Bean bags are very useful for wildlife photography, whether shooting from a car, or for low level field work. Using a tripod set to its lowest setting can be awkward to move with, especially when you're trying to keep as still as possible. Using a bean bag gets you a lower angle, meaning more intimate photos of animals, more diffused backgrounds and foregrounds, as well as keeping a lower profile for yourself to hopefully avoid scaring the wildlife away. The only issue with bean bags can be the price and getting a design that suits your lens.
I've recently tried making a bean bag based on the design in this link, with a few alterations (strap to carry it with, dimensions): http://www.scottfairbairnphoto.com/Scottfairbairnphoto/Tips5_The_Beanbag.html
It took some spare camouflage fabric, thread, 3 or 4 hours sewing (not something I'm amazing at!) and maybe a few kilos of bird seed to fill it with. Bargain! One thing I would stress is to make sure that you sew the seams very well to avoid the bag splitting. The link below also has an interesting plan for a 'foot' to attach to the bottom of your lens:
http://naturephotography.fredhurteau.com/bbagballhead.htm
I haven't got round to making it yet, but it looks pretty helpful!
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Here's some more snow pics, maybe the last for a while as it's starting to melt here...
Robin 
Reed Bunting
Pheasant
Robin
Reed Bunting Pheasant
Wren
If this photo was taken with the brown hare jumping towards me, with better light, from a lower perspective and with a longer lens then it would be one of my favourite images I've taken!
If this photo was taken with the brown hare jumping towards me, with better light, from a lower perspective and with a longer lens then it would be one of my favourite images I've taken! Thursday, 7 January 2010
Photography in the Snow
Whilst it may have been causing all sorts of chaos, I've been enjoying the snow recently and especially now I'm back in York. Snow transforms the landscape, makes wildlife easier to spot and track, and can creates potential for beautiful photos out of otherwise mundane scenes. With the rapidly changing weather from sun to blizzard and back again, I've captured many photos I'm pleased with. Here's some from yesterday:
With the exception of the first photo, they all feature lighting that compliments the subject. Decent lighting makes a shot, and snow is very helpful for this. If you look at the last two pictures of the moorhen and mallard duck, you'll see how the light is bounced upwards from the snow. The ground acts as a massive reflector, filling in the shadows with light, enhancing the colours and giving the photos a soft flash look. In the third and fourth shots, the warm late afternoon night compliments the bluish colour of the snow. This colour combination is pleasing to the eye and also helps the exposure of the image. When shooting coots, early morning or evening shots are best as the harsher light during the day makes it difficult to expose for both the bright white beaks and the black feathers.
Here are some tips for shooting in the snow:
1. When setting your camera, compensate for the bright snow. I add in +1/3 stop for most photos, or +2/3 going up to +1 if a lot of the image is white. Even though most modern cameras are accurate with exposures, they don't know that you're shooting a picture full of snow that needs to be kept white and will darken the image otherwise.
2. Use the light. Get down low to make the most of the snow's reflections. Get up early or head out before sunset for the warmest light which will improve your photos massively. During winter you don't have to get up early or stay out too late either!
3. Don't let the weather put you off! Wrap up warm and wear gloves (that you can control the camera through!). If you're cold, you'll be shivering, won't want to hang around or lay down on the floor and you'll be thinking about a cup of tea and a warm mince pie when you get in more than your photos. None of which helps creativity...
4. Don't get snow on your lens' front element unless the "artistic" results are desired!
5. When you're out in the countryside, take more time to look around you. Stay still and really look for movement. There's more wildlife around than you think and moving slowly will help to put it at ease as well as reveal things you would otherwise have missed. But remember, if snow makes it easier for you to see animals, it also makes it easier for them to see you!
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Tips for Photographing Wild Barn Owls
Barn owls are one of the UK's most beautiful birds of prey, and provided you are sensible, are relatively easy to photograph. Not necessarily easy to photograph well, or in an original way, but behavioural shots are certainly harder for many other bird species. My top tips for photographing these graceful birds are listed below:
1. My first piece of advice is to find out more about barn owls and just watch local ones, whether you have your camera on you or are just out for a walk. Like a lot of wildlife, owls are creatures of habit, and the ones near me always head to the same fields to hunt, following the same route. If successful, they return to the nest and if not, they seem to have a set list of back-up hunting grounds. Spend as much time possible watching the owls and better photos will be the result. For example, with the photo below I saw the owl from about 100m away and knew it would fly along the ditch I was next to looking for prey. I crouched down and waited, and sure enough it came to me. A little too close maybe as my Canon 100-400mm lens was set to focus from 6.5m and it was closer than that!
2. Another tip is keeping out of the barn owl's way and not spooking them. They might not mind you being around, but chances are that if you're human shaped they'll view you as a threat. No photograph is worth disrupting an animals behaviour for, especially in these times of habitat loss and an increase in the dangers they face. Please also remember that they are a protected species like kinfishers and in order to photograph them near their nesting site you require a license from here. There are certain conditions for this, such as proving your understanding of nature and photographic abilities by providing shots of other bird species on or near the nest.
3. Timing is also important. Whilst you are unlikely to get good shots of barn owls at night without triggering technology and flashes, the best time I find is early evening to dusk. The best weather is a clear day with little wind, which should provide the best light for photography anyway. Owls struggle to hunt in the rain of snow, so a clear day after days of poor weather means they'll be hungry and in need of more food. Likewise, they need more food in the Spring and Summer months when feeding chicks. On a good night in July, the pair near me probably bring back a vole, rat or mouse every 15 minutes and start hunting at a fairly consistent time. Having said this, during the winter or in times when food is scarce barn owls will be forced to hunt for longer and at different times, so keep an eye out.
4. Barn owls have amazing sight and hearing. They can also see in much lower light than us, and pin point where their prey is (watch when they hover and you'll notice them concentrating on the ground). However, there are drawbacks to this that you can exploit as a photographer. According to this interesting site, barn owls have a field of vision of about 110 degrees, in comparison to ours which is around 180. This is fantastic for spotting prey. However, when combined with the fact that in order to see well at night they haven't got the ability to move their eyes around like we can, ( they must look whichever way they're facing) it means that they are more likely to be interested in looking for prey than you. Animals which have predators like hares or deer have a much larger field of vision to alert them of any movement, but an owl's are sort of like looking through a short telephoto lens. Great for spotting the tiniest detail, but they have a blinkering effect. The owl above only noticed me when I was about 5m away and moved round when panning. If you crouch down and stay still, then you can probably get away without using camouflage. Having said that, wearing drab clothing, using a hide or shooting from a vehicle will probably get you closer and produce better photos.
5. Lastly but not least, you need light, lenses and luck. Good quality light, whether used to backlight or sidelight will make your pictures. Telephoto lenses are fairly essential. A 70-300mm zoom on a crop digital SLR (Canon 50d, Nikon D90 etc) will get you started, and anything with IS will help with panning in low light. Obviously a 500mm or 600mm f/4 would be the best piece of kit, but they also cost big money. And finally, luck. You can get into the right position, with the perfect light and the best weather but you aren't guaranteed to get anything. However, as Ernest Hemingway said, "You make your own luck". Put in the time learning and practicing and your chances of being there when something magical happens and getting a great photo of it are massively increased.
1. My first piece of advice is to find out more about barn owls and just watch local ones, whether you have your camera on you or are just out for a walk. Like a lot of wildlife, owls are creatures of habit, and the ones near me always head to the same fields to hunt, following the same route. If successful, they return to the nest and if not, they seem to have a set list of back-up hunting grounds. Spend as much time possible watching the owls and better photos will be the result. For example, with the photo below I saw the owl from about 100m away and knew it would fly along the ditch I was next to looking for prey. I crouched down and waited, and sure enough it came to me. A little too close maybe as my Canon 100-400mm lens was set to focus from 6.5m and it was closer than that!
2. Another tip is keeping out of the barn owl's way and not spooking them. They might not mind you being around, but chances are that if you're human shaped they'll view you as a threat. No photograph is worth disrupting an animals behaviour for, especially in these times of habitat loss and an increase in the dangers they face. Please also remember that they are a protected species like kinfishers and in order to photograph them near their nesting site you require a license from here. There are certain conditions for this, such as proving your understanding of nature and photographic abilities by providing shots of other bird species on or near the nest.
3. Timing is also important. Whilst you are unlikely to get good shots of barn owls at night without triggering technology and flashes, the best time I find is early evening to dusk. The best weather is a clear day with little wind, which should provide the best light for photography anyway. Owls struggle to hunt in the rain of snow, so a clear day after days of poor weather means they'll be hungry and in need of more food. Likewise, they need more food in the Spring and Summer months when feeding chicks. On a good night in July, the pair near me probably bring back a vole, rat or mouse every 15 minutes and start hunting at a fairly consistent time. Having said this, during the winter or in times when food is scarce barn owls will be forced to hunt for longer and at different times, so keep an eye out.
4. Barn owls have amazing sight and hearing. They can also see in much lower light than us, and pin point where their prey is (watch when they hover and you'll notice them concentrating on the ground). However, there are drawbacks to this that you can exploit as a photographer. According to this interesting site, barn owls have a field of vision of about 110 degrees, in comparison to ours which is around 180. This is fantastic for spotting prey. However, when combined with the fact that in order to see well at night they haven't got the ability to move their eyes around like we can, ( they must look whichever way they're facing) it means that they are more likely to be interested in looking for prey than you. Animals which have predators like hares or deer have a much larger field of vision to alert them of any movement, but an owl's are sort of like looking through a short telephoto lens. Great for spotting the tiniest detail, but they have a blinkering effect. The owl above only noticed me when I was about 5m away and moved round when panning. If you crouch down and stay still, then you can probably get away without using camouflage. Having said that, wearing drab clothing, using a hide or shooting from a vehicle will probably get you closer and produce better photos.
5. Lastly but not least, you need light, lenses and luck. Good quality light, whether used to backlight or sidelight will make your pictures. Telephoto lenses are fairly essential. A 70-300mm zoom on a crop digital SLR (Canon 50d, Nikon D90 etc) will get you started, and anything with IS will help with panning in low light. Obviously a 500mm or 600mm f/4 would be the best piece of kit, but they also cost big money. And finally, luck. You can get into the right position, with the perfect light and the best weather but you aren't guaranteed to get anything. However, as Ernest Hemingway said, "You make your own luck". Put in the time learning and practicing and your chances of being there when something magical happens and getting a great photo of it are massively increased.
Monday, 4 January 2010
Photographing Barn Owls
One of my photographic goals this year is to get better pictures of barn owls. Not that I haven't been pleased with some of the shots I got in 2009, but I know I can do better. Here's some of my favourite photos of barn owls so far:
If you like them, there's more owl photographs on my Flickr here.
Whilst I am pleased with the compostion and lighting of most of these, they are taken at the limits of the equipment I have available. I couldn't get much closer than about 30m to the birds most of the time and my longest autofocusing lens is my Canon 100-400mm IS on my Canon 40d. This means cropping is almost inevitable and the results don't always look pretty due to being at ISO 3200 for most of them! They're fine for Flickr, but I don't like putting work on my website unless I'm confident that it can be printed large.
This year I want photos of barn owls that are clearer, closer and better composed. Whilst being full frame is a bit of a handicap in terms of reach, I'm hoping the superior ISO abilities of my Canon 5d mkii will be a help. I'm making using of camouflage as well, in addition to moving closer to where they hunt on the other side of the river. If all else fails I might just start shooting more owls like this one below as they're a lot easier! In the mean time if anybody has got a 500/600mm f4 lens and a Canon 1d series camera they'd like to give away then please get in touch!
If you like them, there's more owl photographs on my Flickr here.
Whilst I am pleased with the compostion and lighting of most of these, they are taken at the limits of the equipment I have available. I couldn't get much closer than about 30m to the birds most of the time and my longest autofocusing lens is my Canon 100-400mm IS on my Canon 40d. This means cropping is almost inevitable and the results don't always look pretty due to being at ISO 3200 for most of them! They're fine for Flickr, but I don't like putting work on my website unless I'm confident that it can be printed large.
This year I want photos of barn owls that are clearer, closer and better composed. Whilst being full frame is a bit of a handicap in terms of reach, I'm hoping the superior ISO abilities of my Canon 5d mkii will be a help. I'm making using of camouflage as well, in addition to moving closer to where they hunt on the other side of the river. If all else fails I might just start shooting more owls like this one below as they're a lot easier! In the mean time if anybody has got a 500/600mm f4 lens and a Canon 1d series camera they'd like to give away then please get in touch!
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Some Recent Photos
Check out my Flickr Photostream for some of my recent photos. I went out for a couple of walks in the snow around Brigg before Christmas and managed to get photos of the swans (again), the local kestrel and some things I haven't managed to get photos of before like a Redshank and a Goosander. I had to crop some of them more than I would normally like to, but this is mainly because I was using my Canon 5d mk2. An amazing camera but I prefer crop cameras for subjects like birds. Regardless of what camera you have, it's worth braving the icy conditions if the light is right!
Friday, 1 January 2010
Welcome to my Blog!
Hello and welcome to my new blog! I've had a blog on my main website in the past, but for 2010 I wanted to have a new blog focused on wildlife photography. I enjoy taking photos of nature and have done so for several years. I've found that it is definitely a subject where practice, knowledge and more than a bit of luck are needed! I'll write about my experiences, equipment reviews and tips for other wildlife photographers (maybe with an odd photo now and again!). I'm looking forward to writing the blog, and I hope you enjoy reading it!
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