please help

[damien]

HI GUYS

im going to the local bird park tomorrow and i was wondering if anyone could give me advice about taking pictures as im new to all this, i know its about trying and getting it right but i think a heads up ill allways good.

thanks damien

[MiniChris]

Glue and lots of birdseed...bait and then get them to stay for a while longer than they might have intended...a good, fast lens, practice your panning skills, keep your depth of field a little tighter than you might for a landscape and while it is sometimes better to have a fast shutter speed, if you pan well, it is not necessary. (Look back at some of Nomadr's posts.)

Tripods are great! Just kidding on the glue, but boy, is it sometimes a temptation.

[Donald]

Patience. Lots and lots of patience.

I was playing with my new Sigma 120-400 in the garden and thought I'd just quietly sit there until the garden birds came in for the food that we always set out for them.

Well, after about 7 ot 8 minutes I lost patience. Which is why I'm not a bird or wildlife photographer and don't think I ever will be. I prefer to be out there stalking my hills, trees, vineyards, forests, tractors and sheep, etc.

I have great respect for those folks who can sit it out for 'that shot'

[Geoff F]

The simple answer, Damien, is that there isn't a simple one setting answer.

Flying birds need a totally different treatment to those sitting on branches.

Fliers need a high shutter speed (at least 1/1000 and possibly double that) and quick auto focusing. Some Exposure Compensation may be needed to adjust for a bright sky, etc which would make the bird too dark. Spot metering can help.

With sitters, you can worry more about your aperture. Auto focus can sometimes cause problems by focusing on stray branches instead of the intended target. In this case, manual focusing can sometimes work best.

When using auto focusing, I normally prefer to just use the centre focusing point to avoid false focusing problems.

[damien]

thanks for the advice guys hiopefully i will have something to post tomorrow night or tuesday