Went to Nurragingy Reserve which is near Blacktown in Sydney's west. Looked promising habitat wise with lots of gum trees and casurinas around Eastern Creek which flows through it, and large marshy areas with ponds and reeds and grasses. Overall I didnt see a great deal of bird life until I got to the northern end where there was a bit more going on.
A few Golden Headed Cisticolas
A couple of young silver-eyes
It looked good raptor territory and hoped i might see one gliding overhead - but was surprised to spot this Grey Goshawk first at eye level, then later higher up.
Lots of Superb FWs about.
Awesome pictures. You must have great patience and the stealth of a ninja.
Now I know that you can't take pictures like that with good equipment alone. It's probably - what - maybe 10 or 20% in the gear and 80 or 90% skill in knowing how to practice the craft of bird photography?? Just guessing. But it's like that with, for instance, guitar playing. A good musician can make any instrument sound good and an amateur won't get much out of the best of instruments.
But is there a place on the forum where members list the gear they use?
Presumably, some people don't wish to share all their secrets, but is it consider poor form to ask what equipment and settings have been used on forums like this? Pardon my naivety, but I'm not familar with the correct etiquette.
Cheers, Chris
Thanks for the kind comments Chris - of course I just post my "best" photos, if you saw my fuzzy ones, the missed opportunities, and they way they look pre-tweaking/cropping in Lightroom you would want to withdraw your praise!
Certainly no problem asking what kit and settings people are using. Everyone is on the learning curve somewhere, and happy to give and get a bit of help on the way.
I have been into bird photography for about 18 months, and am still pretty much a beginner photography wise. I started with a Canon SX50 super-zoom and got a lot of good pictures with it. About 4 months ago I got a Nikon D5300 body and a tamron 150-600 lens and quite happy with them and still learning how to get the best out of them.
My default settings are still Shutter speed, but I'm trying to use Aperture priority more. I'm not confident yet with Aperture priority and its so frustrating to miss an opportunity because the camera is set wrong. The wren picture was aperture priority f9 ss 125 iso 400 - most of the others shutter priority - and I'm quite pleased with it.
Hope you will share your photos here as you go along. I think this forum is really about people sharing photos of birds they have seen in their backyard, local park, birding trip etc etc
Nice set of shots there WD.
Cisticola with the bug is magic. plus the one sitting in the purple flower (technical term
)
Purple flower = Verbena bonariensis.
You are contributing some great shots WD. I see you are using Lightroom to tweak your shots.
Can you explain how you transfer your saved image(s) from Lightroom to your computer please?
Samford Valley Qld.
Thanks for the information WD. I'm impressed with how far you've come in what sounds to me like a very short time. And your equipment doesn't sound too expensive either. Not too different from mine really, except that your lens has a longer reach. I have a Canon 600D that came with a couple of kit lenses (one being a 55-250mm). I bought it a couple of years ago now, but have been very random about using it. Only recently have I decided that I need to try and lift my game a bit - and actually try and get round to reading the manual properly, and the photography book I bought! Soon. soon... I also have some additional equipment now, but I haven't started working it all out yet.
I'm retired (68) so have no excuses about not having enough time. And there are plenty of birds on the block where we live. So this forum looks like the perfect place to motivate me to get out and try and lift my game a bit more.
So much, for neeeding to learn how to set the camera properly, instead of just rushing out and relying on the auto setting. I'll knuckle down. Honest.
But how do you set yourself up to get shots like the ones above? Do you pick a promising spot, make yourself comfortable and just wait? Or stalk a likely candidate until you can get a clear line of sight? Do you use a tripod, or maybe a monopod? Regular shutter or a remote release of some kind?
Apologies for all the questions, but so far I've had mixed results with my attempts. A while back we caught a mouse in the house. So I set up the camera on a tripod, with a wired hand held shutter release, put the mouse corpse on the gravel driveway, focused, and waited. And waited, and waited. After about a quarter of an hour I bent down to check something and - bang - a kookaburra stole the mouse. I got a great shot of a completely empty patch of driveway. In similar vein, I stood under a tree for what seemed like a small eternity with the camera pointed up at a fire-tailed cockatoo on a branch - waiting for it to spread its wings and fly. Eventually my neck couldn't take any more and I put the camera down. When of course it flew off...
Any tips on your techniques for approaching and setting up please?
Chris
Thanks Reflex - more of a hard twist and not a gentle tweak at times
If I understand your question correctly, you need the export option - from the File menu or the right click menu on any image - that will output a copy of your photo from Lightroom. On the export you can choose an output location and resize etc etc.
Thanks WD.
Samford Valley Qld.
Im a beginner too Chris - also yet to study the manual or the book i bought about my dslr! I havent got into setting up for a specific shot of a specific bird at a specific location - so probably can't help you too much. My approach is more haphazard - i walk around whatever location I am at, and look for birds of interest to me. When I find those, I try to get as close as possible without scaring them off - its a risk reward tradeoff. Getting close might mean slowly approaching the bird, or staying still and hoping it will come closer to me. If I dont get anything - I console myself with the thought that I have had an enjoyable walk! I don't use a tripod or monopod as I might be walking quite a long way and want to keep the weight down.
Also particularly with small birds like wrens robins finches silvereyes etc - if you see one species, its worthwhile waiting and having a good quiet look because the little birds of various species often seem to hang around together.
I think bird photography is a bit like fishing with the tales of "the one that got away". I know the feeling of missing the classic shot for some reason or another - my usual way of missing them is just having put the camera down, or the dust cap on, or packed the camera up etc etc.
I think good advice is to start with practice on the common local birds in your garden or local park etc. Try and get good photos of the noisy miners, magpies, seagulls, ducks, lorrikeets or whatever in the different light conditions you encounter. Some of these photos might become your favorites. Light is the other big thing to practice with - learning how to get good photos in bright light and low light.
There are a number of interesting posts on these forums that have links to other sites or contain good info themselves, much more than i can give you. Here are a few...
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Online-resources-bird-photography
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Some-really-interesting-tips
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Remote-triggers-fill-flash-photographing-kingfishers-how
Thanks for those WD. I'll have a read through.
A native of South America & not one to be planted in Australia because it's highly invasive.
I doubt it was planted, it grows wild rampantly across much of the southeast.
Certainly not one to encourage, tho. that said by the looks of the pic Cisticolas don't mind it in lieu of native wildflowers.
Nice collection of birds, WD. You must of been pleased to get the Goshawk, i know i would have been.
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/