your photographs by its ugly presence.

Get close. As close to the mesh as you can, without risking your lens to attack through the mesh by the bird you are trying to photograph. Don't laugh, I have seen it happen! If the mesh is quite large and your lens is small enough in diameter you can sometimes avoid the mesh altogether in this way.

So what do you do if the wire mesh is very fine and you cannot get close to it? Use that wide open aperture I mentioned earlier on this page. An aperture of f2.8 or even f4 will blur the mesh until it is no longer visible. Focus on the bird itself and both the foreground mesh and background distractions will disappear. But keep an eye out for shadows of the mesh falling on the bird. That is a certain giveaway to anyone looking at the photograph later on!

Another tip is to not get too caught up in just photographing the birds themselves. Watch what else is going on around you.

On a recent trip to the Raptor Centre I took a friend along. She was delighted when she was asked if she would like to wear the leather glove during the flying display and have a barn owl fly to her.

Although not a stunning photograph, capturing this moment and giving her a print afterwards made an old lady very happy. She has shown the photo to so many people, all of whom now want to visit the centre, that it has definitely been a good way to help the birds themselves.

Sadly, even though I also got the opportunity to hold the barn owl, Betty was unwilling to try some bird photography of her own to take a reciprocal shot of my experience.

Some backgrounds, although obviously man made, just suit the subject so well that they beg to be photographed.

Take this barn owl for example, perched on an old wooden ladder in the barn. Perhaps not a "natural" backdrop but in keeping with the bird and resulting in a wonderful, almost monochromatic, photo. The lighting also helps in this shot.

Although it was dark in the barn and I needed a wide open lens and a fast film-speed setting, the light coming through the window has helped to separate the bird from the similar coloured wood.

OK let's get closer in our attempts at bird photography. One way to avoid the leather jesses showing in captive bird photos is to zoom in and concentrate on the birds head and shoulders.

This can also help to eliminate those unatural looking perches that they are tethered to.

However, remember to bend down so as to be on the same level as the bird. Just as with photographing children, looking down on birds, results in strange looking photos. We are more used to seeing birds up in the air, or in trees.

Again, by using that wide aperture, the background in this shot of a buzzard is out of focus. The eye could almost be deceived into thinking that there is a tree trunk behind the bird, whereas, in fact, it was the side of his shelter.

Many people head for cover if the weather turns and it starts raining. In fact that is just what my friend Betty did, retiring to the tea shop, while I carried on my bird photography session.

This falcon was tethered to the ground in the open, and we got wet together. I zoomed in on his majestic head and could see the raindrops sitting on his weatherproof feathers.

To get this photo I had to sit on the ground and increase the film speed to 200 ISO in order to be able to use a wide enough aperture of f4.5. Even so the fastest shutter speed I could use to get a good exposure was only 1/125th second. A moment after this shot was taken the bird shook his head and I tried to get a picture of the raindrops that showered me, but the action was too fast for the lighting conditions. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Action makes for more exciting bird photography. If you can catch the bird doing something other than just sitting as still as a statue you could just get a winning shot.

For this snowy owl photo I struggled to find a suitable backdrop so I laid on the floor, amid some curious gazes from the other visitors to the centre, to frame him against the sky.

In situations like this you need to be extra careful with your exposure settings. Your camera's auto setting is unlikely to get a good result as the amount of sky in the picture will fool it into underexposure, resulting in a dark picture. A perfect time to use the exposure compensation button on your camera to allow more light in than the camera thinks it needs.

For this shot I set a slow film speed of 80 ISO, kept a wide aperture of f4 and a shutter speed of 1/400th second. The fast shutter speed also had the advantage of freezing the action when the owl opened his beak.

Of course the ultimate action shots in bird photography are taken when the bird is in flight. Most bird of prey centres have at least one flying display during the course of the day and these are the ideal opportunity to practice.

Each bird in the display will be flown multiple times, often following the same flight path each time. Take time to watch the first couple of passes without the camera to your eye to see where the bird heads and where he likes to land. Then pick a spot on route to focus your camera on.

Remember to set your camera to shutter priority for this job so as to stand a chance of stopping the action. Barn owls tend to fly slower than the other bird of prey, so are a good starting point for your pictures of a bird in flight.

For this shot of a snowy owl I had the camera set to 1/640th second, an aperture of f4 and an ISO (film speed) of 80. I didn't want to freeze the movement all together, and this speed allowed a slight blurring of the wings.

For your first few shots concentrate on getting the bird in the frame. Its harder than it looks! Once you have that under your belt, try to leave room for the bird to fly into. If you don't get it quite right at the photography stage, you can always crop your picture to achieve a better composition, as I did in the shot above.

When you get back to your computer you can use the motion blur effect to add more movement to the background if necessary.

Finally, when tackling bird photography at a bird sanctuary, don't forget the relationship between the birds and their keepers. I snapped this shot just after the flying display.

Although the background is somewhat distracting your eye is drawn to the owl for two reasons.

First it is staring directly at the camera. (That area of red behind its head also helps draw the eye to the focal point of the picture.)

Secondly the photo uses the "rule of thirds" where one of the owl's eyes is directly on an intersection. If the rule of thirds is a new term to you check out my explanation at the bottom of the digital photography composition page.

Return to top of bird photography made easy

Return to digital photography projects home page

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS: Blink Del.icio.us Digg
Furl Google Simpy Spurl Technorati Y! MyWeb