Bird Photographers: What am I doing wrong???

[Docbanana]

Hi, I do some bird photography though if you check my old posts you'll see lots of chipmunk and squirrel stuff, too. Similar principles apply (though lighting can be trickier with birds, if you are shooting them against the sky as is less likely to be the case with a chipmunk). The biggest problem I see is that you are trying to use equipment to get closer to your animal when you ought to be physically doing it yourself. Using the equipment, you end up far away and pointing up into the sky instead of taking an eye-level photo from close up. There's no "intimacy" to the photo, when you do them that way. This takes lots of time and patience and knowledge of bird behavior prior to setting up your shot.

I would consider myself to be excellent at the "animal relations" part, so that is where I will give advice. My photography.... is okay. I'm an amateur, so if you see something lacking in the photos below I won't be shocked. I'm showing them to give you an idea of the sort of things I do and how do that. First, a chipmunk shot because that's my favorite animal. This one was taken at a few feet distance, with me in plain sight, with an 80mm macro lens. Getting down at eye level (camera on the ground), with the animal looking straight at the camera, gives the photo an intimate look. He is looking into the camera, like a portrait, so you get the kind of eye contact that a human normally doesn't experience with a wild animal. Also, the closeness of the shot allows you to see details of his fur that just aren't possible with my zoom lens. I set up this shot by putting a peanut on the ground and pre-focusing and putting it in burst mode. This critter was running around me looking for peanuts already (lots of pre-training required in order to get them so eager to model), so I just had to make sure he didn't eat that one while I set up my camera!! Then when he came over I took a burst of photos. This one, where he looked up at me right after taking the peanut, was my favorite.


A bird shot... this one isn't a head-on shot, but I was about 5 feet away using a slight zoom. This bird is an old friend of mine "Mrs. Lee" who is at ease just sitting on the chair while I take photos. She wasn't paying me much attention at all, she just likes hanging around my patio because there is food and water and it is a safe place. Because I was so close, there is a level of detail that is hard to capture from a distance with a zoom. This was mostly at eye level (though slightly higher) which is a hard angle to capture with a bird. Looking up in a tree at a bird or down on the ground is more common in our normal experience with them, so I think eye-level gives the photo a different look.


A hummingbird.... I struggled to get the lighting correctly on this one, it was a dark day. So the wings are blurred and the depth of field small. But I liked it anyway, the way the focused head sorta comes out of the photo. I have some crisp ones with frozen wings that I took with a flash, but the softness of this one appealed to me more. This hummingbird was about a foot away from my camera lens (macro lens) with me sitting there holding the camera in plain sight. I pre-focused the camera, which was tricky at this distance with a macro and shallow depth of field. I had to really study him first, figure out where his head would exactly be when he took a drink. He didn't care, as long as he got a bite of food. I had to sit there next to the feeder for a few days in a row--moving it closer and closer--as he gradually decided I was okay. But he eventually decided I was harmless and that the nectar I drank (Starbucks brand) wasn't the same sort of food he ate, so there was no food for us to fight over.


What I'm trying to show is that most of the really detailed photos you see are done by getting close to the subject and prepping the shot well in advance. The way to get physically closer to a wild animal is NOT to walk closer, sneak up, hide behind a bush, or do anything of that sort (unless you have a really good way to hide where you actually aren't being heard or seen... in which case hiding can get you great shots). They recognize hiding and the slow creep toward them that as predatory behavior (think "cat on the hunt") and if they've lived to be a full-fledged grown-up, their "predator" radar is pretty well honed. They won't let you get very close, and if they are a smart bird that can recognize individual human faces (like a crow can), they will quickly learn you are that creeper who keeps sneaking up making weird clicking noises and will run and warn others to run. The key is knowing what animal species you are trying to photograph, learning about their lifestyle, and positioning yourself in their habitat. Sit still and calm in a comfortable place--maybe bring a computer to work on or book to read--and just wait for them to acclimate to you and decide you are basically harmless. Then let THEM come to YOU. You might have to do this for days or weeks on end, to really get a great shot of a very shy bird... You can speed up the process by positioning yourself next to a highly valued food source, such as putting a comfy chair next to your backyard bird feeder and making a practice of having coffee there in the mornings. Personally, I don't have an ethical issue with "baiting" normal backyard birds with some sunflower seeds, though I know some people do. If you don't want to get a bird feeder or are in a wildlife park or nature preserve or in situation where offering food would create a problem for the bird or danger to humans (don't bait wild bears.....), you will need to get near their natural habitat (on a lake's edge, to film ducks/geese; near a tree/bush in your backyard that is a popular nesting place) or near a food source (e.g., a wildflower field that is populated by hummingbirds) and just WAIT. And wait. And just be friendly and amiable and harmless as a flea. You can move, but don't make a lot of sudden movements or loud noises. You should get in a position where you are just at the edge of their comfort zone--where the birds seem aware of and concerned by your presence (they will show it in their body language and "chatter" to each other) but are comfortable enough to try to eat. If they fly away consistently, you are too close. If they act like you don't exist, you can move closer. You'll find that if you are not scary to them, they will habituate to you. Their "comfort zone" will get smaller and smaller and you can get closer and closer. I have backyard animals who I know quite well, we've been having morning coffee (and birdseed/peanuts) together for a few years. Some I've trained to come when they are called, to eat out of my hand, and some will even stand on my doorstep to call me out to give them a bite. They bring their babies around me, too, so the next generation is less fearful than than the first (these animals do fear other humans, by the way, which is good for their safety... they will also fear me if I'm outside of my usual location). It is a lot of effort but I enjoy working with and befriending these animals, so the photo ops are just icing on the cake, not my only purpose.

[Shadowman]

Shanna,

Nice images.