Bird photography day out

[Mike Farley]

The last of my experiments was to use an infrared camera. While both pictures have a slightly surreal quality, there is not enough about them to suggest that it a worthwhile alternative approach. I did try swapping the red and blue channels to create a false colour effect, but that was unsuccessful. The only option which I have found is to convert to monochrome. I will probably not consider doing it again.

Both shots are with the 70-300 DO lens.

This another juvenile male blackbird.

Juvenile male blackbird

Infrared Blackbird.jpg (118.76 KiB) Viewed 6238 times

And this is a blue tit taking off. To give you an idea of how quickly they can move, the shutter speed was 1/800 sec.

Taking off

Taking Off.jpg (133.55 KiB) Viewed 6238 times

[Mike Farley]

I tend to agree about the Blackbird.

Thanks for the confirmation.

My "bible" for British bird identity is "Collins Bird Guide" by Svensson, Mullarney and Zitterstrom.

I am using the Reader's Digest "Field Guide to the Birds of Britain". It works well enough if you have an idea of the likely species of the bird.

[Mike Farley]

......none of the final images were untouched in some way. Highlights and shadows were adjusted and exposure, contrast and clarity were tweaked. I also used sharpening and noise reduction and in some a degree of vignetting to tone down bright edges and corners. So the EXIF data is not much use when viewing the final product.

Which is exactly my point, although knowing something like the shutter speed can be useful when it comes to freezing movement. Likewise, all my images were shot in Raw and have had adjustments made in Lightroom. All have bern cropped. Neither do any of the lenses I used vignette to the extent that my final images might imply.

[Iggy]

Hi David,
Thanks for the EXIF data. Were you using the camera in manual mode?
Were you ever able to almost fill the frame with a bird using your 100-400 lens? Perhaps only the woodpecker and the jay?

Based on John Stanton's images at http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk ... nt-photos/
the " young goldfinch" is possibly a siskin.
A lot of John's images have a mottled green back drop obviously done in Photoshop or LightRoom?

Based on birds in my garden the "female blackbird" is definitely a thrush.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=thrus ... 66&bih=662

By the way, how long did the group spend at Millers Wood?
Did you all work from different individual hides at any time?
Did you takes any props as John had suggested?
Iggy

[davidb]

Hi David,
Thanks for the EXIF data. Were you using the camera in manual mode?
Were you ever able to almost fill the frame with a bird using your 100-400 lens? Perhaps only the woodpecker and the jay?

The camera setting was Tv and Auto ISO. You'll note that a whole frame was 5472x3648 (or 3648x5472) and that all the final images were cropped so therefore a longer lens would have been useful even with the crop sensor of the Canon 7D mk II.

[davidb]

Hi David,

Based on John Stanton's images at http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk ... nt-photos/
the " young goldfinch" is possibly a siskin.

I had considered Siskin but I don't think the markings are right.

Based on birds in my garden the "female blackbird" is definitely a thrush.

You might be right about the "Song" Thrush. Perhaps John Stanton can help identify them?

[davidb]

By the way, how long did the group spend at Millers Wood?
Did you all work from different individual hides at any time?
Did you takes any props as John had suggested?
Iggy

The group arrived just after 10:00 and were thrown out at 16:00. The weather was generally kind but with the occasional cloud effecting exposure.

There were a number of hides available but John had prepared two with seed and other food stuffs (seeding other hides would probably have diluted the visiting birds).

Initially, we all squeezed into a single hide but later we split up and used the two hides either as a pair or singly.

John had worked pieces of timber to produce suitable perches for the birds to use as we photographed them. If you have an idea for a prop John would be amenable.

[Iggy]

Hi David,
Thank you. All that info is helpful, if and when I do go.
Best wishes,
Iggy

[davidb]

It's a worthwhile trip particularly if the weather is fine.

I note from John Stanton's Flickr page that there are a great many more visitors to his wood and additional trip(s) would probably be a good idea - even at £50 per person per day!

[Mike Farley]

It's a worthwhile trip particularly if the weather is fine.

I note from John Stanton's Flickr page that there are a great many more visitors to his wood and additional trip(s) would probably be a good idea - even at £50 per person per day!

I would certainly be up for another trip. As much as anything, this first visit was to gain some experience and experiment with various items of kit. What it did demonstrate to me is that I do not have too many options available in respect of my existing gear when the Canon 70-300 DO failed to perform to expectations at the long end. That said, the Canon 300 f/4L was actually OK much of the time, even for the bigger birds although framing could be tight. An example is the uncropped image of a Jay reflection shot below. It took a few attempts to get both the bird and its reflection in shot.

Jay Reflection.jpg (131.2 KiB) Viewed 6233 times

The most versatile lens I had was the Panasonic 100-300, although I was a bit hamstrung by the menu on the Olympus E-M10. The AF was set to focus from an automatic selection of 9 points. Being an Olympus, it has a complicated menu system and as I had not used the camera for a while, I could neither remember what to do nor work out how to change it to a single point. The upshot was that not everything was in focus.