A Walk in the Park

Boyce Thompson Arboretum Demonstration Garden

Let me say up front that I love my high end DSLR’s and my collection of lenses from a 12-24mm zoom to my 300/2.8 plus 2x converter. This gear gives my lots of control when I’m shooting seriously, and I can’t imagine being a photographer without the flexibility and quality of this kit.

But when I’m out for birds with my big rig (a Nikon D300, the 300/2.8 AF-S lens, the Nikon TC20E III 2x converter, a Gitzo carbon fibre tripod with Really Right Stuff ball head and Wimberley Sidekick), I rarely have the energy to drag along another D300 and short zoom lens for any other type of subject.

As I’ve written before, I’ve started to rely upon the simple camera in an iPhone more and more when I would have otherwise used an 18-70mm zoom on the D300. I am lucky enough to have a friend who donated his old iPhone 3GS a while back when he upgraded to give me access to the useful applications. And another friend just passed on an iPhone 4 when it was replaced by a 5C.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum Demonstration Garden

So when I visited Boyce Thompson Arboretum state park earlier this week to work with some vagrant birds I had the iPhone 4 in my pocket “just in case.” Conditions were so pleasant that morning in the Demonstration Garden that I reached for the iPhone so I could show my wife when I got home.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum Demonstration Garden

I admit at first I was skeptical about taking photos with a cell phone, thinking that the results just couldn’t be all that good. And also lamenting the lack of control such a camera has, with no way to select focal length, or aperture, or ISO, or to be able to shoot in raw format.

But then I realized that I still had control over how I composed the scene on the display, and that I still selected the subject and the point of view for the image: these are fundamental aspects of photography that no amount of  automation has been able to displace. And I also recalled that I still had some control over point of focus (by tapping on the image) and that by doing so I could control where the iPhone camera made its exposure determination.

The lesson of all this is important: the photographer’s vision still trumps the technology. Even the tiny sensor in a smart phone camera can capture some interesting images if only the photographer is willing to treat the simple camera properly.

Snowy Egret at 300mm

Snowy Egret

Nikon D300, Nikkor 300/2.8 AF-S lens, tripod, ISO 200, 1/2500th second at f/5.6, -1 stop exposure compensation

The horribly hot weather continues in Phoenix so I’m posting from my backlog instead of from recent field trips. This Snowy Egret was a very cooperative subject at the Gilbert Water Ranch on March 20 of this year.

There are plenty of egrets at the Water Ranch most of the time, and early in the morning and sometimes late in the afternoon a visitor might find scores of them feeding in a single shallow pool. Great Egrets dominate such gatherings, but there are usually some smaller Snowies taking part in the action. They make for an interesting scene, but I’ve never figured out a good way to capture a large group in a single image.

More often I will see one or two Snowy Egrets feeding in one of the smaller, more photogenic, ponds, and I’ll have the opportunity to take a lot of shots as these birds feed or run or just stand around.

What I rarely see at the Water Ranch, though, is an egret in a tree or shrub where I can get a close clean photo. But earlier this year I started noticing this attractive bird spending time in a shrub at pond 5, not far from the main trail. On this visit I decided to see if I could get my clumsy tripod rig into a good position for a photo, so I began a slow approach with the D300, 300/2.8 and 2x mounted on my Gitzo tripod. Getting into position was difficult as the ground slopes down from the trail, with many other shrubs partially blocking access. So it was necessary to lift, push, and tug the tripod through the tangle and hope that the egret didn’t take flight. After each incremental move forward I would see what sort of composition I could get, take a number of shots with variations in composition, position, and exposure, and then make another small move forward.

The real surprise was that the egret didn’t feel threatened by all this and stayed put. I got close enough to take off the trusty 2x and shoot with the 300 alone. And since the bird was so cooperative I figured I might as well reduce the ISO to the minimum setting of 200 as I had plenty of light to keep a high shutter speed while still stopping down two stops on the lens. I was able to dial in the proper exposure (gotta love digital and the histogram available on the camera LCD for this), and then keep close watch on the egret’s head position so the eye caught the light correctly.

Getting Close to Small Birds

Abert’s Towhee

Nikon D300, AF-S 300/2.8 plus TC20E (2x), ISO 400, 1/500th second at f/8, tripod, Gilbert Water Ranch, 88% of frame

The Problem

A fundamental problem for bird photographer’s is getting close enough to small subjects in the wild for decent size images. Over the years I’ve noticed how many novice photographers assume there must be a quick and painless way to do this, and they are convinced of it from all the excellent tightly framed images they see posted on the web these days.

My personal position on this is that too many beginners want instant success without putting in all the hard work or expense a lot of the accomplished photographers have gone through to get the results that appear so easy. But there are ways to get better images than simply over-cropping.

Massive Cropping

Unfortunately, many novice photographers believe that all they need to do is crop a very small part of their frame and blow it up to get a tight composition. Some of them argue that the ever increasing MP count of camera sensors allows them to get quality results out of these massive crops because even after cropping they are left with a lot of MegaPixels to work with. This just isn’t true in almost all cases. Lenses have a limited ability to resolve detail, and whenever we crop we are not only reducing the amount of information we have to work with (fewer pixels); we are also reducing the resolution of our optics by effectively enlarging the images with the crop. Just look at the lens tests in any magazine and note that the more an image is blown up the lower the rating of the lens becomes. This applies to even the best lenses. Cropping has the same effect as over enlarging, and if you start out with a marginal lens (as many of the consumer grade lenses are) you quickly run out of resolution.

I believe that most bird photographers crop their images to some degree – if you shoot wild subjects in natural settings then it is almost always necessary to fine tune composition in post processing with some amount of cropping. Experienced photographers who care about the quality of their images, though, limit the amount of cropping that they will do.

The Abert’s Towhee at the top of this post is 88% of the full frame. The crop was made to improve composition by taking a bit off the left edge and thereby moving the subject out of dead center. That’s a rather small crop that doesn’t have much impact on overall image quality. The Abert’s Towhee below, however, is a larger crop – only 40% of the full frame. That crop, coupled with the lower resolution of the zoom lens used, takes a toll on detail in the final image even at this web size.

Abert’s Towhee at water feature

Nikon D70, 70-300 VR Nikkor, ISO 400, 1/125th second at f/8, tripod, backyard, 40% of frame

I strongly advise novice bird photographers to forget about trying to make do with massive crops as it will set a low quality standard that you will regret in the future when you master other techniques.

Bird in Habitat Composition

Instead of trying to fake a tight composition by massive cropping I suggest learning to compose images with a smaller subject and use the setting to “fill out” the composition. For a lot of photographers this can be difficult as it requires dealing with more compositional elements than just the bird, and finding a setting that suggests the habitat preferences of the subject without becoming distracting or cluttered is harder than a lot of people think. This Orange-crowned Warbler is a good example of keeping te subject small in the frame and using the habitat to complete the composition:

Orange-crowned Warbler

Nikon D200, AF-S 300/2.8 plus TC2E (2x), iso 400, 1/160th second at f/5.6, tripod, Gilbert Water Ranch

I find this to be a strong image with an effective composition, even though the warbler is rather small in the frame. Learning to compose in thi manner is a good skill to develop as it will always serve you no matter what focal length lens you have.

Backyard Birds and Blinds

One of the easiest ways to get close to birds is to make them come to you. Many photographers do this by using feeders or water in their yards to attract birds, arranging the feeders and water features for best light. Although we have fed birds in our yard for 30+ years now I rarely try to take photos of the birds that come in for the handouts. One reason for this is my wife thinks that birds need as much food as possible from as many feeders as possible, and that leads to chaos as far as photography is concerned. To make a feeding station work for bird photography one needs to limit the feeders (one is best) and make sure that there is only one good perch for the birds to use on approach. That way the camera can be positioned to frame a bird on that carefully selected perch when the light is best. Many people can do this with modest telephoto lenses (like 200mm). Some photographers perfect their setups and technique and produce technically perfect images; a few even make a career out of this approach.

This cowbird (probably Brown-headed but maybe Bronzed) has been coming to the patio along with the Abert’s Towhee surrogate parent that my wife insists on feeding meal worms.

Cowbird on the patio

Nikon D300, 70-300 VR Nikkor, ISO 800, 1/400th second at f/5.6, hand held, back yard, 89% of frame

Water can also be a strong attractant for birds, especially where it is a scarce commodity. A birdbath works but makes for sub optimal images with limited potential for use. A small water feature (like in the second towhee photo above) also works but isn’t that much more attractive than a regular birdbath. But it isn’t that difficult to make an artificial small pond or stream with recirculated water and carefully placed stones that can be effective settings for bird photos.

These same techniques can be taken into the field. Many birders who take their motor homes to the parks in south Texas set up feeders to bring in the birds. And some photographers will set up water drips outside a blind in places where there is a lot of bird activity to lure in subjects.

Playback of Recorded Calls

Ten years ago photographers went to a lot of effort to make up bird call tapes to play back through a portable speaker from a small cassette player in the field.  Today iPods and other MP3 players along with bird ID applications for them have made the use of bird calls simple in the field. I’ve even seen this done with a small wireless speaker from an iPhone. It is very effective and seductive for photographers, but I find it very troubling and ask that photographers not use recordings – especially with rare species or while any species is involved in nesting activity. Since I don’t use the technique I have no images to illustrate this point.

At or Near a Nest

Another “trick” used by some photographers is to shoot at or near an active nest. Adult birds are programmed to feed their offspring and will often continue to do so even with a photographer much closer than they would tolerate while engaged in any other activity. This can be very risky for the birds – close attention can cause the adults to abandon a nest before the eggs have hatched; parents might leave recently hatched birds exposed to the sun longer than they should when a photographer is too close; human presence can bring predators to nest sites to investigate. Please exercise common sense if you decide to try this and always put the welfare of the subjects above your desire to get a good photo. n no case should you trim away any vegetation to get a better view of the nest.

I’ve written about this before and used these images:

Bell’s Vireo exposed nest

Nikon D200, 300/2.8 plus TC20E (2x), ISO 200, 1/60th second at f/10, tripod, fill flash, Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Note the clipped twigs above the nest that should be protecting these chicks from the got sun – probably trimmed away by a selfish photographer wanting a “better” view of the nest.

Anna’s Hummingbird nest

Nikon D200, 300/2.8 plus TC20E (2x), ISO 200, 1/60th second at f/11, tripod, fill flash, Boyce Thompson Arboretum

This is another nest that’s been exposed by a selfish photographer who trimmed away protective vegetation to allow a cleaner “better” view.

Zoos

Another place to get close to birds is where they can’t fly away – zoos. I now many people do this but it has zero appeal for me so there are no images to illustrate this option.

Rehabilitation Centers

I’ve known bird rehab centers in NJ and here in AZ, and such places offer another chance to get close shots of birds with shorter lenses. The problem with these birds is that they are often not in good physical shape – perhaps missing an eye or with a wing that droops from a brain injury with a car. The photographer needs to compose carefully to hide such defects if attempting to make a pretty image. And like zoo shots it is difficult to make any of these images look like a wild bird in a natural setting.

A Couple References

There are often articles in photo magazines telling How To Do It, so look for them every few years. But for better coverage try some books you might find at the public library or the shelves of a Goodwill store.

Bird Photography Guide

I picked this up for $1.00 at a thrift store. It dates from the days of film with only a passing mention of digital photography, but it has material on feeders and water and calling birds, even including a couple lists in the back for which technique works with which species and what tpe of food to use.

Larry West Book

This is a decent guide to bird photography, also dating from the days of film. It doesn’t reley entirely on big telephotos and I like many of the “smaller in frame” compositions West uses to illustrate the book.

 

Achieving Quality Images

Cactus Wren

Cactus Wren. Anthem, AZ. Nikon D300, Nikkor 300/2.8 AF-S lens with TC20E (2x), ISO 400, 1/400th second at f/11, 92% of frame

Avian photography can be a difficult specialty. Many of us struggle to achieve quality images on a consistent basis, and even when we develop the skills necessary to do so we sometimes still fall short of our own quality standards. People just beginning to photograph birds are often overwhelmed by the challenges; or worse don’t even recognize that it takes time and energy and self criticism to get good at it. So, I’ve put together a list of ten factors that are critical to creating a quality image. This list isn’t complete, nor will everyone agree that these factors have equal weight.

1. Good Optics

The most important piece of gear for any photographer is a quality lens. The lens forms the image, and any lack of quality in the lens will get embedded in the process and limit the quality of the final result. A quality lens costs a lot of money, especially one that is long enough and fast enough for avian subjects. A quality lens will outlast the camera that hangs off the back. A quality lens will stand up to years of wear and tear in the field. I purchased my 300/2.8 AF-S Nikkor in 1998 when we were all shooting film. I’ve used it on my first digital camera (Nikon D70), on my Nikon D200, and now on my Nikon D300.

Novice photographers almost always try to enter the world of bird photography with inadequate optics, trying to use a general purpose zoom that tops out at 200 or 300mm, or a lens from an independent manufacturer (Sigma, Tokina, Tamron) that is a comparative bargain to a Nikon or Canon lens of the same reach.

2. Get Close

Birds are small subjects (often tiny) with fine detail in the colorful plumage. To show this in an image the photographer needs to get the bird fairly large in the frame. To get the subject large in the frame a photographer needs to use a combination of long focal length lens and reducing the physical distance between camera and subject. It takes a lot of optical power to make small birds (warblers, sparrows, kinglets, chickadees, thrushes, etc.) large in the frame: most bird photographers typically work with at least 400m and usually rely on 500, 600, or more. I personally use a high quality matched 2x converter (the Nikon TC20E) on almost every shot I take with my 300 – it gives me an effective 600mm f/5.6 optic that still auto focuses and focuses on a subject just a few feet away.

Even with a lot of optical power it is still necessary to get much closer to small birds than most people who haven’t tried it can imagine. Birders whose primary experience is viewing birds through 8x binoculars are often astounded by howw much closer a photographer needs to get even with 600mm of optics. So learning how to get close to birds without scaring them away is a vital skill to develop.

Novice photographers often try to compensate for lack of optical power or not getting close enough to the subject by excessive cropping of the image. Although I find some cropping necessary on almost every image that I make to adjust composition, cropping is never a good substitute for getting a large subject on the sensor in the first place. Yes, digital camera continue to push the number of pixels on the sensor and it is tempting to think a 10MO crop from a 20MP sensor is just as good as a full frame image from a 10MP camera, but it is not. A lens can only deliver a certain amount of resolution (measured in lines per millimeter or line pairs per image height) – cropping essentially reduces the resolution of the lens.

3. Tripod or other Support

Big lenses deserve solid support. With practice a lightweight 300 or 400mm lens can be used without the use of a heavy cumbersome tripod. And technology has done a lot, with Image Stabilization (Canon) and Vibration Reduction (Nikon), to increase the stability of handheld lenses by two or three stops. But I find no substitute for a solid tripod for my work at 600mm. A good tripod (like my carbon fiber Gitzo 1325) relieves me from the strain of trying to hold a heavy lens steady and lets me shoot at shutter speeds of 1/100th second and sometimes even lower.

Yes, tripods are a pain to carry, wet up, and use. But for me they are an essential part of maintaining overall image quality. A high end carbon fiber tripod helps minimize the frustrations of using a tripod, but at a penalty of high price.

4. Light

Light is obviously a necessity for any photography, but other than the amount of light novice photographers generally don’t pay much attention to light’s other properties. But for quality images it is important to note the contrast and color of the light. Best results are almost always achieved in the early hours of the day, just after sunrise. Light in the first hour is softer and warmer than at later times (especially mid-day); some of this same quality occurs again near sunset. If you want to avoid blowing out the subject’s highlights or blocking up the shadows then get used to being out as close as possible to sunrise.

With the exception of the most overcast days light also has direction. This is another quality of light that has an impact on image quality. The direction of the light controls where the shadows appear in the image and thereby defines form in the subject. Directional light is necessary to best define feather texture on a bird.

5. Focus

It is imperative to get the subject sharp when taking the photo. Pay attention to the auto focus point in the camera viewfinder, and be sure to place the AF sensor on the subject’s eye (or at least the face). Precise focus will maximize the amount of detail recorded. Missed focus cannot be “fixed” in post processing by applying stronger Unsharp Mask filtering. Learn to pay attention to focus, and reject any image in the editing stage that doesn’t show precise sharp focus.

6. Composition (Subject position, angle of view)

Small position changes of the subject can make a large difference in the image. In almost all cases the light needs to fall upon the subject’s eye to give it life and draw the viewer into the image. It is necessary to pay attention to the eye through the camera viewfinder so that the shutter is released only when there’s a good catchlight showing.

The angle of view is also an important consideration. shooting from the same level as the subject, rather than employing a steep up or down angle, can give the subject dignity and make it look more natural.

7. Setting

Showing the subject in appropriate habitat gives context to the image. The setting also gives more options for the composition and reduces the need to make the subject so large it fills the frame with little else showing in the image.

The challenge of habitat is keeping it from becoming merely clutter and a distraction to the subject. Carelessness with habitat should never be excused with a statement of “well, that’s where the bird lives.”

8. Exposure

Proper exposure is important to showing the subject’s color and features naturally. Over exposure will cause loss of important highlight detail that cannot be recovered in raw conversion or post processing. Under exposure will block up shadows and lead to very pronounced noise if exposure correction is applied later.

9. RAW conversion

Any photographer hoping to maximize image quality needs to be shooting in raw rather than jpeg. Raw conversion allows the most information to be extracted from the digital file created by the camera. In raw conversion the exposure and white balance should be fine tuned, but saturation, clarity, and vibrance should be left alone. The raw conversion plug-in that comes with Adobe Photoshop does an excellent job.

10. Post Processing

Every digital image needs some degree of post processing to bring out the best quality. Any small imperfections from dust on the digital sensor should be fixed. Tonal range should be adjusted with levels and curves. Using selections and masks allows small troublesome areas to be adjusted separately as needed.

Once all tonal issues have been taken care of the image can be resized for final use. Only at this point should any sharpening be considered.

Summary

All of these factors work together to determine overall image quality. Falling short on any factor will impact the final image. For maximum image quality it is necessary to pay attention to every step in the imaging process.

Pied-billed Grebe Sequence

1. Pied-billed Grebe

I never get tired of watching Pied-billed Grebes, and I never tire of taking photos of them when they are within camera range. Many beginning birders (and apparently all non birders) think they are “little ducks” and don’t pay them much attention; perhaps because they don’t have bright colors or come close for a bread handout.

2. Pied-billed Grebe

Unlike the puddle ducks they are often seen with these small grebes have their feet and legs located far back on the body (visible in image #4). This helps them swim under water where they chase their food. They also are masters at “sinking” below the surface by compressing their bodies to be less bouyant rather than making a showy dive like some ducks.

3. Pied-billed Grebe

This series of images shows another of their curious behavior. They will occasionally start to churn water and elevate the front of their body exposing a white belly. This is often a display aimed at another grebe, but I’ve also seem it aimed at other diving ducks that are competing for the same food source.

4. Pied-billed Grebe

I captured this sequence at 8:23 am on November 8, 2011 at the Gilbert Water Ranch. It is hard to recall the days of shooting film when we were limited to 36 frames on a roll, and how we were mostly reluctant to fire off long bursts of frames because we’d quickly go through that roll (and the $10-15 it cost for the film and processing). With digital and a large capacity of memory card there’s no longer a need to conserve frames and limit processing costs, so sequences like this are a lot easier to do.

5. Pied-billed Grebe

Nikon D300, Nikkor 300/2.8 AF-S lens with TC20E (2x), ISO 400, 1/800th second @ f/8 for all frames.