Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Walk Up method of Bird Photography


Over the years I have done lots of bird photography.
Never with real expensive cameras or real expensive lenses.
I have also never sat in a bird hide all day to capture images.

My approach has been mainly to shoot as opportunity arises.

This means having a camera ready to shoot.

I have adopted an approach as under.

1. Spot your bird(s)

2. Look for cover to approach from un-noticed.

3. Preset your camera so you can re act quickly.

4. Walk slowly towards your subject taking pictures from furtherest distance and progressively
    as you get closer.

5. Watch for changes in direction of birds head and pleasing poses.

6. Aim to try to fill the frame with the bird.

7. If you sense the bird is about to take flight get ready to capture a sequence of flight shots.

8. If your bird is fairly passive and quite tame take time to quickly make any necessary camera adjustments.

9. You could try using a tripod or monopod but this will be difficult.

10. With Australian Emus you can actually attract them in close to you and get many great shots.
 They are very curious and will come form a long way off to investigate if you are sitting in a 
 stationary car and slowly waving say a red jersey out of the window.












The camera, a Nikon D60 was not up to getting this shot but nailed the next one.






These emus came from the horizon you can see in the background right up to our staitonary car.




Egret captured at Dix's Park Paringa,South Australia, Emus at Calperum Station near Renmark.

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