Project365 - Wildlife Photography

Introduction

Wildlife photography can be an especially challenging, and therefore rewarding genre within photography. Depending on your subject, you could traipse all over the world in search of an elusive "prey". Then, a skilled photographer needs to understand his subject's behaviours - where do they live? What do they eat? When are they most active ? Understanding the animal's behaviour is key to capturing compelling photographs.

We have been busy with moving (hence so few posts lately - sorry !) and the new house has a beautiful backyard, with trees & shrubs. Further, it is secluded away from any high-traffic streets, making it calm & peaceful - a perfect venue for photographing birds !

I will readily admit - I cheated ! I hung a couple of bird-feeders to attract the local "cheep cheeps". It gave me the ability to get them relatively stationary, as well as attracting a variety of different kinds of birdies.

The Setup

I set my Canon 60D on top of my Manfrotto tripod. The feeder is at the back of the yard, so I wanted all the stability I could get - I even used the shutter-release cable ! Then, in order to get nice & tight, I mounted my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L series lens, but I fronted it with a Canon 1.4X TeleConverter. Some fast math makes it: 200mm X 1.4 (the TC) X 1.6 (the crop factor for the APS-C sensor). That comes out with an effective lens length of 448mm of telephoto goodness.

At that length, camera shake is a real concern. I had already physically stabilized the camera with the tripod, but just to be safe, I made sure to shoot at no less than 1/400 of a second. I didn't want to create any bokeh effects, or worry about Depth of Field issues, so I set up at f/11. In order to achieve decent exposures, I ran the ISO up to 2000 !

Finally, because it is getting chilly out, I elected to stay indoors. Shooting through a window means you have to be careful with reflections & dirty windows, but we made out OK. See for your self !

The Photos

I took about 30 exposures, and kept about half. Of those, there were really only half a dozen which caught my eye. Here they are, for your enjoyment:

I apologize, but I know almost nothing about birds. This fancy little red fellow caught my eye right away !

 

This handsome pair stayed for most of the 30 minute shoot. Perhaps they knew they were being photographed ?

 

 

The little red fellow took turns keeping watch as the other birds ate.

 

 

 

 

W.C. fields made a name for himself & referred to all women as "my little chickadee !" .

See what I mean ? That little fellow kept a silent vigil for the other birds...

 

Finally, he came and are himself, after all the other little birdies ate !

 

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

This was a straight-forward shoot. I would have liked to capture the birdies as they landed, perhaps if I drove up the shutter speed, I might capture some fantastic wing-action ! Next time... The feeders aren't going anywhere... ;-)

 

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