Photography Birds: Field Techniques and the Art of the Image 1680510991, 9781680510997

Table of contents :
Title
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Ethics
Chapter 1: The Study of Birds
Where to Start
Learning Materials and Methods
Chapter 2: Birds in The Field
General Principles for Approaching Birds
Bird Feeders
Photography Blinds
Playback
Predicting Behavior
Chapter 3: Equipment
Cameras
Camera Accessories
Lenses
Buying Used Equipment
Lens Accessories
Camera Support
Backpacks, Bags, and Cases
Camera and Lens Cleaning
Chapter 4: Technical Matters
Getting to Know Camera Settings
Understanding Exposure
Determining Depth of Field
Focusing
Photographing Birds in Flight
Making Sharp Images
Using a Tripod
Shooting Handheld
Working with Flash
Chapter 5: Creative Decisions
Subject
Light
White Balance
Composition
Behavior
Motion
Stitched Images
Storytelling
Chapter 6: Digital Darkroom with Adobe Lightroom
Hardware
Adobe Lightroom
Managing Media
Organizing and Culling in the Library Module
Image Editing in the Develop Module
Exporting Images
A Word of Encouragement
Resources
Index
About The Author

Citation preview

Photography BIRDS

Photography BIRDS

Field Techniques and the Art of the Image

GERRIT VYN IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY

MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS is dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas. 1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134 800-553-4453, www.mountaineersbooks.org Copyright © 2020 by Gerrit Vyn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Mountaineers Books and its colophon are registered trademarks of The Mountaineers organization. Printed in China Distributed in the United Kingdom by Cordee, www.cordee.co.uk First edition, 2020 Copyeditor: Anne Moreau Design and layout: McKenzie Long All photographs by the author unless credited otherwise Front cover photograph: Juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Rudong, China. 800mm, 1/400 second at f/5.6, ISO 800 Back cover photograph: Western Kingbird, Alberta. 600mmwith 1.4x teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/10, ISO 400 Frontispiece: Atlantic Puffins, Iceland. 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/8, ISO 800 Page 256: Male Pyrrhuloxia, South Texas. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/200 second at f/5.6, ISO 320 The views expressed in this book are those of the author. Gerrit is the North American representative of Tragopan, a French company. He recommends some of their products, as well as other brands, in these pages because, in his opinion, they’re some of the best available. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file for this title at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047342 (print) and https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047343 (ebook). Mountaineers Books titles may be purchased for corporate, educational, or other promotional sales, and our authors are available for a wide range of events. For information on special discounts or booking an author, contact our customer service at 800-553-4453 or [email protected]. Printed on FSC-certified materials ISBN (paperback): 978-1-68051-099-7 ISBN (ebook): 978-1-68051-100-0

CONTENTS Preface Introduction Ethics CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY OF BIRDS Where to Start Learning Materials and Methods CHAPTER 2: BIRDS IN THE FIELD General Principles for Approaching Birds Bird Feeders Photography Blinds Playback Predicting Behavior CHAPTER 3: EQUIPMENT Cameras Camera Accessories Lenses Buying Used Equipment Lens Accessories Camera Support Backpacks, Bags, and Cases Camera and Lens Cleaning CHAPTER 4: TECHNICAL MATTERS Getting to Know Camera Settings Understanding Exposure Determining Depth of Field Focusing Photographing Birds in Flight Making Sharp Images Using a Tripod Shooting Handheld Working with Flash CHAPTER 5: CREATIVE DECISIONS Subject Light White Balance

Composition Behavior Motion Stitched Images Storytelling CHAPTER 6: DIGITAL DARKROOM WITH ADOBE LIGHTROOM Hardware Adobe Lightroom Managing Media Organizing and Culling in the Library Module Image Editing in the Develop Module Exporting Images A Word of Encouragement Resources Index

PREFACE When Mountaineers Books first approached me about writing a field guide to bird photography, I was in the midst of a book tour promoting The Living Bird and kneedeep in difficult bird conservation photography projects, working in a sweltering garbage dump in India and an equally sweltering forest in Northern Brazil. The last thing I had time for was writing a book. And besides, I thought, does the world need another book on the technical aspects of bird photography? But then again, although many photographers could write about the techniques of bird photography, there are things I bring to the table that are unique. The first is my deep knowledge of and experience with birds and wildlife that began in earnest in childhood. The second is my dedication to the well-being, conservation, and understanding of birds. And finally, there is my perspective on how bird photography has evolved since the days of film and how during that period a rigid definition of what a good bird photograph is—front lit with a perfectly clean background and the bird’s head tipped just so—has come to dominate. I’d like to change that. For the last fifteen years I have been photographing, filming, and audio recording birds full-time for the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology. My work takes me around the world, and most of my efforts focus on documenting the lives of critically endangered birds and threatened ecosystems. From Bluethroated Macaws in Bolivia to Spoon-billed Sandpipers in Siberia to Greater Adjutant storks in India to Spotted Owls in Oregon, my job is to know the birds, strategize, and bring back the best possible media without disrupting the lives of some of the rarest creatures on Earth. The work is a perfect marriage of technical skill, creative drive, intellectual pursuit, and the satisfaction of doing some good in the world. It is work I love, though it can also be very difficult! Since the day I shot my first bird photos (of a Common Yellowthroat at Point Pelee National Park in Canada), a lot has changed. Back then, as a fourteen-year-old with my father’s Nikon F3, I was shooting ISO 50 film, labeling and storing slides in a file cabinet, and using manual focus lenses. Today, autofocus lenses are blazingly fast, we can shoot as many images as we like and get an immediate look at our work, and image stabilization and high ISOs have made just about any shot possible in any light. When I started, it was rare to see another photographer with a big 500mm or 600mm lens unless you were in a place like Yellowstone or Everglades National Park. And it was only professionals who had those lenses. Now, bird and wildlife photography is open to the amateur as well. There have been big changes in the environment since then too. Bird populations of many species have plummeted, there are five billion more people living on Earth than there were twenty-five years ago, and climate change is driving upheavals in natural systems, the consequences of which we have yet to grasp or fully accept.

Sandhill Crane, British Columbia. 400mm lens, 1/320 second at f/8, ISO 800

Though much has changed, there are many things relevant to the bird photographer that will always be the same. You have to get up early in the morning, you have to know your equipment like it is a part of you, and you have to know where and how to find birds and how they behave. And though there are fewer of them now, the birds too have remained the same. The song of the Wood Thrush still drifts through the tranquil evening forests of Appalachia. Flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits still charge off the western coast of Alaska each fall for their eight-day nonstop flight to New Zealand. And Black-capped Chickadees will still come to your backyard if you put out a little seed. My lifelong relationship with birds bleeds into my philosophy as a photographer and into this book. I prioritize care for the subjects over getting the shot. I focus on making images in natural conditions rather than luring birds into contrived settings or editing away reality in Photoshop. More than anything else, I preach getting to know the birds themselves as the route to becoming the best bird photographer you can be. Birds have brought great joy to my life. I hope they do the same for you.

Great Gray Owl, Southern Ontario. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/60 second at f/5.6, ISO 100 (film)

INTRODUCTION It was the last day of January, my car was packed, and I was on the move. Great Gray Owls had irrupted from their northern haunts of spruce and muskeg to hunt voles at the edges of forest and field in Southern Ontario. It was early in my photography career and though I had seen great grays before in my birding days, this was going to be my first opportunity to (I hoped!) photograph them with “real” equipment—a shiny new 500mm lens was riding shotgun in case any roadside birds appeared. During the long drive from my home in Detroit to the outskirts of Toronto, I was both anxious and excited. Would I be able to find owls? Would there be enough light? Could I make sharp images shooting on the snow? Mostly I worried about whether I would be able to make the images that I had in my mind’s eye. Images that were technically impeccable as well as emotive and beautiful. Images that captured the spirit of one of the most striking and mysterious birds on the planet. Scenarios ran through my head as snow danced across the pavement of Highway 401 ahead of me and flocks of Horned Larks lifted off the shoulders like blowing leaves. When I first saw the owl, it was roosting close to the twisted body of an old oak at the edge of a meadow blanketed in snow. It was late in the day, and it wouldn’t be long before the owl would begin hunting the meadow, moving from perch to perch and listening for voles under the snow as great grays do. I readied my equipment, attached the snowshoes I had fabricated to the end of each tripod leg, bundled up, and made my way out to a promising area where a number of small trees protruded from the white expanse—perfect hunting perches for a Great Gray Owl. Soon an owl appeared and then another. Predictably, one eventually landed on the very trees I had staked out. The perch it chose put it in front of a blank white sky, though—not a good image! After patiently watching the owl to get a feel for its comfort with me, I made a small move. If I could get to the little mound about forty feet away and set my tripod as high as it would go, I might get a good angle and put some trees behind the owl for a better background. I slowly headed over the snow. I didn’t stare at the owl, keeping it in my peripheral vision to monitor its comfort. I was careful with my footfall and moved as gently and quietly as I could. Before I set out walking, I had set my shutter speed and aperture manually to the correct exposure so I could begin shooting the moment I had my tripod set up. I reached the knoll, got in position, looked through the viewfinder, composed my image, and began making pictures. Perfection. Or so I thought. As I sat there with the owl, it began to snow—big soft flakes you get in only the mildest winter conditions. As snow accumulated on the head of the owl, I dropped my shutter speed to 1/60 second, braced myself against the camera, and, as calmly as I could, pressed the shutter release. The image of a Great Gray Owl in its element, illuminated perfectly by light reflecting off the snow and framed by falling snowflakes, was what I had dreamed about, what I had come for. I was elated.

A great bird photograph doesn’t happen by accident. There are hundreds of decisions to make and options to weigh. They start before you walk out the door, peak at the moment you click the shutter, and continue through the editing process. From the settings on your camera, to the best angles of light, to the way you approach your subject, to the exact spot from which to frame your image, bird photography is a constant calculus. And the more informed and experienced you are in all aspects of photography and natural history, the better you will be as a bird photographer. You are simultaneously a technician, an artist, and a meteorologist as well as a sensitive interpreter of the natural world and animal behavior. Even with all your preparations, however, some variables remain beyond your control, which is where luck comes in. When everything does come together, magic happens. The purpose of this book is to help you build the foundation you’ll need to become a great bird photographer. Chapter 1, The Study of Birds, provides an overview of bird identification, behavior, and habitat with jumping-off points to help you further your explorations into the world of birds. In Chapter 2, Birds in the Field, you’ll learn specific techniques for getting close to birds and interpreting their behavior. In Chapter 3, Equipment, I cover the tools bird photographers use and how to choose the gear that best fits your shooting needs. Chapter 4, Technical Matters, goes into techniques and camera settings as well as photographic concepts that are particularly relevant to bird photography. In Chapter 5, Creative Decisions, you’ll learn about approaches to light and composition, and how to think creatively in your imagemaking. Chapter 6, Digital Darkroom, discusses the fundamentals of editing and cataloging your images in Adobe Lightroom. With the plethora of camera models and lenses out there today and constant innovations in photography gear, it would be impossible to provide exact and up-todate information on all cameras and accessories or for every scenario. Most of the material in this book can be applied with any camera, but it will be up to you to consult your equipment manuals and to do some online research to fit the concepts found here to your specific situation. Although each chapter goes into detail on a specific topic—birds, cameras, techniques, creative decisions, media management and Adobe Lightroom—my hope is that, more than anything else, the book helps you learn to think like a bird photographer.

ETHICS Not that long ago a discussion of ethics might appear at the end of a book like this or not appear at all. That’s no longer an option. We are living in a time when the popularity of photographing wildlife has exploded, and the potential for photographers to negatively impact birds and biodiversity has never been greater. Several factors are at play here. The first is the sheer number of people photographing wildlife. You’ve probably noticed this! The second is that some photographers may not be aware of the sensitivity of many species or the fragility of some habitats. They may not know how to photograph wild animals without disturbing them. By being better informed and being aware of our cumulative and collective impact on wildlife and habitats, we can create the images of our dreams while also feeling proud of how we got them. A theme running through this book is the value of a naturalist’s education: it not only improves your photography, it also tunes your ethical barometer. PUT WILDLIFE FIRST

Always put the welfare of your subjects first, and know that birds perceive the world in a manner completely different from the way humans do. Just because it looks like you aren’t doing any harm, or there is no proof of harm, does not mean your actions are benign. The things that impact birds can be too subtle for us to see or fully comprehend. Be conservative in your actions. A good general guideline to follow with any bird is articulated in the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act: “Harming or disturbing a species means to agitate or bother them to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, 1) injury, 2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, or 3) nest abandonment by the same.” Many bird species, subspecies, and unique wildlife populations in the United States are legally protected by the Endangered Species Act. The act prohibits “take” of any listed species; take in this case means “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.” Bird photographers should be especially cautious around endangered species because of the potential for photographers’ activities to fall into the categories of harassing, harming, and pursuing. “I will not harm my subject” is a guiding principle that every wildlife photographer should embrace, whether anyone is watching or not. For those with a genuine love and respect for nature, it is easy to follow once one knows how. PROTECT SENSITIVE LOCATIONS AND HABITAT

Always take care of where you are stepping and minimize the impact your movements will have on habitats, especially if you are with a group. Stay on designated trails whenever possible, and step on rocks when walking through delicate terrain, such as

alpine areas. Avoid creating trails to sensitive sites, and never cut away or remove vegetation around nests or other places important to birds.

Extreme care should always be taken around endangered species like this Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Chukotka, Russia. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 250

Use special care around sensitive locations such as nests and nesting colonies, display areas, communal roosts, and prime foraging areas. In places often frequented by bird photographers, the effects of seemingly tiny actions by individuals add up over time. RESPECT PRIVATE PROPERTY

It goes without saying that you should not enter private property without the landowner’s permission. I would go further, and suggest we try to act in ways that make the welfare of the bird the priority, anticipating indirect effects our actions may have on the bird. A few years ago, I encountered a landowner who was tired of birders and photographers coming to look at a Northern Hawk Owl residing in his pasture for the winter. Though I had driven a long way to photograph the bird, upon seeing the landowner’s anger and hearing about his behavior from others there, I decided to leave my camera in the car and move on. A week later, the landowner illegally shot the bird because birders and photographers, despite ongoing reports online about the highly agitated landowner, had continued to stream in. Many argued that they had a right to be there, because they were on a public roadway, and they did. But whether it was within anyone’s rights or not, the outcome was tragic for the bird. Though this was an extreme case, consider that if you anger and frustrate a landowner, they may be very tempted to make their property less hospitable for birds.

REFRAIN FROM FLUSHING BIRDS

Do your best to not flush birds. In general, the more you pursue a bird that does not want you close, the more disruptive you are being to its routine. If you find that a bird doesn’t want you close, do not continue pursuing it or repeatedly flushing it. Individuals of the same species will often react to you in quite different ways, so try moving on to another bird or another opportunity. Avoid intentionally flushing flocks of roosting birds or birds like hawks and owls just to get a shot of birds in flight. For Long-eared Owls or flocks of migrating shorebirds, favorable roosts and feeding areas are often hard to come by. Besides, a flushed bird will usually be flying away from you—not the best opportunity for a photograph! On the other hand, flushing a robin from your lawn as it searches for earthworms or a flock of gulls loafing on a beach is inconsequential because these kinds of birds are always on the move and are accustomed to regular interruptions from humans, predators, and a host of other things. How you retreat is crucial too. When I succeed in slowly and carefully stalking within shooting range of a bird, taking the photographs, and then departing without alarming the bird, I feel immense satisfaction. All too often, I see photographers carefully approach within shooting range of a bird, but once they get their images, they stand up suddenly, flushing the bird. Of course, there are times when I disturb the bird despite my best efforts, but I always try not to. MINIMIZE PLAYING BIRDSONG

Playing bird vocalizations to attract birds is both controversial and common practice among bird photographers and birders. As a rule, I don’t recommend playing bird vocalizations because it can be highly disruptive. However, there are species for which it is a nonissue and times when impact is minimal. Because many photographers will choose to occasionally play birdsong and because the technique has the potential to be abused, I have included a more thorough discussion of this topic in Chapter 2, Birds in the Field. If you are new to birds, I suggest refraining entirely from playing birdsong in the field. Give yourself time to gain knowledge of their habits and sensitivities before you consider using sound. FACTOR IN OTHERS: PHOTOGRAPHERS, BIRDERS, FIELD BIOLOGISTS

I believe that experienced photographers do their best work and get their best images when they work slowly and alone. That said, some photographers prefer to work with another person or in groups, or they may enroll in a photo tour or workshop. Working with others can be an excellent way to learn from those who may be more experienced, but groups have the potential to cause greater damage to habitat and to crowd birds. Group dynamics can sometimes cause people to be less patient or to jockey for positions, causing more disruption to birds. Be particularly careful to avoid crowding birds: maintain a respectful distance and stick together as a group rather than fanning out around the subjects. Many bird photographers—especially those just learning about birds, photography, or both—will sign up for a bird photography tour. Because of their position, leaders of these tours have a special responsibility to teach and model good ethical practices,

which place the welfare of birds and habitats ahead of their own commercial and photographic interests. Before you participate in a photo tour, research the tour and its leaders to find out how they work, talk to other photographers who’ve joined past events, or discuss conservation and ethics with the leaders themselves. You may read on a website that a tour or workshop entails baiting owls in the winter, for example—a signal that they care more about the shot than the welfare of the birds. Cross them off the list. If you do participate in a tour and find the leaders’ actions problematic, don’t be afraid to ask questions, share your experiences with other photographers, and report their actions to state or federal wildlife agencies. Conversely, support those who do things right, and spread the word. If you conduct bird photography workshops yourself, start and end each one with a strong plea for ethical behavior and model that behavior during your workshops. Most birders and bird photographers are thoughtful and respectful, but a common area of contention is how close photographers get to birds. Photographers need to get closer to birds than birders do, and they sometimes flush birds. This negatively affects the desired experience of birders and can ignite tensions over a location or a rare bird. Unfortunately, some birders will label as unethical anything a bird photographer does that alters the bird’s behavior and may use concern about the bird’s welfare, founded or not, as a point of argument. It is up to you to decide whether the photo opportunities are worth upsetting people or being perceived as unethical. This is one of several reasons I avoid places frequented by both birders and bird photographers. Sometimes that means I miss out on something exciting. Sometimes the best way to photograph a particular species is by working directly with a field biologist who is studying it. Biologists usually have intimate knowledge of the species, have the best understanding of how a species will react to people, and have access to locations that are off-limits to the public. If you can create images that aid them in their research or make a contribution to the conservation of a species, it can be a win-win. But I have also been in situations where I was not comfortable with the amount of stress and disturbance being caused by biologists during the course of their research. Use your own judgment in these situations. DO NOT BAIT OWLS OR RAPTORS

There are photographers who routinely feed live rodents to owls and other birds of prey to lure them closer for images of birds in flight. Some even lead tours where clients pay them to do this—in Scandinavia, parts of Canada, and, more recently, the United States. Of the images you see of Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, and Snowy Owls flying toward the camera, 95 percent have been baited this way. As someone with deep respect for the natural world, I find this practice profoundly offensive, unethical, and selfish. It is a method that is grossly abused by some and often done for profit. It upsets the general public and landowners, affronts other photographers, and risks harm to the birds themselves. Owls can be readily habituated to human handouts and will quickly associate humans with food. This can put them in harm’s way in parts of their range where hunting them is allowed or they might be shot illegally. Baiting also has the potential to attract owls to roadsides where photographers congregate and often bait from. Car collisions are a major source of mortality for owls.

I am constantly amazed by the number of images I see winning photography contests, being published in magazines, and even being used by organizations dedicated to conservation that have obviously been taken in ways that endanger the welfare of birds, wildlife, or habitat. Photos of baited owls are everywhere. In one case, a photo of a White-bellied Sea Eagle that was taken from a drone at extremely close range won a major award. Drones harass and cause distress to many bird species that perceive them as a threat and will actually physically attack them or flee from them. And one of the most prestigious wildlife photo contests in the world has been known to award images of baited subjects. As photographers, we should speak up when we see these images being used and help to educate editors, contest organizers, and online forum moderators who may be unaware of the extent of these practices and how to spot them.

1

THE STUDY OF BIRDS

Red-naped Sapsucker, Washington. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/11, fill flash –1⅔ stop, ISO 250

me as I write this are shelves filled with books about birds. My first tattered B eside field guide, Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds, sits among hundreds of other books ranging from early natural history classics like Arthur Cleveland Bent’s series, Life Histories of North American Birds, to modern books on bird identification, conservation, behavior, and distribution. Also on my shelves are years of field notebooks. They contain everything from detailed notes I made as a fourteen-year-old while observing a Merlin nest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to the current locations of Northern Pygmy-Owl territories near my home in Portland, Oregon. On my computer too are resources devoted to understanding birds: folders of scientific papers, audio recordings, maps, and bookmarks to my favorite bird-related websites. When people ask me for advice on how to become a better bird photographer, my first answer is become a better naturalist—know birds better. Learn everything you

can about birds through both research and study at home and observing wild birds in nature. The people who consistently make great photographs of birds don’t get those opportunities because they were born bird whisperers. They get them because they’ve studied birds and bird behavior, and they know that most individuals of a given species will behave similarly—that birds are predictable. By learning about birds through a variety of sources and observing them closely over time, you will develop instincts and intuition that will lead you to make fruitful decisions regarding the season, location, and species you want to photograph. And the more you know, the more strategic and creative you will be as you look for ways to shoot unique images. On the flip side, you will also know when it is a fool’s errand to work a specific species or location, and you’ll naturally apply your efforts toward circumstances with better odds. Knowing birds well will not only help you develop ideas for what, when, and where to shoot, it will also inform your thinking about why you want to shoot—how you want to depict species in your images. If you are interested in showing aspects of a bird’s daily life in your images, it helps to know what that life entails. Do you want a shot of the species with its favored prey in its beak? What behaviors might be unique to this species? What in its habitat do you want to include in your image? What conservation angles could be captured? Through repeatedly viewing images and illustrations of birds, you will also get an idea for how a species is “supposed” to look, what postures are comfortable and natural to it. You’ll throw away those images that show a species in awkward or unflattering positions. Although getting to know birds may seem a daunting task, it should be a fun one. You can start right away at your local library and bookstore and on your computer or cell phone. The resources that exist today for people wishing to learn more about birds are abundant. And luckily, most people who get into bird photography do so because they are already interested in nature and birds—they find them fascinating, beautiful, and life enriching, and they enjoy the time spent outside in forest and field. There is nothing more valuable to the bird photographer than an intimate knowledge of birds.

Two things every bird photographer should have: a field guide and a good pair of binoculars WHERE TO START

If I were starting out again today and just discovering birds, I would begin the same way I did when I was twelve years old: I would buy a good field guide and get to know it. Page through your field guide thoroughly and often, look at the plumages, the different bird families and groups, which species have similarities and why. Read the descriptions and note the information on species habits. Pay attention to the maps too. Learn which birds occur near you and when; where more distant birds live; and what bird communities live in different regions or habitats. Next, buy a good pair of binoculars. Looking at birds through a good pair of binoculars opens up a whole new world. They take a bit of getting used to, but it’s a quick learning curve that pays off. I would also get a book on bird feeding and put up some feeders. If you haven’t paid much attention to birds before, you’ll be amazed at the diversity of species a good bird feeding station will attract. The backyard is a great place to begin developing your skills. One thing that was not available to me when I started out is mobile apps. Download one of the free bird apps that include a selection of bird sounds, and start learning the calls of your neighborhood birds. Come spring migration, you may be astounded at the number of species that pass through that you had never noticed before.

Identifying birds like this Blackburnian Warbler in New York is a key skill to develop early on. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/7.1, ISO 640

Lastly, follow your interests. You don’t have to learn everything at once. If herons catch your eye, allow yourself to focus on them for a while. Let birds be your guide to exploring the world around you, and you will start seeing in a whole new way, both as a photographer and as a person inhabiting this wonderful planet.

VISUAL IDENTIFICATION

First off, learn what bird it is that you are looking at—study how to visually identify birds. Your field guide will be your go-to reference for bird identification, and your binoculars will be invaluable. Be sure to read the section on how to identify birds in the beginning of your field guide. If that is not enough, there are innumerable references available for all aspects of bird identification. Identification becomes much easier when you are intimately familiar with the birds in your field guide from paging through it a thousand times. With time, you’ll have a sense of where birds go and when, and what their habitat preferences are. This will help you quickly narrow the possibilities as you figure out what species is in front of you. As with any of this, starting local and then expanding outward is the way to go. Learn to recognize the birds right outside your front door first. SOUND IDENTIFICATION

If there is one skill I could not do without, it is the ability to identify most birds by ear. Recognizing bird vocalizations allows you to take a quick inventory of every bird within earshot anywhere you go—a time-consuming or impossible feat to do visually. When the first Black-headed Grosbeak arrives in my neighborhood in spring, I know it. Through sound, I am sometimes tipped off to something unusual, like the faint calls of a begging owlet in the distance. When in search of a particular species in the field, I listen for it. You can familiarize yourself with bird vocalizations by listening to recordings on an app or CD. For me, what best cements the sound in my head—and connects my ears with my eyes—is to follow the sound I don’t recognize, track down the bird, and then identify the bird visually. Developing your ear takes time and experience, but it is crucial for bird photographers.

Learning to identify birds by their vocalizations is one of the most valuable skills a bird photographer can develop. Limpkin, South Florida. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/640 second at f/8, ISO 1000 DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE

The range maps in your field guide will be your first reference for learning where and

when birds are present—their geographic distribution and seasonal occurrence. A range map typically uses color to indicate a bird’s winter range, its summer or breeding range, or, for a bird that doesn’t migrate, its year-round range. For more indepth treatments of distribution and occurrence, you can also consult one of the many excellent breeding bird atlases, organized by state or province, or dig into eBird.org, where birders enter their sightings and you can explore those data through maps, graphs, and charts. Knowing when and where birds are likely to occur is key to finding them.

Range maps, like this one for the Dark-eyed Junco from the All About Birds website, tell you where a species is likely to occur at different times of the year. HABITAT AND BEHAVIOR

A bird’s habitat preferences, which may vary seasonally, offer clues to finding the birds you’re interested in and identifying the birds you’ve found. To find an American Bittern, you have to know they like healthy wetlands with emergent vegetation such as cattails. For Harlequin Ducks, head to fast-moving mountain streams in the summer or rocky coastlines in the winter. Your field guide provides basic habitat information for each species and is the place to start when you’re learning. Natural history books devoted to a single species or family of birds will reveal the nuances of a species’ habitat requirements through the seasons.

Knowing birds’ habitat preference is key to finding them. Black Oystercatchers are found only on rocky Pacific coastlines; these were in California. 300mm, 1/320 second at f/9, ISO 400

Once you know how to identify a bird, where and when it occurs, and its habitat preferences, learning about its behavior through research and observation is one of the most helpful tools for a bird photographer. Bird behavior refers to all the things that a bird species does, and since individuals of a given species generally behave in the same way, you can make reasonable predictions about what to expect in the field. Insight into behavior helps you previsualize what you can shoot a bird doing and find the best opportunities for getting the images you want. For example, many grouse species perform dramatic courtship dances each spring at predictable locations called leks. Learning what these displays entail visually, when and where they take place, what the biological story is, and what other behavior happens on the lek will be instrumental in planning your shoot. Most field guides don’t delve too deeply into behavior unless those behaviors aid in identification. You’ll have to do some digging —in other books, on websites, and through field observation—to get a fuller picture of a bird species’ behavior. FIELD NOTES

As you progress in your study of ornithology, your own field notes take on greater value. Field notes can include your observations of birds, other wildlife, and habitats as well as details relevant to shooting. Your notes are a great learning tool and a personal reference for taking photographs in the future. On what date do the Wood Ducks typically fledge from the nest box in a nearby pond? Which spots along the wildlife drive at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge are best for morning light? What other bird species were singing that morning I shot the Eastern Meadowlark at Kissimmee Prairie? What were the coordinates of the lek where I shot the Sharp-tailed

Grouse ten years ago? I frequently refer to past field notes to recall details about certain locations, the timing of events, and the behavior of birds.

For a few weeks every year Sandhill Cranes return each evening to roost along the Platte River in Nebraska during their annual spring migration northward. 330mm, 1/30 second at f/4, ISO 3200 LEARNING MATERIALS AND METHODS

As you set out to learn more about birds and their behavior, you’ll likely find an overwhelming amount of information available, and one of the hardest tasks you’ll face is figuring out which ones are worth the investment of your time and money. Gathered below are resources I’ve found most valuable along with tips on how to get the most out of them. FIELD GUIDES

There are a multitude of field guides out there today that utilize either photographs or illustrations to help you identify birds. As a bird photographer, you might think a field guide with photos is the way to go, but I highly recommend you purchase a field guide that is illustrated. Illustrations provide the best renditions of color, typical shape and posture, and perfect plumage, things that can be lacking or inconsistent in a collection of photographs. The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America strikes a good balance between being comprehensive but not including so many illustrations of plumage variation that things become confusing for the beginner. If you’d prefer a field guide that only covers eastern or western birds, take a look at the Sibley or Peterson field guides. OTHER BOOKS

There are countless bird books out there covering just about anything bird you can imagine. A glance at my shelf reveals titles like Grassland Grouse and Their

Conservation, North American Owls, The Atlas of Breeding Birds of Michigan, and Guide to the Birds of Madagascar. How deep your exploration of birds goes is up to you and your interest, but I do recommend The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior and Sibley’s Birding Basics as good first supplements to your field guide and great introductions to bird biology, behavior, natural history, and conservation. For a more robust, comprehensive treatment of these subjects take a look at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology.

You can never have too many reference books.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Merlin Bird ID app MOBILE PHONE APPS

Mobile phone apps for birds allow you to carry a digital field guide, complete with

illustrations, photographs, maps, and audio recordings, right on your cell phone. While I will always recommend having a field guide in book form, if only for the pleasure of looking through a book in bed at night rather than staring at a screen, the convenience of an app on your phone while carrying camera gear in the field is hard to overstate. Apps are lightweight and offer quick access to birdsongs too. I would start with one of the free apps, like Merlin Bird ID by the Cornell Lab. Popular paid apps include the Sibley eGuide to Birds. ONLINE BIRD GUIDES

There are plenty of online resources dedicated to birds as well. Here are a few of my favorites: All About Birds

All About Birds (allaboutbirds.org) is Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s online guide to birds and bird watching. The bird guide features identification help, sounds, natural history, interactive species comparisons, and more. Check out the special Bird Academy section with multimedia and online courses on topics including bird ID, behavior, and photography.

If you’re lucky, learning about birds will lead you to see the world in an entirely different way. Eastern Screech-Owl, New York. 800mm, 1/13 second at f/8, ISO 400 Audubon

The Audubon Guide to North American Birds (audubon.org/bird-guide) is complete with photos, illustrations, sounds, range maps, and informative text. eBird

eBird (ebird.org) is a massive global birding database, where birders enter their observations in real time and the resulting data are made available online. By opening an account and clicking on “Explore” you can access maps and graphs of bird sightings and distribution as well as millions of photos, sounds, and videos. Whether you want to know what birds have been seen in a local park this week or where Spotted Sandpipers have been seen during the month of May, you can find out by exploring real data on eBird. Consider giving back by entering your own bird checklists and sharing your photos. Birds of the World

The Birds of the World online (birdsoftheworld.org) is a subscription-based website with the most comprehensive and current natural history species accounts of North American birds ever assembled. It is my number-one resource when I want to get into the details of a species’ behavior, the timing of biological events in its yearly cycle (phenology), or anything else. You can subscribe for full access or check with your local library as it may subscribe to the Birds of the World. FIELD TRIPS AND CLASSES

Local Audubon chapters, nature centers, state parks, and community colleges offer a range of lectures, field trips, and other activities devoted to the understanding and enjoyment of birds. Birding has never been more popular, so a little searching should reveal plenty of local options to kick-start your bird learning. The Cornell Lab also offers “Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology,” a home study course that students can follow at their own pace. AUDIO COLLECTIONS

Though the birding apps suggested above provide basic sounds for many species, I recommend investing in a few audio collections. The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology produces comprehensive collections of bird vocalizations (www3.macaulaylibrary.org/guides) that often include regional and individual variations in bird vocalizations as well as more complete repertoires of all the vocalizations a species makes. While an app usually includes one song and one call for each songbird species, a comprehensive audio collection may contain eight or nine recordings for a single species. Collections focus on geographical areas or a group of species, such as warblers. The Cornell Guide to Bird Sounds: Master Set for North America is the most comprehensive guide ever made for North American birds and includes almost 5000 recordings of 737 bird species. You can also explore photos, sounds, and videos of the world’s birds for free at MacaulayLibrary.org.

A species account landing page from the subscription-based Birds of the World online.

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BIRDS IN THE FIELD

Getting close to birds requires being at the right place at the right time. Crested Auklets, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 1600

say you want to photograph Surfbirds and Black Turnstones in the Seattle L et’s area. First, you come up with your plan. Knowing that shorebirds like these typically forage at low tide and roost in flocks at regular locations at high tide, you figure your best bet is to find one of these high tide roosts and wait for the birds to come to you. Your research informs you that these species prefer rocky coasts, so at high tide, you head out for a little reconnaissance at the longest rocky shoreline you can access. Once on site, you soon hear the rattling calls of turnstones, and you discover a nice roost at Alki Point that looks well situated for morning light. Upon returning home, you consult local tide tables and find a few days when high tide could coincide with good morning light. On the chosen morning, you will be in your position at high tide as the silvery winter sun peers through the clouds and the shorebirds fly toward you—just as you predicted. Of course, rain may be falling, an off-leash dog may chase the birds off, or perhaps a Peregrine Falcon flushes them. While you can’t control or anticipate every factor in photographing birds, a welldeveloped plan and good practices mean you will not waste your time wandering aimlessly in search of birds to photograph. Controlling what you can as you approach birds, being able to predict their behavior, and having a strategy are key to becoming a great bird photographer. Experienced bird photographers rely on their knowledge of birds and their habits, deepen their experience in the field over time, and use specific techniques and types of equipment to take advantage of how birds perceive their environments and live their lives, all of which make bird photography easier. In this chapter, we’ll explore

different methods for approaching and getting close to birds. With practice and a bit of luck, you’ll soon get the photos you dream of. GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR APPROACHING BIRDS

Many aspiring bird photographers will read this section before reading any other parts of this book. Getting close enough to photograph birds behaving naturally, without disturbing them or causing them to flee, is probably the most challenging part of bird photography. At some locations and with certain birds, it can be easy to get close, but as a rule, it is quite difficult. In this section, you’ll find my techniques for getting within shooting range in the field, including advice for those just getting started with bird photography. Keep in mind that for many species, individuals, and locations, it is just not possible to approach close enough for good images; sometimes you need to look for other opportunities. HAVE PATIENCE

Birds respond best when we are patient. Approaching birds slowly over time and allowing them to become accustomed to our presence and movements is perhaps the most important technique for getting close while they continue to behave naturally. When we give birds time to get used to us, they can be remarkably confiding. I once had a Savannah Sparrow that I was photographing in Alaska fly up and land on the brim of my hat, singing several times before departing! When a bird appears to be easily tolerating your approach, beware of the temptation to rush things. More often than not, with just one wrong move, the bird will be gone. Be patient.

Photographing this Sage Thrasher in Wyoming required being there in early breeding season when males are actively and conspicuously singing from the tops of sagebrush, observing the bird to identify its favored song perches in its territory, setting up a blind near one of those perches, and waiting for the bird to make its rounds and return. 500mm with 1.4 teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/8, ISO 400

REMOVE VARIABLES

I try to be meticulous when it comes to limiting variables. What I mean by this is that I want the bird to have the fewest possible stimuli to pay attention to or potentially be alarmed by. Before approaching, I assess a situation and identify any variables that I can eliminate. The best example of this is another person. If I am with someone else, I don’t want them doing anything that the bird will also have to pay attention to, including staring at it from a distance. I also want to keep that person on the same line that I am approaching from—in other words, directly behind me, so the bird isn’t feeling pressure from more than one direction. Some other ways to limit variables include tucking in any clothing or straps that might blow in the wind and not wearing any bright colors or whites. I want to be the only thing the bird has to get used to. Wind is one variable you can’t control, and birds are often much more difficult to approach in windy conditions. When a bird’s senses are highly stimulated, it tends to be less comfortable and is likely to flush from farther away.

A slow, patient, nonthreatening approach is key to making birds comfortable with your presence. For this image I put myself in the right position and the cranes made the final approach toward me. Whooping Cranes, South Dakota. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/3200 second at f/5.6, ISO 400 DRESS TO BLEND IN

Bird and wildlife photographers generally fall into two camps when it comes to donning camouflage clothing—they either wear it all the time and swear by it or never wear it at all. Fans of camouflage say it helps minimize a bird’s perception of their movements and it makes the human form look a bit smaller and less imposing. I suspect both of these things are true and that camouflage can provide an edge in some situations. For me, whatever benefit it provides is outweighed by the fact that I don’t want to be the guy decked out in camouflage in a public place. I usually choose not to wear any type of camouflage and to use blinds when I feel concealment is necessary.

Typically, my philosophy is that I want the bird to know I am there, to become accustomed to me, and to get used to my movements. I do, however, tend to wear drab earth tones and avoid bright colors and whites. That said, I will wear camouflage on assignments where I am working with extremely skittish species or in an area where birds have become extra vigilant due to human persecution. Sometimes the only way to get close is for the bird to have no idea a human is present, and camo can help with that. AVOID LOOKING LIKE A PREDATOR

Whether I am walking, crawling, or slithering toward a bird, I often do two things to avoid appearing to be a predator. First, I try not to look directly at the bird, and I don’t stare at it unless I know it is comfortable. I get in position by glancing at the bird from time to time or by using peripheral vision. I will often keep my head behind my camera and tripod so I appear smaller and conceal my face as much as possible. Second, I generally approach birds at an angle rather than moving directly at them. Many birds are easier to approach if they perceive you to be moving past them and not directly at them. You can either approach in wide zigzags or at an angle that gradually brings you closer but gives the impression you are moving alongside. MINIMIZE MOVEMENTS AND SOUNDS

Birds don’t like things that move quickly or suddenly. All of your movements should be slow, gentle, and contained. No arms waving, cameras swinging on straps, or standing up or squatting down quickly. In general, the longer you spend with a bird and the more comfortable it becomes, the looser you can be with your movements as long as they remain slow and calm. Again, one wrong move and birds fly away.

I had two things going for me when approaching this Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Rudong, China. I kept a low profile, lying on my belly in the mud and working from a ground pod, and this individual is a tamer-than-usual fresh juvenile. 800mm, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 800

For the world capital of habituated birds, head to South Florida, where you will find a wide variety of photogenic species, like these Sandhill Cranes, that are completely tolerant of people at many locations. 400mm, 1/600 second at f/5.6, ISO 500

In general, be as quiet as you can. This includes not speaking loudly, which I see often in the field and still can’t understand. Birds are easily startled by sudden or unfamiliar sounds like twigs snapping. One sound that you can’t avoid and that you will want to introduce gently is the clicking of your camera shutter. Many birds will not tolerate a camera’s shutter noise at close range, especially if it is presented suddenly. Depending on the camera I am using and how loud it is (and some, like the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II shooting 14 frames per second, are very loud!), I will start introducing the sound of the shutter before I reach shooting range. I will take single images at first, then perhaps some short bursts as the bird gets used to it and while I move closer. Most birds quickly become accustomed to both loud shutters and flash if you introduce them gently and from a distance. Don’t underestimate your shutter’s ability to scare off birds, and only shoot in bursts if necessary. For some birds, you will want to use your silent shutter function. All of this applies when working from a blind as well. RECOGNIZE AND REACT TO BEHAVIORS

Birds often give us behavioral cues that tell us how comfortable they are with our presence and how likely they are to depart. By paying attention to these cues, you can manage your approach and know when it’s time to freeze and wait and when it is okay to proceed. Signs that a bird is alarmed or more vigilant include standing more erect, stopping what they are doing, and alarm calling. Some birds like raptors will lean forward and expel waste prior to departing a perch. In addition to these more obvious signals, there are subtler clues that different species give that you’ll learn only through

experience and observation. Be aware of the behavior of other species nearby that may spook or flush the bird you are interested in. Hypervigilant birds like yellowlegs, stilts, and some ducks and geese can make it impossible to approach the bird you want to photograph. In general, the more birds there are around your target bird, the greater the chance that one species or individual will send the whole group flying. Approach isolated birds when you can.

Some owl species, like this Northern Hawk Owl in Varanger, Norway, can exhibit remarkably trusting behavior around people. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/8, ISO 800

Backyard birds like this American Goldfinch in New York can be photographed as they come and go from bird feeders set up for photography. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/160 second at f/7.1, ISO 400 KEEP A LOW PROFILE

You can get surprisingly close to many birds, especially shorebirds, if you stay low to the ground, crawling or sliding on your belly while pushing your tripod-mounted camera ahead of you. I have had many experiences where flocks of shorebirds have surrounded me at arm’s length as though I wasn’t there while I lay prone and relatively still. Similarly, if you are working in uneven terrain, on hillsides or even a ditch, it is usually best to approach your subjects from below rather than loom over them.

PRACTICE WITH HABITUATED AND TAME BIRDS

Habituated birds make great subjects for those learning bird photography or for those practicing new techniques. And often you won’t have to go far from home. Individuals of many bird species will become accustomed to people if they encounter them daily without being harassed. This is most common in urban and suburban areas and at national and state parks and wildlife refuges, where wildlife is protected and human visitation is high. Ducks and wading birds in city parks and gulls, terns, pelicans, and shorebirds at public beaches are also good bets. After observing birds for some time, you’ll notice that certain species are rarely habituated to humans no matter how frequently they encounter them. Belted Kingfishers, for example, are notoriously difficult to approach even though they are common in places like parks, waterfronts, and marinas. Some bird species are just plain tame—they have little fear of humans whether they have encountered a human in their life or not. Birds of the boreal forest like Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, Boreal Owls, and Spruce Grouse are usually remarkably tame. Birds that spend most of their life at sea—boobies, albatross, puffins, murres, auklets, phalaropes—are generally oblivious to people as well. For some species, juveniles that have just departed the breeding grounds can be remarkably tame compared to adults. Examples include juvenile Snowy Owls and many shorebird species. Sometimes you’ll run into birds that are tame for no known reason. Lucky you! DON’T GIVE UP

When I say don’t give up, I don’t mean you should continue to pursue a bird that is clearly disturbed or that you should repeatedly flush a particular bird. I mean don’t give up generally. It is easy to get discouraged after a few failed attempts and conclude that photographing a particular species is just not possible at a given location. I can’t say how many times I have resisted the urge to give up and have tried one last time, resulting in a close approach just when the light was getting good. Despite experiences like those, I still have to remind myself from time to time to persist. BIRD FEEDERS

One of the best places to work on your photographic skills, capture lots of action, and build a nice portfolio of passerine subjects is right in your own backyard. There are many excellent books and online resources dedicated to bird feeding, so rather than replicate that here, I will focus on things you’ll want to pay attention to for photography. LIGHT DIRECTION

Before setting up your bird feeders, spend a few days paying attention to the light in your yard. What does it look like in the morning versus the afternoon? How about when it is cloudy versus sunny? Decide the locations of your feeders based on the type of light you envision shooting in, and note the direction you’ll face and time of day it occurs. Where I live in Oregon, I position myself for overcast light in the morning, and my shooting direction and location is dictated primarily by an opening in my tree canopy, which gives the brightest directional light. If you live in the desert

of Arizona, you’ll probably expect sunshine and decide to shoot toward the west in the morning with the rising sun behind you. Everyone’s yard will be different.

A simple improvised backyard setup for bird photography: perches, perch holders, a tabletop platform for bringing ground foragers up to seated eye level, and a tree stump for woodpeckers and nuthatches

Strategically placed bird seed (in a small plastic cup tacked to the back side of the perch) was used to lure this bird into place. Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Texas. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/8, ISO 500 BACKGROUND

Once you have an idea of what direction you’ll be shooting and what parts of your yard get the best light, you’ll see what your options are for backgrounds. Try to place your feeders at least several yards from the background, or more depending on the look you are going for. Generally, the farther away the background is from your feeders, the better. However, some species require a bit of cover to be comfortable and won’t venture out to feeders that are too exposed. CONCEALMENT

It is usually best to work from a blind. Some birds like chickadees and nuthatches are fairly tolerant and will continue to come to your feeders even if you sit in the open, but many other species won’t. If you are concealed, you may be lucky enough to have something special like a Sharp-shinned Hawk perch close by. A pop-up blind that you can move around for different lighting, perches, and backgrounds, like the Tragopan

V6, is a great option for this type of shooting. FOOD PLACEMENT AND PERCHES

Strategize about how you can manipulate the movement of birds by limiting food sources and available perches so that action is concentrated where you want it. Birds tend to stage or wait on a convenient perch until a feeder becomes free of other birds or until they’re done surveying the area. Use this to your advantage. Consider placing food so that it is not visible in your photographs but gets birds to perch where you want them to. Some photographers make the perch itself an ornate addition to a photograph. These types of images can look contrived, especially when your portfolio is full of them. I try to provide perches that are natural and attractive but not overdone. Bear in mind that bird species each have their own food preferences, and most bird species won’t come to feeders at all because they eat insects or something other than seeds and grains. Consult a book on bird feeding for more information on different bird foods and what species they attract. Finally, don’t forget water. In arid environments, birdbaths will attract more birds than food. Birds are especially attracted to water sources that are dripping. A quick internet search will give you some ideas for do-it-yourself birdbath drippers. PHOTOGRAPHY BLINDS

Sometimes the only way to photograph a particular species, location, or behavior is by working from a photography blind. A blind, or hide as they’re known overseas, is a small structure you get inside that conceals you and your movements. When a blind is used correctly, you are so well hidden the birds go about their business like you aren’t even there, allowing you to immerse yourself completely in the world of birds. Though some people dislike working from them, blinds have made possible some of my life’s most rewarding and intimate experiences with wildlife. There is no way to duplicate the feeling of lying in a blind at dawn surrounded by the sights and sounds of dozens of Greater Sage-Grouse an arm’s length away. Blinds enable you to put your camera in spots that would be impossible otherwise and allow you to shoot in places where no one else is shooting—a local woodlot, marsh, or your own backyard. I always have a blind of some type with me in my car and carry one on my travels in case an opportunity presents itself. Pop-up Blinds

The easiest and most flexible blind to use is a pop-up style tent blind. They are small, lightweight, portable, and can be erected in seconds. I use Tragopan Photography Blinds. The Tragopan V6 and Grouse V PLUS are small oneperson blinds; the larger Monal blind is big enough to sleep in or house two photographers. Tragopan blinds are designed specifically for photography and have a number of features that are extremely helpful. You can customize the windows and vary the lens sleeves, there are ports for shooting at ground level, and they incorporate ventilation and strategic peepholes. Cheaper hunting blinds can be used, but because they lack features for photographers, you usually have to cut holes where you want them and the materials don’t hold up as well. The camouflage color of your pop-up blind is usually not a concern, since the main thing a blind does is hide the human form and movements. If making your blind as inconspicuous as possible is important—to make it less likely to

get stolen, for example—you can use branches and other local materials to help break up the pattern.

The Tragopan V6 is a rugged photo blind designed specifically for wildlife photographers.

A public permanent blind available for prairie chicken photography in the Fort Pierre National Grassland. Permanent Blinds

If you have a location that is reliable for photography over a long period of time or a special situation that demands it, you may want to set up a custom, permanent blind. A permanent blind can be anything from a simple structure made with sticks and camo netting to a heavily concealed pit blind to a wellbuilt wooden structure with comforts and conveniences. Established permanent blinds can be found at some wildlife refuges and parks, but be aware that most of these observation blinds are not

positioned well for bird photography. In South Texas, a number of “birding ranches” have established permanent blinds overlooking waterholes and other features attractive to wildlife. They are well positioned, comfortable, and available to photographers for a fee. Some also offer overnight accommodations. Bag Blinds

A bag blind is a quick concealment solution that you can carry with you. It is a simple camouflage cloth with a lens port that you drape over yourself. It won’t hide your movements entirely like a rigid blind would, but if you remain still, it helps in situations where being concealed to some degree makes the birds more comfortable.

The Tragopan Hokki is a photography blind designed for shooting at ground level while lying down. Wall Blinds

I sometimes use a wall or turkey blind to add a level of concealment for subjects at ground level or at a wetland edge. It is a small item that can easily be thrown in a bag and set up when needed. DEPLOYING A BLIND

Your blind-deployment strategy needs to be tailored to the location and the species. In many cases, you can set up a blind, get in, and start taking photos immediately. Other times, you need to wait awhile for the birds that departed on your arrival to return, but in places like wetlands or a yard with established bird feeders, this can happen rather quickly. Occasionally, I will set up a blind for just a few hours when I stumble on a good location, but most often I put up a blind for days or weeks and return to it repeatedly when conditions are good. When working with a blind, choose your location and position carefully, and be prepared to spend hours in it: Be sure you know where the sun will rise and set, and arrange your blind for the angle of light you want during the hours you will be shooting. Sometimes this will mean setting up a blind for a morning shoot and then moving it for

an afternoon session.

A bag blind is a handy item to have with you.

A simple wall blind can be put up in seconds and provides concealment when shooting at ground level. Adding a minimal amount of concealment like this can provide birds that extra bit of comfort they need to bring them into camera range.

Carefully scrutinize the exact spot you plan to erect your blind. Move around the area, get on your hands and knees or crawl on your belly, whichever is likely to be your shooting height, looking for possible obstructions, visualizing where birds will perch or swim, and planning your backgrounds. Once you are in your blind and the birds are present, you won’t be able to move it. Be sure you’ve picked the exact right spot. Stake your blind well, and use guy lines in windy conditions. Blinds make

great kites—I have seen mine sail across the prairie and tundra when not staked properly! Find yourself a comfortable lightweight seat that is the appropriate height for shooting out of your blind’s windows, or use a camping pad for lying at ground level. Always minimize sounds and movement in the blind, and introduce your shutter sound slowly. Make sure you have food and water. Blinds can get hot. Wear layers. If you’ll be working in cold conditions or early mornings, a sleeping bag can be a lifesaver. In cold weather, cinch a sleeve around your lens so heat isn’t escaping through the port you are shooting from and distorting your images. Sensitive Species and Areas

For the most sensitive species and locations, especially nesting and display areas, special care should be taken. The danger is in introducing your blind too close to a sensitive location, like a hawk’s nest or a grouse drumming log, and then finding that the bird will never return because of the blind. For cases like this, introduce the blind in stages over time, checking at each step how well it is being accepted. First, set the blind up during the day at a distance you know will not flush the bird. Then return over a series of nights, moving the blind a bit closer each time. This gives the bird time to adjust to the new object in its world and see that it is nonthreatening. For species that require this delicate approach, it helps to put a dummy lens hood in the spot where your lens will eventually protrude so the bird can get used to that too— spray-paint a coffee can black and hang it in the window of your blind. Entering and leaving the blind under the cover of darkness or when birds are absent is also advisable. If you do enter the blind during the day, some species like eagles require that you go into the blind with another individual and that the other person departs, leaving you concealed inside alone. This tricks the bird into thinking you have left. Some birds, once they know someone is in the blind, become warier or stay away altogether. In those cases, you may have to abandon the project.

Country roads with roadside fence posts can provide great photo opportunities for some species, like this Eastern Meadowlark in Florida. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/7.1, ISO 500 CARS AS BLINDS

Cars make great blinds! Birds are accustomed to cars along roadways, so approaching and photographing birds sitting on fence posts along back roads and along the drives in wildlife refuges or in the parks system is often a great way to get close. To shoot from a car, you’ll need to use a beanbag under your camera as you shoot out the open window. For some species, it also helps to conceal your movements by hanging a piece of cloth where the window would be, letting only the lens protrude. Just because you’re in a car doesn’t mean you just slam on the brakes, throw the camera on a beanbag, and start shooting. Like any other photography situation, you should be intentional in your approach, gauging your shooting height and angle, and getting a feel for how tolerant the birds are. It will vary. In some places, certain species will allow you to come to a gentle stop, turn off the engine, and slowly slide your camera into a shooting position. This is common on many roadways in hightraffic national wildlife refuges. But if I were driving a back road in Wyoming and

spotted a Swainson’s Hawk or Western Meadowlark on a fence post, my approach would be different. First, if I am speeding along and see a good bird, I don’t stop. Nothing sends a bird flying more than a car coming to a screeching halt. Instead, I continue driving a good distance (at least a hundred yards) and find a place to turn around. At my turnaround spot, I prepare by getting my beanbag and camera in position on the door (always keeping a hand on it!) and getting my camera settings preset, so I can shoot immediately when I stop near the bird. Then, assuming I am alone and shooting out the driver’s side window, I make my approach on the return drive if the bird is on the correct side, or I do another drive-by. Sometimes I’ll do another drive-by just to get a sense for exactly where I want to shoot from, paying attention to the background and potential shooting spots. On my final approach, I don’t creep along toward the bird. I drive a reasonable speed, and when I am close enough, I put the car in neutral, turn off the engine, and glide into a shooting spot quickly and quietly. With minimal movements, I get behind the camera and start shooting. Keep in mind that the best shooting position for the bird and the background is not necessarily the obvious or easy one. Sometimes you need to drop a tire into a ditch to get a bit lower, or raise the window glass to get six inches higher. I have been known to throw the beanbag on the roof and stick my head out of the sunroof to get the height I need. Or I may get out on the passenger side of the car and use it as a shield, shooting from the ground. Think about what the best image you can make is, and then work out how to get the camera in position. Be creative. Use everything to your advantage. PLAYBACK

Playing bird vocalizations to attract birds into camera range, referred to as “playback,” has the potential to be disruptive to birds and, because it can be so effective, to be abused. Though I recommend playing birdsong sparingly or not at all, I know many people will choose to use birdsong on occasion. For that reason, I have chosen to include this section on playing birdsong in the field so that you will be aware of the ways that it can affect birds and when it has the potential to be most and least disruptive. This is another case where knowledge and experience with birds is crucial to acting responsibly. I recommend that people new to birds be extremely conservative or refrain entirely from playing birdsong in the field.

Marsh Wren, Washington. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/8, ISO 640

Another reason not to overuse playback is that it will reflect poorly on you as a photographer. Seeing that a photographer’s songbird images are full of highly agitated birds leaves a distinct impression. Songbirds of many species show their distress in characteristic ways. Most notably their scapular feathers—the feathers on their back— puff up and their wings will droop. If, in addition, the bird is shown with beak agape and looking disheveled, there is a good chance it was lured and was made highly agitated by playback. Over the years, I have shot many images of birds exhibiting some of these characteristics naturally, but if you see a portfolio full of warblers that look like this, do not be impressed. Overuse of birdsong is one of the most stressful intrusions you can make into a bird’s life. WHY BIRDS VOCALIZE

As a group, birds are vocal creatures, and most species use a variety of different vocalization types to communicate with the other birds around them. It may sometimes seem to us that birds sing to entertain humans, but in fact they sing because

it is integral to their social interactions, reproduction, and survival. Bird vocal behavior is complex and varies widely among species, bird families, and even within species. Therefore, much of what I write here is simplified and generalized. A bird species’ song is typically used to attract a mate and claim a territory. It is most often given by the male of a species leading up to and during the breeding season in spring and summer. Males sing from within the boundaries of a territory; it is a nonviolent way that birds keep order in the neighborhood. As a last resort, males will physically defend their territory against intruding males of the same species, but singing and dueling vocally allows birds to avoid physical encounters, which can be costly. The size of a territory varies greatly from one species to the next. The woodland territory a male Chestnut-sided Warbler will defend is one or two acres. For a Great Horned Owl, a territory may encompass a square mile or more, and a Marsh Wren’s territory may be only twenty yards on each edge. Technically, the word song applies only to the vocalizations of a group of birds known as the oscine passerines, or songbirds. Oscines are the most accomplished singers in the bird world and include familiar groups of birds like warblers, thrushes, finches, and sparrows. While not technically songs, the sounds other groups of birds use have the same functions that the songs of songbirds do—they are given during the breeding season and are used to attract mates and announce territory. The wail of a Common Loon, the monotonous tooting of a Northern Saw-whet Owl, and the repeated kill-dee kill-dee given during the flight display of a Killdeer are some examples. Hereafter, when I use the word song I am including these types of vocalizations as well.

Both male and female ducks will often approach the sound of their own species' calls. Male Hooded Merganser, New York. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 second at f/6.3, ISO 400

In addition to songs, most birds also have a variety of calls that they use to communicate distress, alarm, or danger or to keep in contact with a mate, family group, or flock. Unlike birdsongs, which are usually elaborate and learned, calls are typically brief and innate. Some bird species may have a dozen or more different calls. You’re likely familiar with many: the scolding chick-a-dee-dee-dee of a Black-capped Chickadee that has spotted an owl and is warning others, the soft honking of a group of Canada Geese organizing themselves in flight, or the conversational vocalizations of a group of American Crows on a wire. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE PLAY BIRD RECORDINGS

From the human perspective, what happens when we play bird recordings is that some birds come closer, often very close, to investigate. From a bird’s perspective, how and why they react to recordings is a different and complex story. When we use playback in the field, we are intruding into the birds’ world and causing them to react. In some cases, we are invading their space and frightening them, in others we are arousing curiosity, sometimes we are taking advantage of their desire to be among others of their own kind, and in still other cases we may be challenging them. Bird species have varied social and mating structures that affect their reactions and behavior. So, playing a song to a highly territorial and monogamous Red-eyed Vireo is different than playing a song to a polygamous Red-winged Blackbird who has lots of close neighbors. And playing an alarm call to a covey of Gambel’s Quail is different than playing a mate-contact call to a White-breasted Nuthatch. How birds react to recordings also depends on the time of year and hormonal factors. It can even vary by individual, depending on its past experience. All of this is to say that playing bird recordings is a lot more complicated than it first appears. Yes, birds will often come closer when they hear their recorded voices, but it is important to know why and to be aware of the way that you are intruding. If you choose to use playback, understanding the birds’ response will help you be more effective, and it will help you capture images in an ethical manner. WHEN PLAYBACK IS MOST AND LEAST DISRUPTIVE

First, there are situations when playback should not even be considered: Never use playback on species listed as threatened or endangered on a national or state level. Also refrain from using it in parks and preserves where it is prohibited. Birds at commonly visited locations are likely disturbed already, so it is best practice not to use playback in areas routinely frequented by birders or other photographers. If you’re using playback, avoid visiting an individual bird more than once.

Highly territorial species, like this Common Loon in Washington, are most susceptible to disturbance by playback of their own vocalizations. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/8, ISO 400

Male Spectacled Eider, Yukon Delta, Alaska. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1250 second at f/8, ISO 800

If you decide to use playback, territorial species demand the most cautious approach. Bird species that maintain and defend territories use song as their most aggressive proclamation of ownership. When their territories are breached during the breeding season by other singing males, they often react strongly and become highly agitated. Because of this, I consider playing song to territorial species during the

breeding season to be the most disruptive use of playback. Species that fall into this category include loons, most owls, most flycatchers, warblers, thrushes, tanagers, and sparrows. For songbirds like these, the least disruptive period for playback is first thing in the morning during the first few days of males arriving on the breeding grounds in spring. It takes a few days for birds like warblers to work out territory boundaries with their neighbors. Males tend to be most responsive and least stressed during this brief window. The introduction of another male voice into the mix tends to be less threatening at this time than after mates have been secured and nesting has begun. For territorial species, as the breeding season progresses, playback becomes more disruptive and less effective. At the other end of the spectrum are social birds with nonmonogamous males that court in groups and don’t defend territories. For these birds, I consider playback benign. For example, male ducks of many species are accustomed to frequent challenges and close contact with other males when courting females. You can observe this on lakes and ponds throughout the winter and early spring. Playing calls of both male and female ducks during this time can be a very effective way to bring them closer to you and imposes little additional stress on them. Other birds that fall into this category include some species of forest grouse and certain shorebirds. Using playback outside the breeding season is generally not as effective, but it also creates less disruption in birds’ lives. Playing calls to birds like woodpeckers, nuthatches, jays, and chickadees—birds that maintain contact with mates or social groups throughout the year—can be quite effective and poses little threat to the birds. HOW TO USE PLAYBACK

If you choose to use playback, it is important to be purposeful and thoughtful about how and where you use it. Put yourself in the best possible position to be successful quickly and move on. The worst thing you can do is walk through the woods playing bird vocalizations randomly or playing calls for too long. Here are the basics on how to effectively and responsibly use playback, once you’ve chosen your target species. Equipment and Recordings

Successful playback is best achieved by using a small speaker that is placed away from you that you can control using an iPod or your phone. Though more cumbersome, using a long cable to connect your device to your speaker is generally less finicky than using Bluetooth, and Bluetooth may not give you the amplification you need when used at a distance. As discussed earlier, different vocalizations mean different things. You don’t want to play an alarm call if you are trying to attract a bird and make it comfortable enough to perch in the open. Most bird audio collections combine multiple vocalizations for a species into a single track: you’ll hear a song or two and multiple call types when you play it. You’ll need to find an audio collection or app that has each vocalization for a species parsed into different tracks, or do it yourself, and play only the best vocalization for the situation. In most cases, you will be playing a bird’s song. Speaker Placement

The key to success with playback is to use it in an area with limited perches so you can predict exactly where a bird will land when it arrives. This takes experience and

intuition, and your strategies will vary by species because they all respond differently. Examples of good locations include forest edges with one protruding branch, a single small bush in a grassland, or an isolated branch at a pond edge. Don’t stand in the middle of a closed-canopy forest or by a thicket with dozens of places for a bird to land and expect to be successful. After you’ve chosen the general location, determine where exactly you should put the speaker. The speaker needs to be positioned relative to the isolated perches in a way that takes advantage of your target species’ usual behavior. Your strategy will be informed by your knowledge and observations of bird behavior. Many songbirds, for example, will make their way quickly to the speaker and fly directly to an exposed perch beside it. Others may dive into concealing vegetation near the speaker and work their way up to it. Ducks and other water birds will generally swim near a bank where a speaker is placed but not get too close. Woodpeckers and nuthatches will work their way down a tree trunk toward a speaker on the ground beneath it. And flycatchers will generally do flybys near the speaker but land several yards away. It is best to use a small piece of camouflage cloth or some vegetation to conceal the speaker. Always carry a few zip ties with you in case you need to suspend it. Whatever you do, don’t play birdsong from your handheld cell phone or a speaker in your pocket. Personal Concealment

Whenever possible, conceal yourself when using playback; it gives the bird one less thing to worry about and will increase your chances of success. Use a blind or some other type of camouflage, and position yourself so that you get the background you want and it is appropriately sized for the bird and the frame. The perch you are focused on is your reference point for estimating how big the bird will be in your image when it arrives. Volume, Frequency, and Duration

In general, it is best to play a bird’s song briefly to bring it in, not so loudly that it intimidates the bird, and to turn off the recording once your bird is in or near position. The more you play it and the louder it is, the more stressed the bird and the less satisfying the results. Keep in mind that the bird’s first approach is almost always the boldest and most relaxed—it presents your best opportunity. Be ready for that moment by prefocusing on the perch, having all of your settings dialed in, and being in a position to shoot immediately. Continuing playback after that initial approach will yield poorer results and stress the bird. Effective playback requires finesse. PREDICTING BEHAVIOR

More than any tool or technique, being able to predict a bird’s behavior will produce your best opportunities for getting close to birds. Through knowledge of a species’ behavior or your own observation of an individual bird’s daily routine, you can learn how to create opportunities to photograph birds that less experienced bird photographers will miss. As I hope I’ve shown, tools and methods are helpful, but understanding birds is key. You can strategize, plan, and previsualize opportunities that others can’t. And as the depth of your experience grows, you’ll be able to change course in the field.

Imagine this: You are working out of a field camp on Alaska’s Yukon Delta and have been trying for days to get close to one of the skittish pairs of Spectacled Eiders that have come ashore to find suitable nest sites on the banks of a tundra pond. After many failed attempts, you reluctantly concluded that it is just not possible to approach them. You may be heading home without any images of this spectacular sea duck. But you have an idea. You’ve observed that the eiders are currently prospecting for nest sites and that they typically swim along the shorelines of the ponds they visit to survey the banks. The next afternoon, you notice a pair at the far end of a long skinny pond doing just this. Instead of trying to stalk the birds where they are, you decide to sneak very carefully to the edge of the pond far ahead of where you think they will eventually swim. Paying attention to the light angle you want, you make a quiet approach to the edge of the pond and lie down on your stomach with your camera between two tundra tussocks. You wait. Gradually the eiders work their way down the shoreline, just as you predicted, and, swimming directly in front of you, reward you with beautiful frame-filling shots.

3

EQUIPMENT

Camera equipment that produces high-quality images and can stand up to the rigors of field use is essential to the bird photographer.

this section, we’ll look at the most important features that a bird photographer I nshould consider when choosing gear. What I present here leans toward what has worked for me in my career as a wildlife photographer, but it is by no means the only or the best way. As with many things in life, there are many “correct” ways to choose photography equipment. Much depends on the type of photographs you are interested in, how much you want to carry in the field, and your budget. These days it seems like something new and better is being released every week or rumored to be just over the horizon. Rest assured that no matter what equipment you get, it is probably more than capable of creating beautiful images suitable for whatever purpose you have in mind. Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that less is often more. The less I have to carry and the fewer decisions in the field about what to use, the more I can concentrate on making great images with what I brought. Of course, I sometimes regret not having a certain item, but overall the benefit of traveling light, being

nimble, and focusing on making great images outweighs the downside. My philosophy is straightforward: Don’t get too caught up in the gadgets and accessories. Do enjoy getting outdoors and being creative. CAMERAS

This book focuses on bird photography using a 35mm digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera. DSLRs direct light through interchangeable lenses to a digital sensor, where an electronic image is created that is stored on a memory card within the camera. In the process, the light is bounced off a mirror inside the camera body into a viewfinder, allowing the photographer to see the image about to be captured. When the shutter button is pressed, the mirror lifts out of the way, a shutter curtain is opened, and the light hits the sensor directly, which produces the image. The movement of the mirror and shutter curtain create the sounds you hear when you take a picture. It all happens in an instant. For bird photographers, 35mm DSLR camera systems are the best choice for many reasons. For one, they use interchangeable lenses, so you aren’t stuck with a camera that has a permanent lens attached. The lens options for DSLRs are almost limitless. Most 35mm camera systems also offer a huge range of accessories for a variety of applications that bird photographers will find useful—remote shutter releases and flashes, for example. Lastly, professional versions of these cameras are rugged and durable workhorses in even the worst conditions. They are the go-to cameras for the vast majority of wildlife photographers. Recently, there have been exciting developments with other camera formats, notably the mirrorless camera systems being manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, and others. These systems are smaller, lighter, and less expensive yet also capable of producing professional results. Despite some limitations, especially their autofocus performance, they are nonetheless being adopted by some bird photographers. Most of the concepts in this book apply to these cameras as well.

Two of the ultimate tools for bird photography: the Nikon D850 and Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. Both

Nikon and Canon’s websites offer camera feature comparison tools online that allow you to select several camera bodies and look at their specs side by side.

CHOOSING A CAMERA SYSTEM The first big decision any budding photographer has to make is which camera brand to invest in. For most of us, this is a choice we only get to make once, because the cost of switching from one brand to another down the road is prohibitive. Pick one, stick with it, and don’t look back. There are many manufacturers making outstanding cameras—Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Pentax—but if you are starting from scratch, I highly recommend you go with one of the two brands favored by 95 percent of photographers: Canon and Nikon. Both of these manufacturers lead the way in technological development, so much so that they are often leapfrogging each other with their innovations, causing photographers to lapse into periods of brand envy when the competition introduces new features while their own brand appears stagnant. Rest assured that you will eventually have those features too. By choosing one of these brands, you will have access to most of the latest advances, a huge range of dedicated camera accessories, and the best lenses. You will also have more opportunities to learn from other photographers. Most photo instruction focuses on one of these two brands, and you’ll likely be using the same equipment as friends and classmates, so you’ll be able to share tips and tricks with each other. If you go on a photo tour, chances are the leaders will be versed in one or both of these systems. You’ll also find it much easier to find or borrow replacement equipment should something go awry in the field. Whether you choose Canon or Nikon, or another maker, remember that your equipment is simply a tool and that with any brand, exquisite images can be made— the work depends on you. AMATEUR, PROSUMER, OR PROFESSIONAL

Both Nikon and Canon manufacture DSLR camera bodies that vary in features, durability, and cost. These can be roughly divided into three classes: amateur, prosumer, and professional. As you might guess, as you move from amateur to professional, you get additional features, a more rugged build, and steep increases in price. Bear in mind that once the shutter is open, all camera bodies are capable of producing similar images—the only two variables that matter in that instant are the quality of the lens and the specifications of the image sensor. That said, there are many features that will make your photography easier if you opt for a more advanced camera. The sensors are generally better as you move up the scale, performance is faster, and a rugged build can be a necessity for photographers working outdoors. While not everyone can afford the top end, my advice is to work with prosumer or professional grade cameras whenever you can afford it. IMPORTANT DSLR FEATURES

Today’s DSLRs are loaded with features, but there are a few to pay special attention to when choosing a camera body. Sensor Resolution

Resolution is the amount of detail that a camera can capture. It is a function of the

number of photosites packed into its image sensor. A camera’s resolution is expressed in megapixels—the total number of pixels (or photosites) a sensor contains. A 36megapixel camera contains 36,000 photosites. Think of a photo sensor as a grid and each square in that grid as a light-collecting pixel or photosite. The smaller you make the squares in the grid, the greater the resolution, or detail, it can capture. But higherresolution sensors—those with smaller photosites—produce more digital noise than sensors with larger photosites. Digital noise is an undesirable byproduct of sensor electronics that gives images a grainy appearance that becomes more pronounced at higher ISO settings. Sensors with small photosites also require more processing power. Sensors with large photosites have less resolution but produce less digital noise and have faster processing speeds. Therefore, resolution, image quality, and processing speed are at odds with each other, and no single camera performs best in all of these categories simultaneously. Sensor choice entails a trade-off, and the best option depends on which of these attributes is most important for the job. In general, there are three permutations a photographer can choose from when it comes to sensors. A high-resolution sensor is great for big prints and has lots of room for cropping images, but it is prone to noise at high ISOs and has slower processing speed per image. A low-resolution sensor offers less detail but great high-ISO/lowlight performance and faster processing. Or, you may choose a crop sensor, which we’ll discuss below.

Zooming in on this image shot at ISO 8000 shows a lot of digital noise. Ruffed Grouse, Washington Sensor Size

A camera’s image sensor can vary in size. A sensor can either be a full-frame sensor (24mm × 36mm) or a smaller type, known as a crop sensor. Crop sensors are referred to by the factor by which they effectively magnify the image compared to a full-frame sensor. They are not actually magnifying the image, however. Because they do not capture the full dimensions of what a lens can produce, they are essentially cropping the image you would otherwise get with a full-frame sensor. The result is a narrower

field of view and larger subject in the frame. Nikon designates sensor types in its cameras as either FX (full frame) or DX (cropped). Canon calls their crop sensors APS-C. Some common crop sensor factors are 1.3x and 1.6x (Canon) and 1.5x (Nikon). One advantage of a crop sensor for bird photographers is that the effective focal length of your lenses increases. For example, a 400mm lens on a 1.4x crop sensor becomes a 560mm lens (400 × 1.4 = 560). This is an attractive solution for those not wishing to make the jump to a bigger lens. Crop sensors are also cheaper to manufacture, resulting in more affordable cameras. And because crop sensors are smaller, they can be housed in smaller, lighter camera bodies. But there are downsides to crop sensors too. First, your wide-angle lenses will also be cropped. If you have a 24mm lens in your bag for landscapes, on a 1.4x crop sensor, it will become a 33.5mm lens. That’s a huge difference. Second, crop sensors generally produce more digital noise at high ISOs because they are usually produced with small photosites. If you aren’t concerned with the effect crop sensors have on wide-angle lenses and are looking for an entrylevel camera and lens combination that is powerful and won’t break the bank, a crop sensor with a 300mm or 400mm lens can be a good place to start. High-ISO Performance

A camera’s ISO performance is measured by how little digital noise its sensor produces at higher ISO settings. This is most noticeable in low-lighting situations. As you may have guessed, cameras with better high-ISO performance usually have large photosites and lower resolution. Great advances have been made in this area in recent years, and now a number of cameras excel at producing images at dusk or even at night. Low-light capability benefits you in good light as well. It means you can use higher ISOs in any lighting situation, so if you need faster shutter speeds for action or more depth of field, you can have them. Frame Rate

Frame rate is the speed at which a camera can capture images, expressed as frames per second, or fps. High frame rates are especially valuable when shooting action shots of birds, including birds in flight. The more frames in a given period, the higher your chances of capturing the perfect moment or getting a shot that is in sharp focus. A lot can happen over the course of one or two seconds, especially with fast-moving birds. Recording twelve images in a second, as some cameras do, compared to four or five can make the difference between a good image and a stunning one. Currently, the top cameras for maximizing frame rate are the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II with 14 fps and the Nikon D5, which shoots 12 fps.

Comparison of today’s common sensor crop factors compared to a full-frame 35mm image. Merlin, Iceland. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/8, ISO 800

A modern camera with excellent high-ISO performance allowed me to photograph this displaying Ruff with a shutter speed capable of freezing action in low-light conditions, which would have been impossible just a few years ago. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1600 second at f/8, ISO 1600

Understand that high frame rates are technologically at odds with high resolution. A limiting factor in DSLR technology is processing power—a camera can process only so much information in a given amount of time. So, a camera can be designed to use that processing power to capture either high-resolution files slowly or lowerresolution files more rapidly. For this reason, many photographers have at least one camera body for resolution and one for speed and action. Combining fast frame rates with high resolution in a single camera is the holy grail for bird photography. And though that has yet to be found, the technology continues

to improve, and we are getting very close. The Nikon D850 is the most recent and best in this regard. Though not cheap, it is the best all-around bird photography camera as of this writing. It combines a beautiful 45.7 megapixel full-frame sensor with a maximum frame rate of 7 fps or 9 fps with an optional battery grip. That still falls well below the frame rates of professional cameras geared toward action for sports and wildlife, but it’s very respectable.

Comparison of the generalized strengths and weaknesses of the three main types of camera bodies currently available and the current best models for bird photography in each class Buffer Size

Most cameras can shoot and process images faster than they can write them to a memory card. A camera’s buffer is a temporary holding place where images pile up while the camera is writing them to the card. Once the buffer is full, the camera will stop taking photographs until enough images are written to the card to free up space. Having a large buffer will enable you to shoot more images when the action is hot. There is nothing more frustrating than having to wait for your camera to catch up when you are shooting something special. Companies don’t publish buffer size information and, these days, buffers are usually very large, but if you are running into camera lag, it is worth investigating whether the issue is due to buffer size. Back-Button Focusing

A simple camera feature that is a must-have for bird photographers is the ability to program a button on the back of the camera to initiate the camera’s autofocus system rather than using the shutter release button, which is default on most cameras. We’ll discuss how to do this and why in the next chapter. Mirror Lock-Up

When working at high magnifications and at certain shutter speeds, it is helpful to have the option to lock-up the camera’s internal mirror. Each time a DSLR shutter releases, a mirror is raised and lowered (it is the loudest noise you hear when you

release the shutter). This causes tiny vibrations, which can result in softer images. These vibrations are most likely to cause loss of sharpness at shutter speeds between 1/4 and 1/50 second. You won’t often use these shutter speeds in bird photography, but when you do, you’ll appreciate having the option to lock the mirror up and eliminate this vibration. Silent Shutter

Some modern cameras have a silent or reduced-noise shutter mode. Shutter noise can scare some birds, especially at very close range, so being able to limit that noise is invaluable when working with skittish subjects, from a blind, or with a remote camera. These modes will limit your camera’s frame rate when in use but are often the best way to work, especially when a subject is still getting accustomed to you. Depth-of-Field Preview Button

When you look through your camera’s viewfinder, you are looking through your lens at maximum aperture. This makes focusing easier, because depth of field is shallowest and the image is at its brightest at the widest aperture. It is only during the millisecond the shutter is released and your image is captured that the aperture narrows based on your camera settings. This makes it difficult to know what effect a smaller aperture will have on the depth of field in your final image, which is where the depth-of-field preview button comes in. When you press it and look through the viewfinder, you will be looking through the lens stopped down to the actual aperture you have selected. The image will be darker, sometimes very dark if you are stopped way down, but you will see the actual depth of field that will be captured at that aperture, giving you a better feel for the look of the final image. CAMERA ACCESSORIES

Batteries, battery grips, memory cards, and straps are the most common accessories you’ll want to consider to go along with your DSLR. BATTERIES

No one wants to run out of batteries or find themselves far from home with a broken battery charger. On a trip, pack two battery chargers for each camera you bring (which will also speed up charging), and whenever you’re in the field, carry plenty of extra batteries. How many extra batteries depends on how you shoot and how long you think you’ll go before having the opportunity to charge your batteries again. Start with at least a couple of extras. If you are going on full-day shoots with lots of action or if you plan to shoot video, you may want four or five. You do not need to deplete batteries before recharging them. It’s best to top them off after each shoot and be sure you have a full complement of batteries ready for the next day. Choose batteries manufactured by the company that made your camera. There are cheaper third-party options that may be quite good, but some cameras are known to malfunction when third-party batteries are used. When you are working in very cold environments, keep your batteries warm when they are not in your camera. They will perform much better. Stash them in your pockets or in your sleeping bag with you if you’re in a cold blind. BATTERY GRIPS

Some cameras have a battery grip that you purchase separately and attach to the bottom of your camera. The grip does a few things: It gives you a slot for another battery, which extends the time between recharges. For some cameras, the Nikon D850 for example, it also improves the frame rate, allowing you to shoot additional frames per second. The grip also provides a more ergonomic handhold and a shutter release button for shooting in the vertical position. Note that a grip adds weight and bulk, so unless you prefer the ergonomic handhold or want to dampen vibrations with the additional weight, consider it optional. MEMORY CARDS

When you shoot images on a DSLR, they are recorded to a removable memory card. When the card fills or you are done shooting, you remove the card and download the image files onto your computer for viewing, editing, and storage. As of this writing, there are four types of memory cards commonly used by the major camera manufacturers—SD, CF (compact flash), XQD, and CFast. Depending on what camera you buy, it will have a slot for at least one of these card formats, often more than one. Memory card technology is advancing at a rapid clip, and cards are reading and writing data faster all the time. For many years, the CF card was found in most cameras, but that technology has reached its maximum potential for speed, 167 megabytes per second (MB/s), and is too slow for the newest cameras to operate at their maximum data processing potential. Recently Canon and Nikon have adopted newer formats, CFast and XQD respectively, that are capable of vastly faster read and write speeds. The current G series XQD cards are capable of read speeds of 400 MB/s and write speeds of 350 MB/s, and the technology is projected to reach speeds of 1000 MB/s or more when fully realized. At that point, cameras will have much faster frame rates and larger buffers even with very high-resolution images. Video capabilities in DSLRs will also improve dramatically. And your cards will download a lot faster! Buy memory cards that have read/write speeds that are faster than what your camera is capable of processing. You will find this information in your camera manual. Stick with proven manufactures like Lexar, SanDisk, Delkin, and Sony.

Memory cards in use by camera manufacturers today include CFast, XQD, CF, and SD.

Keep cards in a case so they stay safe and clean, and so you don’t lose them. Most cases hold either four or six cards. Avoid letting your cards get wet. If you do get a card wet, do not put it in your camera or download it. Adding electricity to a wet card is the surest way to fry it. Before you use it again, leave it in a warm, dry area for several days until you think it has fully dried out. STRAPS

I hate straps. They get in the way, blow in your face, scare birds, get in your way, blow in your face again. You may want to use one. The one time I use a strap is if I am moving around while using a two-camera system—one camera with a long lens on a tripod and one with a mid-size zoom around my neck for opportunistic flight shots or wider shots of birds smaller in the frame. LENSES

The lenses you buy for your camera will be the primary variable that determines the technical quality you can achieve in your images. While most DSLRs, even introductory models, are capable of producing images of publishable quality, camera lenses differ widely in optical quality, and thus the images you can make with them vary greatly in quality too. If there is one place you should invest your money, it is here. Keep in mind that unlike camera bodies, which quickly lose their value as new models are introduced, quality camera lenses last for many years and generally have good resale value. I still regularly use a 50mm lens that I bought in 1980! Briefly, a lens is a plastic or metal barrel that affixes to your camera body and contains a series of glass elements. These elements magnify (in the case of a telephoto lens) or widen (in the case of a wide-angle lens) the field of view that you would otherwise see with your own eyes. Light passes through the lens and its glass elements and falls on the camera's sensor, yielding a photograph. A camera lens has a few other basic functions critical for photography. First, the lens focuses. By turning a ring on the lens, you change the focal plane, selecting what will be in focus in your photo. Most lenses today have both autofocus and manual

focus capabilities. Lenses with autofocus have a motor inside that controls focus automatically. On modern lenses, you will usually find a few different buttons that adjust other variables in how your focus system works. Within the lens is an aperture ring, which regulates the amount of light that enters the lens by making the hole bigger or smaller. The aperture ring in most modern lenses is electronically controlled by the camera. Older lenses will have an actual ring on the lens where it connects to the camera that manually controls the aperture. The size of the hole, the aperture, is important as it affects two things—the amount of light entering the lens (exposure) and the depth of field in the final image. We will cover both topics in the next chapter. Most modern lenses also have an internal image stabilization system and a threaded front element for screwing on filters.

High-quality lenses are the most important piece of equipment for producing the best images. Redthroated Loon, Alaska. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/2000 second at f/7.1, ISO 400

The ultimate lens combination for bird photography: a super telephoto and a mid-range telephoto zoom. Pictured here are the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM and Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lenses. LENS CONSIDERATIONS

Lenses come in many shapes and sizes, and their quality and attributes can vary greatly. What follows are specifications and features you’ll need to understand when evaluating lenses to buy for bird photography. Focal Length

The focal length of a lens determines how much it will magnify your subject. A 50mm, often referred to as a “normal” lens, produces an image with a field of view close to what we see with the unaided human eye. Anything wider than a 50mm, like a 24mm, gives us a wider field of view than our own vision—a wide angle. Lenses from 50mm on up, like a 300mm, provide an increasingly narrow field of view and more magnification—a telephoto. One way to get an idea of a lens’s magnification compared to human vision is to divide its focal length by 50. For example, if a 50mm is 1x, then a 300mm telephoto lens is 6x (300/50) and a 600mm telephoto lens is 12x (600/50).

Focal length comparison of images shot from a distance of 30 feet. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 600mm, 400mm, 200mm, 100mm, and 50mm. 1/640 second at f/8, ISO 1000. Wilson’s Snipe, Oregon.

Obviously focal length is a big deal for bird photography. A long (telephoto) focal length not only magnifies the subject but also gives more working distance, the space between the camera and the subject. This is good for both the photographer and the bird! When photographing small, skittish creatures like birds, the farther away we can be and achieve the same results, the better. But there are some drawbacks to long focal lengths as well. The greater the magnification, the more critical it is to photograph with good technique and a steady tripod because camera vibrations will be magnified as well, leading to blurry images. Atmospheric conditions take on more significance when shooting through more air, which can distort images, especially when there is a lot of heat radiating from the ground. As focal length increases, lenses also get decidedly heavier, harder to handle, and vastly more expensive. Lens Speed (Maximum Aperture)

Lens speed refers to the amount of light a lens is capable of capturing. This is determined by the lens’s maximum aperture, which is represented by a number like f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, where the smaller the number, the larger the hole and amount of light. Therefore, an f/2.8 lens is faster than an f/4 lens, which is faster than an f/5.6 lens. The advantage of using a fast lens is that because it collects relatively more light, a higher shutter speed and/or lower ISO can be used in any given situation. Note that

for a given focal length, the lens’s weight and cost increase dramatically with faster lens speeds. For example, Nikon’s current professional 300mm f/4 lens runs for $1,200 and weighs 3.17 pounds. Compare that to the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lens, which currently runs for $5,500 and weighs 6.38 pounds. Big differences for one extra stop of light. Regardless of focal length, f-numbers are equivalent across all lenses: a 300mm lens shot at f/2.8 allows the same amount of light to hit your sensor that a 35mm lens shot at f/2.8 does. Know that whether a lens is considered fast or not is specific to its focal length. Because lens sizes, complexities, and costs increase dramatically as they become faster, a 400mm f/2.8 is considered very fast while a 35mm f/2.8 lens would be considered average to slow. It is exponentially easier to build a small-focal-length lens like a 35mm and make it faster than f/2.8 than it is to make a 400mm, which is already very large and complex at f/2.8. COMPARISON OF THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FAST LENSES FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY ADVANTAGES • faster shutter speeds • shallower depth of field at widest aperture • better autofocus performance DISADVANTAGES • much heavier • much more expensive Finally, remember that a lens’s aperture not only controls the amount of light that passes through but also the depth of field in your final image. Faster lenses produce better-looking out-of-focus backgrounds when shot wide open (at their maximum aperture). Autofocus also performs better in both accuracy and speed with a lens that is faster. For shooting wildlife, most photographers use telephoto lenses with a maximum aperture of f/4, or, more rarely, f/2.8.

When you don’t have the option to move closer or farther from your subject, a zoom lens is very useful. For this image of the high bluffs on St. George Island I was able to precisely frame my composition with a 70–200mm zoom lens without falling off a cliff! Red-legged Kittiwakes, Alaska. 95mm, 1/250 second at f/13, ISO 400 Autofocus

Arguably, no technological development changed the game for bird and wildlife photographers (and sports photographers and everyone else for that matter) more than autofocus. Autofocus gives a photographer the power to select a point in an image through the viewfinder and then focus on that point automatically and almost instantly. It yields far more in-focus images than one could achieve manually and makes it possible to photograph things like birds in flight and fast-moving warblers in ways that would otherwise be unachievable. It doesn’t always work perfectly and there is a lot of room for user error, but autofocus is something you must have as a bird photographer. Although most modern lenses incorporate autofocus, its performance varies depending on the lens model and camera you use it with. Before you buy, read lens reviews, talk to other photographers, or even rent a lens to get an idea of how well its autofocus performs. In general, fixed focal length lenses and faster lenses will perform better than zooms and slower lenses, but each lens is unique. Image Stabilization

As with autofocus, the introduction of image stabilization was a watershed moment, and the technology continues to improve. It is incorporated in most modern lenses regardless of focal length. The basic mechanism is that one or more elements within the lens are on a gyroscope that stabilizes the image projected onto the camera’s sensor. This eliminates a large percentage of camera movement and vibration, and has made it infinitely easier to achieve sharply focused pictures with both handheld and

tripod-mounted cameras. It has made it possible to work at shutter speeds that were once unthinkable, or at least very iffy. When shopping for lenses, look for the designation IS (image stabilization) in the description for Canon lenses and VR (vibration reduction) for Nikon. You will see these or similar terms on any lenses that have image stabilization technology. In their promotional material, both manufacturers make claims that their lenses can be shot handheld at two, three, or even five times slower shutter speeds with their image stabilization systems activated. I have found that in practice these claims are a bit overblown, but the technology is very effective nonetheless. It does not replace the need to shoot with proper technique, however. A note to video shooters: The image stabilization systems in some lenses produces an image that subtly “dances” in the frame when continuously activated. In some lenses, this movement is relatively faint and does not detract noticeably from your video capture. In other lenses, it can be distracting. Some image stabilization systems, particularly those in the newest generation Canon super-telephotos, do not activate smoothly for video shooting. For that reason, I shoot video with the previous generation of Canon lenses or with Nikon lenses. If you are going to shoot a lot of video, be sure to test the lens before you buy. Primes Versus Zooms

A prime lens is a lens with a fixed focal length, like a 500mm lens or a 100mm lens. A zoom lens incorporates additional moving elements and allows you to zoom in and out through a continuous range of focal lengths within fixed parameters. Examples of common zoom ranges used by wildlife photographers include the 70–200mm and 200–400mm lenses. There are advantages and disadvantages to both primes and zooms, and you will likely end up with some of each in your kit. Generally, prime lenses will always be a bit sharper than zooms because they have fewer glass elements for the light to pass through and the whole lens is optimized for a perfect image at one focal length. In recent years, though, both Canon and Nikon have been producing zoom lenses that are exceptionally sharp and perform almost flawlessly. Do beware of zoom lenses with zoom ranges that seem too good to be true. In general, as the zoom range increases, the optical performance of the lens decreases, so opt for lenses with smaller zoom ranges. We all wish there was a perfect 50–1000mm zoom lens, but it just isn’t in the cards.

An American Flamingo colony in the Yucatán shot with the Canon EF100–400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM zoom lens at 135mm, 1/400 second at f/16, ISO 1600.

Whether you lean toward prime lenses or zoom lenses is a personal choice. Most photographers advocate for one or the other, and there is merit to arguments on both sides. Zoom lens proponents cite the advantage that flexibility in focal length provides: You can quickly alternate between taking wider shots of birds in their environment and tighter portrait shots without having to move. This is especially valuable when you are stuck in position, photographing grouse from a blind, for example. On the other hand, I find that I am more purposeful in how I shoot when I use fixed focal lengths. Primes force me to be more precise when I choose where to shoot from—I can’t stick to one spot like I can with a zoom. I also believe using fixed focal lengths early on helped me develop a better sense of what each focal length looked like in my mind before I brought the camera up to my eye. It’s much harder to develop that sense with zooms. Build

If you are serious about your bird photography, chances are your equipment will see some bangs, bumps, rain, sand, and maybe worse on a regular basis. While there are things you can do to protect your gear, nothing beats having tough gear to begin with. Today’s pro-grade lenses by Canon and Nikon not only perform better optically but are built more robustly and are better sealed against the elements. Build quality is definitely reflected in the price. Third-Party Lenses

There are a number of manufacturers that produce less expensive lenses that fit both Canon and Nikon camera systems. Though not quite as good as those produced by the two big brands, a few of them are acceptable alternatives and can produce respectable

results. If you are looking for more affordable gear, consider a lens manufactured by Tamron, Tokina, or Sigma for your bird photography. If you go this route, I highly recommend choosing a top-end model in whatever focal length you are shopping for, reading reviews, and testing it before you buy to be sure you are happy with the image quality. These lenses are still expensive, and you don’t want to be disappointed with the images they produce. TYPES OF LENSES FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY

A wide range of focal lengths, from telephotos to wide angles, can be used by bird photographers to create different types of images. Though the super-telephotos are the most useful tools for bird photography—and that’s what I’ve used for most of the photos in this book—beginners may be wise to start with a standard telephoto lens and go from there. Discussed below are lenses useful to bird photographers, from longest to shortest. Super-telephoto Lenses

Fast telephoto lenses of 500mm and above are the best tools for bird photography. They are big, heavy (but getting lighter), expensive, and require excellent technique to achieve great images. Though you will quickly grow tired of carrying these big pieces of glass around, the images they produce will make it worthwhile. They make bird photography so much easier, and anyone is capable of learning to get the most out of them. These lenses allow you to work farther from your subjects and produce the beautiful out-of-focus backgrounds that bird photographers love. Exceptionally sharp, even when paired with teleconverters, they have excellent image stabilization and autofocus systems and are built tough for professional use. People see these big lenses and assume they magnify far more than they do. Even with a 600mm lens, you have to shoot from about twelve feet to get a nice portrait of a warbler or forty feet for a Red-tailed Hawk. You are shooting from farther away with a big telephoto, so atmospheric haze and heat distortion need to be factored in when you use these. While each lens in the 500–800mm range has its pros and cons, I consider the current 600mm lenses from Canon and Nikon to be the best all-around lenses for bird photography. Though they are appreciably heavier than a 500mm lens, the added focal length, especially when shooting at 840mm with a 1.4x teleconverter, keeps you just beyond the discomfort zone for a lot of bird species. For me, a 500mm makes things a bit harder and an 800mm is not as flexible—600mm is the sweet spot.

Super-telephoto lenses provide the working distance needed for photographing birds and can produce the clean, out-of-focus backgrounds that many bird photographers aim for. Western Kingbird, Alberta. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/10, ISO 400

A new option on the market is the Nikon AF-S 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR. This lens uses Nikon’s new Phase Fresnel lens technology, which significantly reduces the size and weight of the lens and brings it in at around $3,500. Its maximum aperture is only f/5.6, so image backgrounds won’t be as clean as with a 500mm f/4. There may be other performance limitations too, but this lens might be the best answer for photographers with a moderate budget. If ever there were a lens I would hand-hold for bird photography, it’s this one. This new lens also bodes well for further advances in super-telephoto technology. Stay tuned! More budget-minded photographers looking to get into this focal range should also consider the 150–600mm zoom lenses made by Sigma and Tamron. Telephoto Lenses

Lenses in the 200–400mm range are useful tools for bird photography. Most bird photographers have at least one lens in this range to complement their super-telephoto or as their primary lens. For shooting birds in flight and taking handheld shots, these are great lenses.

Having a small, light 50mm lens in my bag allowed me to grab a quick shot of these Savannah Sparrow nestlings on the Alaskan tundra. 50mm, 1/160 second at f/8, ISO 400

Telephoto Zoom Lenses. Most bird photographers own a telephoto zoom. They are great for birds that are close, for wider images of birds in their environment, and for flight photography. Although a big telephoto is the envy of most aspiring bird photographers, a telephoto zoom can be a good economical option for those getting started or who can’t invest in a super-telephoto. The optical quality of telephoto zoom lenses has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years. The Nikon AF-S 200–500mm f/5.6E, Nikon AF-S 80–400mm f/4.55.6G ED VR, and Canon EF 100–400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lenses are highly recommended. The most important differences between the two Nikons are focal range, price, and autofocus performance—you decide which are most important to you. A few budget options in this focal range include the Nikon AF-P 70–300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR and the Canon EF 70–300mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II USM. The Nikon AF-S 200–400mm f/4G ED VR II and the Canon EF 200–400mm f/4L IS USM lenses are significantly larger, more expensive, and faster than the slower zooms mentioned above. They are more difficult to hand-hold, and you wouldn’t want to carry one of these around if you were also carrying a 500mm or 600mm lens. Recent improvements in the smaller lenses mentioned above make them a better option in the field, particularly alongside a super-telephoto. Of final note is the tried-and-true 70–200mm lens, favored by all types of photographers for many years. This is a good focal range zoom to have on hand for shooting contextual images and tight landscapes, but it is generally too short to shoot birds in flight. Fast Prime Telephoto Lenses. Both Canon and Nikon produce 300mm and 400mm

f/2.8 lenses—one stop faster than the maximum aperture for lenses 500mm and above. There was a time when the one extra stop of light was extremely valuable (imagine shooting ISO 50 or 100 film, which, not long ago was the case 95 percent of the time). But with today’s high-ISO-performance cameras, there are few instances where buying one of these new makes sense. These lenses do pair well with 1.4x and even 2x teleconverters, getting you into the range of the super-telephotos—a good option if you can find one of these used. The aperture also helps with autofocus performance and can be especially useful for birds in flight, but again, there are more flexible options than the fast prime telephoto. If you decide to buy a fixed focal length lens in this range, choose a slower lens like a 300mm f/4 or a 400mm f/5.6—vastly less expensive, equally sharp pro models, and small enough to carry over your shoulder. In short, these lenses tend to be big, heavy, exquisitely sharp, and expensive. Fresnel Telephoto Lenses

Fresnel lens elements in lenses made by Canon and Nikon are an exciting development for bird photographers. These new elements use far less glass than traditional lens elements, resulting in significantly reduced weight and lower prices. Nikon uses PF to name their Fresnel lenses, and Canon calls their line DO lenses. Several of these—the Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM, the Nikon AF-S 300mm f/4E PF ED, and the Nikon AF-S 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR—are particularly interesting for the bird photographer. They are vastly smaller and lighter than their glass counterparts, making them easy to handhold. The drawbacks are that the lenses can cause strong undesirable lens flare when pointed directly at a light source (something bird photographers rarely encounter), autofocus performance can be a bit slower, and in the case of the Nikon 500mm, the maximum aperture is f/5.6 compared to the conventional lens’s maximum aperture of f/4. Normal Lenses

A 50mm lens is often called a normal lens or a 1x lens. It is roughly the same field of view that we see with our own eyes. Lenses of 35mm to 70mm are also considered in the normal range, which is the most popular for general photography. Many cameras are sold with a lens in this range, and they typically perform extremely well at an excellent price point. When I don’t want to carry larger wide lenses, I’ll often throw the small, light, fixed 50mm lens in my bag in case I need it. Wide-Angle Lenses

Lenses 35mm and wider are considered wide-angle lenses. While a wide-angle won’t be your primary lens for photographing birds, it is a valuable tool with a unique perspective for shooting landscapes, habitat, people, and sometimes birds. A wideangle is a must-have for storytelling, with wide-angle zooms in the 16–35mm range a good choice. Anything wider becomes a specialty lens with limited uses and more optical distortions. A less expensive way to add a wide-angle to your toolkit is a small fixed 24mm lens. Teleconverters

Teleconverters are short lenses that you place between your primary lens and your camera to increase overall magnification. They are an essential and relatively

inexpensive addition to a bird photographer’s kit because they get you more reach with your long telephotos. The downsides to using teleconverters are a loss of light and a slight reduction in image quality because you are adding more glass between the subject and your sensor. But today’s teleconverter is so well made that these issues are negligible when it is paired with a long prime telephoto. The go-to teleconverter for most photographers is a 1.4x, which turns your 500mm into a 700mm and your 600mm into an 840mm with loss of only two-thirds of a stop of light and an almost unnoticeable decline in image sharpness. The 1.4x can be used with good results on many other lenses as well—sometimes surprisingly so. A few years back I discovered that the Canon 70–200mm f/2.8 zoom produces great results when paired with a 1.4x. Experiment with your lenses and see what combinations work.

Wide-angle lenses are great for showing birds like these Atlantic Puffins in Iceland in the context of their environment—on those rare occasions you get close enough. 24mm, 1/800 second at f/4, ISO 800

1.4x and 2x teleconverters by Canon and Nikon

A 2x teleconverter can also be useful, but there is a more noticeable reduction in sharpness when looking at the digital file. I have been quite pleased when I have paired the 2x with either Nikon or Canon 500mm and 600mm telephotos. Despite the reduced sharpness, I can tell you that for print, if the subject matter is there, National Geographic wouldn’t think twice about publishing it. BUYING USED EQUIPMENT

Camera companies have been making exceptional lenses for many years, and if you can’t afford the latest model new, consider buying a used lens of the previous model. The optics will still be superb, and as long as you stick to the era of autofocus and image stabilization, you will have what you need. Your lens may be a bit heavier and lack the newest technology, but it will still be a tool capable of making outstanding images. When buying new gear, keep in mind that camera equipment, especially lenses, retain good resale value over many years. You will recoup some of your investment when you upgrade. Buying and selling camera equipment on eBay has been a reliable way for me to find a deal when I need one and a good place to sell my old gear. Note that with any transaction, but especially online, buyer beware is your watchword.

Adding a graduated neutral density filter in front of my lens let me darken the sky, which otherwise would have appeared white, by two stops for this photo of a newly hatched Glaucous Gull chick in Alaska. 35mm, 1/125 second at f/11, ISO 200 LENS ACCESSORIES

Here are a few accessories you should consider for each lens you buy. FILTERS

The first thing to say about filters is that if you aren’t using one for a specific purpose, it shouldn’t be on your lens. Camera salespeople have long pushed the idea of putting a UV or some other type of “protective” filter on your lens to prevent scratches. Why would you put a cheap piece of glass in front of the beautifully built lens you have just dropped a lot of money on? Besides that, in twenty-five years of banging my cameras through field and forest, I have not once put a significant scratch on a lens. If only they made a filter that would protect your lens if it fell to the bottom of a stream or out of a flying aircraft! Filters come in several different types. Screw-on filters come in various diameters and attach to the front of your lens. Drop-in filters are similar to screw-on filters, but they insert into a special holder in the lens barrel of long telephotos. Gel filters are large rectangular filters that slide into a filter holder that you attach to the front of your lens. Though you will not use your filters often, it is important to buy filters with good optical quality. Cheap filters will reduce the quality of your image. Some trusted brands include B+W, Tiffen, Cokin, and Hoya. If you have a number of lenses with the same circumference, you only need one filter set. Common filter sizes are 77mm for screw-in filters and 52mm for drop-ins. Although rare, there are certain situations when a filter is very useful for bird photography.

Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Although it is a specialty item with limited application, a graduated neutral density filter (a split ND) when used properly can turn a good photograph into a great one. A split ND is most often used in landscape photography where part of the scene (the sky) is significantly brighter than another part (the ground). Roughly half the filter is a typical neutral density filter that reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor, and the other half is clear. Between the two halves is a gradation zone, which can be a hard edge (gradation over a short distance) or soft edge (more gradual). In the case of a landscape photograph, the gradation is placed along the horizon to darken the sky while leaving the ground untouched. Remember to hold down the depth-of-field preview button on your camera body to fine-tune the placement of the gradation. I typically use a two-stop split ND filter. Note that you can apply a split ND efffect like this in Lightroom, but I always prefer to do it in the original image. Polarizer

A polarizing filter limits the reflected light entering your lens, reducing glare. A popular use of polarizers is to deepen the blues in the sky. The more useful application is using one to take the reflected sheen off of vegetation or the surface of water. When photographing birds, this will come into play when shooting landscapes and habitat images. A polarizing filter needs to be turned to find the point where it is achieving its maximum effect. Experiment by looking through your camera at some shiny vegetation on an overcast day as you turn the filter. Take a few images and compare them. Also be aware that polarizers cost you between one and two stops of light.

Two-stop graduated neutral density filter mounted on a wide-angle lens Neutral Density

A neutral density (ND) filter has very limited application in bird photography (unless you are shooting video). It decreases the amount of light passing through, but without changing the character of that light. If, say, you want to incorporate motion blur in your image, but there is too much light for a slow enough shutter speed, add an ND

filter. These filters come in various strengths that each decrease light by a given number of stops, or you can buy a variable ND filter that offers more than one level of light loss. LENS HOODS

Usually made of rigid plastic, a lens hood snaps on to the end of your lens to shade the glass elements from direct light, which can cause visual distortions in your images— most often ghosting or a milky haze called flaring. A lens hood also protects your lens from bumps. Many lenses I’ve dropped were saved by the lens hood taking the brunt of the fall. Keep your lens hood in place unless you are working in high winds, in which case it is sometimes helpful to remove it to reduce vibrations. EXTENSION TUBES

An extension tube is a short tube about the size of a teleconverter but without any glass inside. You put it between your camera and the lens to make the lens focus on a point closer than it otherwise would. An extension tube is sometimes necessary for very close work with a long telephoto lens, but there is a small loss of light and you lose the ability to focus to infinity. Extension tubes have become less important to bird photographers since the long telephoto lenses developed recently by Nikon and Canon can focus much closer out of the box than previous generations. Still, it doesn’t hurt to have one on hand, especially if you are shooting with an older lens or foresee wanting to shoot extreme close-ups with your telephoto. LENS PROTECTORS

Safeguarding your lenses with neoprene sleeves is a good idea. Lens sleeves help protect the lens from minor bumps and bruises (which helps with resale). Most photographers use ones manufactured by LensCoat, which come in a variety of colors and camouflage patterns. I’ve discovered two other unexpected benefits. I worry less about how I handle my equipment, which tends to be pretty rough, and fewer people notice my gear and want to come over and investigate what I am looking at! A new addition to this market is the rigid lens protector made by Tragopan. Their CamShell lens protectors provide far more lens protection than neoprene sleeves while still making it easy to operate all of your lens controls. CAMERA SUPPORT

Proper camera support, most often a tripod, is critical to making sharp images and getting the most out of your camera system. There are many ways to achieve proper support, each with advantages and disadvantages or with special applications, but the goal is always the same—to keep your camera rock steady when releasing the shutter. This becomes increasingly important as shutter speeds slow. Not keeping your camera steady is one of the main culprits for producing images that are not acceptably sharp. Though rapid advances in technology—most notably higher ISO performance allowing for faster shutter speeds and newer, lighter lenses—have opened up more opportunities for hand-holding even large lenses, a solid tripod is still an absolute necessity for serious photographers. I use a tripod or other support device for at least 90 percent of my images. Tripods, and other means of camera support, have other advantages beyond just

keeping your camera steady. They reduce the fatigue that comes with hand-holding heavy camera-lens combinations for long periods of time. Perhaps more importantly, they push you to be more purposeful about where you shoot from. Many people handholding their cameras are wandering, shooting from a standing position wherever they happen to be. While you can get some good images that way (and there are situations when hand-holding is the right approach—more on that in the following chapter), a better way to work is to scrutinize your opportunity and surroundings, identify the very best location to shoot your subject from, and set up there with your tripod. Search for your spot by hand-holding and looking through the camera from various heights and vantage points until you’ve identified where the best image can be made. Then set up your tripod to position the camera at the exact location in space you have deemed best and fine-tune your composition. The goal is to make the best possible images in each situation, not to meander around taking indiscriminate snapshots of birds—that’s how you end up with average images that anyone could have taken. Also, be sure that you choose the spot. I am always amazed when I see photographers at a popular location all lined up next to each other with their tripods at standing height—don’t be one of them! Unless it’s your best option, of course. Another benefit of using camera support is that it makes many shooting positions more comfortable. More often than not, you’ll be shooting from heights below your standing height—on your knees or all the way down to ground level on your stomach. By properly supporting the camera, you can select the angle and framing you want and leave the camera in place while waiting for action or the right light. If you are hand-holding and end up uncomfortable in the position that gives the best vantage, chances are you won’t stick with it. TRIPOD SYSTEMS

A sturdy tripod is one of the best investments you can make as a photographer. There are countless tripods out there, but this is a piece of equipment where quality matters. Your tripod system is built from several components, and most photographers buy these items separately rather than purchase an out-of-the-box solution that isn’t geared toward wildlife photography. Starting from the ground and going up, a tripod consists of a rigid set of legs, a base, and a tripod head. You will also need lens plates that you affix permanently to each of your long lenses and camera body so you can quickly and easily mount them to the tripod head. Here are things to consider when assembling a tripod system. Tripod Legs

When shopping for tripod legs, be sure to evaluate the maximum and minimum heights. Look for a tripod that will position your camera at your eye level or higher. Legs that extend beyond your standing height will make things easier when working on hillsides or on subjects above you. You’ll also want a tripod that can be lowered to near-ground level. This means purchasing a tripod that does not have an adjustable center column (more on that below). Another critical tripod feature is independent leg-angle adjustment. The capacity to adjust the angle of each tripod leg independently is essential for achieving a level shooting base on uneven terrain. Select a tripod designed to accommodate an

interchangeable base. Also consider a tripod’s weight. The heavier a tripod is, the sturdier it is, but you have to be willing to carry it. Lighter and more rigid than their aluminum counterparts, carbon fiber tripods provide top-notch stability, but at a steep price. A popular choice among bird photographers are tripods manufactured by Gitzo. They are well built, have a wide variety of models and sizes, and offer features such as carbon fiber construction, interchangeable bases, and other accessories. When well cared for, and periodically refurbished, an expensive Gitzo tripod will last for decades. Product lines change quickly, so it is difficult to make specific recommendations, but look at the Systematic series—these are the top-of-the line tripods for bird photographers shooting with big lenses. Many photographers will also want to own a tripod in the Mountaineer or Traveler series for use on long hikes or when the larger tripod is unnecessary. Miller Tripods makes the Miller Solo 75 series carbon fiber tripods, which have a leg-lock style that I prefer to Gitzo leg locks, and you can pair the 75mm bowl with a Gitzo leveling base or a video head. Tripods made by Induro are another quality option. Manfrotto and other manufacturers make decent, affordable tripods. But remember, you get what you pay for. I keep an inexpensive set of Manfrotto legs for use in water (especially highly corrosive salt water) when I know I will be submerging the tripod above the first leg joint. Tripod Base

Positioned atop your tripod legs is the tripod base. The base gets permanently attached to the tripod legs and is the connector between the tripod head and legs. Between the flat base type and the much more common type with an adjustable center column, opt for the flat base. A center column may seem like a desirable feature, but it prohibits you from lowering your tripod to near-ground level and when extended reduces the stability of your whole system. When you get a flat base, most of the time, you’ll buy it already attached to your tripod legs. A leveling base differs from a flat base in that it consists of a bowl and socket system, which you use to adjust the angle of your tripod head. A bubble level on the leveling base allows you to level your tripod head without having to adjust the length of your tripod legs, even if your tripod is set up on uneven ground. Leveling bases and bowls come in different sizes, and you’ll need one that fits your particular tripod and head. A 75mm bowl is the most common size to use on a standard-size Gitzo tripod. The one drawback of a leveling base is that the knob for adjusting the base protrudes from the bottom of the head and can interfere with dropping your tripod to its lowest level.

The Miller Solo 75 series carbon fiber tripod with Sachtler FSB-8 Fluid Head with leg angle extended for ground level shooting

Gitzo leveling base seated in a bowl on top of a Gitzo GT3543XLS tripod Tripod Heads

Your tripod head sits on top of your tripod base and legs and is the link between your sturdy base and your camera. When a head is locked down, it offers rock-solid stability. When certain knobs are loosened, the head allows for fluid motion so you can frame shots and follow action. Tripod heads vary widely in function and the amount of weight (camera plus lens) they can support. There are three types of heads suited to bird photography. Start with a gimbal head for your long lens work, and add a ball head if you intend to shoot landscapes or other images with shorter focal length lenses. Most people are familiar with pan-tilt heads, the type that come on many cheap

tripods. I don’t recommend them at all—they are not useful for bird photography! Gimbal Head. A gimbal head is a tripod head that uses the center of gravity of your telephoto lens and camera setup to balance your equipment on a floating gimbal arm. When properly balanced, and just the right amount of friction is applied with the pan and tilt knobs, it allows for free and easy movement across all planes but will stay in position when you take your hands off it. Gimbal heads are responsive, allow for almost effortless handling of heavy lenses, and follow action with ease. If you are going to buy a big telephoto lens, be prepared to buy a gimbal head too. When you buy a gimbal head, it will come with instructions on how to balance it with your equipment mounted. Be sure to follow these instructions each time you use it so that your rig performs as designed. You will need to make slight adjustments any time you change the weight distribution of your setup, as when adding or removing a teleconverter or switching camera bodies. Balancing your camera will quickly become second nature. The best gimbal is the Wimberley Head Version II. Wimberley was the first company to perfect the gimbal design and makes great quality products. I have been using the same gimbal head I bought from them more than twenty years ago. Ball Head. A ball head consists of a large ball and socket with a knob that regulates how easily the camera moves. Most ball heads have a separate knob at the base that allows the whole head to pan on a level plane. These heads are quite convenient for smaller camera-lens setups but become increasingly unwieldy with heavier rigs. If you aren’t careful, a heavy rig will “flop,” or fall to the side. Trying to follow action with a ball head is very difficult, especially with longer lenses. Use ball heads with lenses like the 70–200mm zoom or smaller. In a pinch, you can use one with a 200–400mm if following action isn’t critical and you want to minimize weight. I usually have one tripod with me with a ball head attached and another tripod with either a gimbal or video head. Ball heads come in a variety of sizes and are made by many manufacturers. The important thing is to make sure you have one that is rated to handle the weight you intend to put on it. I have used an Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 for many years with great satisfaction. Another manufacturer to check out is Really Right Stuff.

Wimberley gimbal head with a 600mm telephoto lens

The Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 ball head

Video Head. While most bird and wildlife photographers in the United States prefer a gimbal-type head for long lens work, most Europeans use the heavier video tripod heads. Video heads are less nimble than gimbal heads, but they are more robust and provide more stability, especially in windy conditions or soft terrain. They are also the only choice if you plan to shoot a lot of video where smoothly following action is important—this is next to impossible to do consistently with a ball or gimbal head. Video heads are finely tuned pieces of equipment and are expensive. Unless video is important to you, your first choice should be a gimbal-type head. If you shoot a significant amount of video and photos simultaneously and want a video head, the Sachtler FSB-8 is a good choice for long lens work. It is heavy enough to handle the big glass, but not so hefty that it is a bear to carry. It can be balanced

perfectly, handles delicate video moves smoothly, and functions very well as both a photographic and video tripod head. It is not as quick and responsive as a Wimberley head, but it’s not bad. I typically pair this head with my Miller Solo 75 tripod, but it can also be used on a Gitzo tripod outfitted with a 75mm bowl. Tripod Accessories

In addition to the components that together make a functioning tripod system, you may want to consider a few accessories that make things easier in the field.

Arca-Swiss style plates include generic sizes and plates designed to match specific cameras and lenses.

Quick-Release Plates. Each of your long lenses and camera bodies should be paired with a dedicated Arca-Swiss quick-release plate. Quick-release plates allow you to quickly and firmly attach your camera or lens (via the lens foot) to your tripod or other support device. Several manufacturers produce plates, and you can buy them specifically matched to your camera and lens model or purchase generic ones. You don’t want to be removing these plates each time you use a different lens, so be sure to buy one for each piece of equipment you own—each camera body and each lens that has a lens foot. And a note of caution: every photographer I know has at some point tightened the knob thinking that the lens plate was secure only to let go of their camera and have it tumble to the ground. Be sure everything is secure before letting go. For lens plates, check out the manufacturers Kirk Enterprises and Really Right Stuff. Padded Leg Covers. In the field, you will often have a tripod slung over your shoulder with a heavy camera and telephoto lens attached to the end of it. Because of this, many people either make or purchase padded leg covers for their tripod legs. I don’t use them because I generally get annoyed by anything “extra” getting in my way, but lugging camera gear around is tough on the body, and if leg covers soften the hit to your shoulders, go for it.

Leg Waders. If you plan to put your tripod in the water, especially salt water, I highly recommend Avocet Tripod Waders made by Tragopan. Water is the number-one enemy of tripod legs, and anything you can do to keep water from entering the leg joints and degrading their performance will pay off.

Skimmer Ground Pod with Wimberley gimbal head OTHER SUPPORT DEVICES

There are times when a tripod is not the answer, but strong camera support is still necessary. Here are a few other support solutions for the bird photographer. Ground Pods

One of my favorite tools for shooting at ground level is a ground pod. When you know you won’t need to shoot higher than a foot or so above the ground, you are working somewhere with few obstructions, and you can lie in position comfortably, a ground pod allows you to be light and nimble but still gives you a strong base of support so long as the substrate isn’t too soft. I use a ground pod for shooting sandpipers on mudflats or on tundra with short vegetation, and ducks from the edges of ponds and wetlands. When I can perch the pod on a tussock, I may be giving up a rock-solid base but find that if I work with care, the ground pod still offers a suitable platform and allows me more freedom of movement. Sometimes this trade-off is worth it. When using a ground pod, I prefer to use a gimbal head. For side-toside panning, lock the panning knob and turn the entire pod rather than panning the head within the pod. Tilt up and down by loosening the tilt knob on the tripod head, or if only small adjustments are needed, tighten everything and tilt the camera by tipping the pod slightly in the substrate. Pay attention to your horizon line when using a ground pod, because in a prone position it is easy to feel as though you are composed level when you are not. You can check the horizon line and adjust to level using the tripod collar on your lens.

Beanbags

Beanbags are versatile tools. I pretty much always have one in my car, and it is my go-to support device for shooting out of a car window with a long lens. Beanbags also work on the hood of the car, the roof, or on the ground as an improvised ground pod. If an exciting but fleeting moment presents itself, popping out of the car with a beanbag is much faster than setting up a tripod. When using a beanbag, turn the tripod collar so that it is facing up, and rest the lens barrel directly on the bag. This provides the firmest support, but it means you must use autofocus, as the focus ring will usually be resting on the beanbag. If manual focus is a must (when shooting video of a moving subject, for instance), rest your lens foot on the beanbag or use some kind of window mount. Monopods

A monopod is a single-leg support that offers more support than hand-holding does but less stability than a tripod. I do not use monopods or recommend them to beginning photographers unless they are dead set against using a tripod. In that case a monopod will provide a degree of support for sharper images and reduce the fatigue of hand-holding a camera and lens. If you purchase a monopod, make sure it is a quality, rigid monopod and extends all the way to eye level.

Beanbags are the best option for shooting from vehicles.

Photographing shorebirds on intertidal mudflats with a ground pod can be a very effective technique. BACKPACKS, BAGS, AND CASES

Protecting, storing, and carrying your gear at home, in the field, and when you are traveling requires a number of different solutions. The most important factors to consider here are organization, protection, accessibility, and comfort. IN THE FIELD

You will likely need a number of different options for carrying gear in the field—one camera bag won’t work in all situations. Sometimes you will want to carry your long lens and tripod by hand with only a few accessories that fit easily in a small backpack, vest, or waist belt. Other times, you’ll want your whole kit with you for a long hike to a shooting location. Large Camera Backpacks

Most bird photographers opt for a large backpack as their main bag, one that can handle their longest lens with the lens hood reversed in the center as well as camera bodies, other lenses, and accessories. When possible, buy backpacks with movable interior pads to customize the fit for your gear. The best backpacks come with ergonomic straps and padded waist belts so the pack can be fitted to the wearer and the weight of the bag rests comfortably on the hips rather than the shoulders. This is an absolute necessity when carrying a heavy bag, but it makes carrying a light load easier too. Look for integrated rain covers that can be pulled over the bag and integrated tripod holders for keeping your hands free when hiking long distances. Backpacks need to be large enough to hold the gear they are meant for, sufficiently durable to withstand field conditions, and, most importantly, comfortable for your body when fully loaded. Before the return period expires, test the pack at home and make sure it suits your

body and gear. Double-check that the typical amount of gear you carry in the field will fit, customize the inserts and dividers, and make sure you like how it is organized. Some popular manufacturers of big camera bags for wildlife photographers include MindShift, Think Tank Photo, Lowepro, and Manfrotto. For a bag that can handle big lenses, check out the Lowepro Pro Trekker 650 AW. Small Camera Backpack

For times when you’ll just be slinging your biggest lens and tripod over your shoulder, it is handy to have a smaller camera bag for just a few items—another couple of lenses, teleconverters, memory cards, batteries, and your lunch. I use a small bag from the MindShift rotation180° series of backpacks. Long Lens Bags

Long lens bags are bags designed for carrying, storing, or traveling with a single large telephoto lens in the 400mm to 800mm range with or without a camera body attached. This is not the bag you would usually take out with you in the field. Use it when you know that the specific lens-camera combination is the only one you’ll be using, when transporting a long lens (and nothing else) to a blind, when traveling, or (sometimes) when working from a car. They are also a good storage option for long lenses not in use. Shoulder straps are helpful, though not all long lens bags come with them. I personally use a Lowepro Trekker 600 AW with integrated shoulder straps and a waist belt, like a backpack. Vests and Belts

If you want to leave your backpack behind, and the style suits you, a photography vest can be a handy way to keep accessories in easy reach while carrying your tripod and long lens over your shoulder. Some photographers like them for crowded places like boardwalks in nature areas, where a backpack might be in the way. A quick search online will reveal plenty of options. Waist belts are the lightest way to carry a few pieces of essential gear and are especially useful in situations where a backpack makes it hard to access equipment or is too cumbersome. Use them when you’re lying down on mudflats, working with a long lens and a few accessories like a teleconverter. They are also good when you’re under a bag blind and you need to limit your movements. Waist belts are robust and ergonomic, and they don’t sag the way some “fanny pack” bags can. I prefer waist belts like the Lowepro S&F Deluxe Technical Belt. The Lowepro system is modular: you can customize the belt with different quantities and types of pouches and choose where they hang. Pouches can accommodate teleconverters, batteries, memory cards, an additional camera body, and a midrange telephoto lens like a 100–400mm. Camera and Lens Covers

Light rain, mist, sea spray, and blowing dust should not deter you from capturing bird photos when good opportunities arise. In fact, bad weather can produce some unique and dramatic effects. While most of your gear will be protected in your backpack, and your tripod can be left exposed to the elements, it’s wise to protect the camera and lens you are working with if the weather turns. There are several companies that make waterproof covers (also good for dust and mud) that fit a range of camera-lens

combinations while allowing full access to the camera and lens controls. I usually carry one cover that fits both my 500mm and 600mm lenses and another cover that fits whatever midsize zoom I might be using—say a 70–200mm or a 100–400mm. Look at the Hydrophobia series from Think Tank Photo and the LensCoat RainCoat series of rain covers. Another useful accessory is a shower cap. Throw a few in your bag and snug one onto your camera body when you need it. IN TRANSIT

Traveling with a load of expensive camera gear can be a stressful hassle. You don’t want your painstakingly acquired equipment to get damaged, lost, or stolen. You worry about the size of the overhead compartment on the airplane and whether airline staff will be accommodating. The weight of your bags is a burden and the number of bags unwieldy. As a professional photographer who travels a lot, I find this part of my work is the most stressful and I like it the least.

Gear protection for working in water: Tragopan Avocet Tripod Waders and Think Tank Photo Emergency Rain Cover

The more camera gear you travel with, the bigger the headache becomes.

If you travel, purchase camera bags designed to fit in an overhead compartment, whether a backpack, a long lens bag, or a camera roller bag like the Think Tank Photo Airport International. If you are traveling with one of the biggest lenses, like a 600mm or 800mm, carrying everything on board with you will not be practical. In that case, I recommend the following: The long lens (500, 600, or 800mm) goes in a long lens backpack with a camera body, memory cards, batteries, charger, and a wide-angle lens. I carry this bag onboard. If I am flying on a plane with small overhead compartments, I gate-check the long lens bag and hand carry the lens itself on board. I’ll wrap it in a blanket or jacket and put it in the overhead or under the seat. There are often closets on these small planes; it’s worth inquiring about.

The Airport International roller bag by Think Tank Photo accommodates a good amount of gear for a carry-on plus your laptop.

A large camera backpack with my other lenses and equipment goes in a camera bag which, depending on the bag, fits nicely in a Pelican 1610 or 1650 roller case and is checked. Another option is a large dedicated roller bag like the Airport Security V3.0 from Think Tank Photo. I personally prefer to have my working backpack ready to go rather than traveling with a separate roller bag. If I am traveling with one tripod, it goes in my regular luggage with my clothes. If I have multiple tripods, they go in a dedicated tripod bag. In all the years I have been traveling, I have never had a checked item damaged or stolen. While it seems risky to check expensive, delicate gear, assuming it has been packed well, doing so can save a lot of worry, and it alleviates the need to carry so much weight and bulk around in the terminal. If you are going on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, carry on at least some of your gear in case your luggage is delayed.

The MindShift Firstlight 40L backpack matches nicely with the Pelican 1610 roller case. Pelican Cases

Pelican makes a multitude of hard cases that fit just about anything. For photographers, the most useful are those that your photo backpack can fit snuggly inside and that have handles and integrated wheels. You can put your packed field backpack inside the Pelican case so it’s ready to go when you get to your destination. Roller Bags

A number of manufacturers make beautiful roller bags that are designed specifically for photography equipment and comply with airline restrictions for overhead compartments. If you plan to carry your photo gear on board, a roller bag can save your back as you navigate the airport. You may need a gear backpack or bag inside your checked luggage in addition to the roller bag, since the roller bag won’t work in the field unless you plan to work from a car. CAMERA AND LENS CLEANING

There is no avoiding getting dust, sand, and mud on your gear when you're an active photographer. Using protective covers and keeping your equipment in bags during travel helps limit what gets into the nooks and crannies, but you will still need to do maintenance cleaning in the field and deep cleanings at home at regular intervals. EXTERIOR

For the exterior (nonglass) parts of cameras, lenses, and tripods, you’ll need a few basic tools for cleaning: a blower, like a Giottos Rocket-air (buy the large one), and a stiff, medium-size painter’s brush made stiffer by cutting the bristles shorter. Use these in the field to remove dry particles like dirt, dust, and dried mud, starting with the blower and getting into the nooks and crannies with the brush. If additional cleaning is needed, use lens wipes left over from cleaning glass. At home, a can of compressed air is helpful too. GLASS

For the glass elements of lenses, use a microfiber cloth and your own exhaled breath for small smudges. For larger jobs, you’ll need lens cleaning wipes with lens cleaning solution. First, be sure the glass is completely free of abrasive particles, and always wipe with gentle circular motions. I use Pec-Pad nonabrasive wipes and Eclipse optic cleaning fluid. SENSOR

Cleaning the image sensor inside your camera is difficult and nerve-racking. Do your best to prevent any dust getting inside your camera when changing lenses—make cleaning the sensor as infrequent an event as possible, even if that means removing spots in editing. If the sensor needs to be cleaned, dust spots or other debris will show up as dark spots or squiggles in your image files in the light, even-toned areas of the photo, such as the sky or clean, out-of-focus backgrounds. Dust spots are most noticeable at smaller apertures, so check for dust on your sensor by taking a picture at a small aperture of an out-of-focus white wall, and then look at the file in Lightroom using the Visualize Spots function. Spots, if present, will be readily apparent.

Camera cleaning accessories

To remove a few isolated particles, first try the camera’s auto-cleaning function if it has one. If that doesn’t work, make sure you have a charged battery and put the camera into its manual cleaning mode. This will lock the mirror up and give you access to the image sensor. Hold the camera with the sensor pointing down and use a blower to try blowing particles off of the sensor and out of the camera. Be careful not to touch the delicate sensor! If that fails, and you have only a couple of dust particles and you can see them, try dislodging them with the stiff corner of a folded Pec-Pad or other lint-free lens wipe. If the above methods fail, or when your sensor is very dirty, cleaning will require a wet-cloth method. Sensor cleaning kits can be purchased if you want to do this yourself, but you can also look for a local camera store to do it for you.

When all else fails or your camera or lens needs a deep cleaning inside and out, send your equipment to the manufacturer through their repair website for a “clean and check.” For a reasonable fee, they will deep clean the camera or lens and test it to make sure everything is operating to factory specifications. For tripods and tripod heads that are operating poorly due to wear and tear, consider sending them back to their manufacturers for refurbishment rather than buying new ones.

4

TECHNICAL MATTERS

When opportunities arise, being technically proficient with your camera and its settings is critical to capturing fleeting moments. American Flamingo taking flight, Yucatán, Mexico. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1600 second at f/8, ISO 800

the technical side of photography until it becomes second nature allows M astering you to apply your attention to what’s in front of your camera. Developing and maintaining proficiency with camera equipment is a continual learning experience, and the more you use your camera, the faster you pick it up. Over time, you will develop muscle memory for where the controls are, what direction to turn the focus ring, and what knob to grab as you adjust your tripod. The more you experiment with your exposure, judge focus by eye, and estimate depth of field in your mind’s eye, the more intuitive these skills become. This chapter gets you started on these technical aspects of photography and addresses special topics for bird photographers, including shooting birds in flight, handling your tripod in the field, troubleshooting lack of image sharpness, and using flash. GETTING TO KNOW CAMERA SETTINGS

When you first open your camera manual, you may find the number of options and their uses overwhelming, not to mention the camera’s various dials, knobs, and buttons. Luckily, most of these functions are bells and whistles you’ll never use, and the settings that you actually need to know about are far fewer. Discussed below are two types: those you will change frequently while shooting (variable camera settings) and those that, for the most part, you will set once and then leave them alone (fixed camera settings).

VARIABLE CAMERA SETTINGS

If you are very new to your camera and its settings, this quick tour will help orient you to the settings you’ll be changing frequently. Deeper explanations of when to use them follow later in this chapter. For each setting, look through your viewfinder and at the LCD on the top of your camera, and take note of the symbols and graphic displays. With your camera and the manual, locate the controls for changing the following settings. Mode

When you pick up your camera, notice what mode it is in. The three modes we are most concerned with are Manual (M), Shutter Priority (S/Tv), and Aperture Priority (A/Av). Your camera may have others, which you can ignore for now. Mode determines how your camera controls exposure. ISO

ISO changes how your image sensor responds to light. In effect, it changes the sensor’s sensitivity. Aperture

Aperture is controlled by a dial on the camera body and changes the amount of light that passes through your lens at the moment of exposure. Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is controlled by a dial on the camera and determines how long the shutter stays open, exposing your sensor to light, at the moment of exposure. Autofocus Button

Locate the AF-ON button on the back of the camera. It initiates the autofocus system. Autofocus Point

Learn how to move the autofocus point in your viewfinder around the screen, using the Sub-selector (Nikon) or Multi-controller (Canon) on the back of the camera. Also learn how to change the autofocus point pattern. Autofocus Operation

Find the control that switches between the two different autofocus modes—AFC and AFS (Nikon), or AI Servo and One-Shot (Canon). Metering Pattern

Get to know how to change the metering pattern from Matrix (Nikon) or Evaluative (Canon) to center-weighted and spot. Metering mode determines how your camera’s meter analyzes light and suggests a proper exposure. Exposure Compensation

Set your camera to Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, and learn how to add and subtract exposure by pressing the exposure compensation button (+/-) and turning a dial. Notice how these affect what you see in your viewfinder. Shutter Button

Find your shutter button. This is the button you press to activate the meter and take a

picture. Drive

Change your camera’s drive mode. Drive sets how many images will be taken when you press and hold the shutter button. Most cameras can be set to take a single photo each time the shutter release button is pressed or to take photos at different rates for as long as the shutter button is held. Test these out. Image Review

You’ll want to review images that you have taken. Learn how to scroll through images on your LCD screen, how to zoom in, and how to view the information associated with each image and its histogram. FIXED CAMERA SETTINGS

When you buy a camera, most of the default factory settings are right where you want them, but there are a few you’ll want to change from the default and either leave them there for good or alter infrequently. Image Quality

For optimum image quality and flexibility in post-processing, always shoot RAW images, not JPEG. If there is an option, select the maximum bit depth for your RAW files and only allow them to be compressed if it is “lossless.” The RAW image format gives you the maximum amount of image data and flexibility in editing your images. Color Space

If you primarily post images to the web or share them electronically, your color space should be set to the default, sRGB. If you are shooting for print, use the Adobe RGB (also called Adobe 1998) color space. White Balance

Since you are shooting in RAW mode, your white balance settings can be adjusted in post-processing. Leave this set to Auto. Time and Date

It is good practice to update your camera’s date and time when traveling so you know when your pictures were taken. Beyond more obvious reasons for doing so, this provides “field notes” on things like what the light was like at a given place and time or what birds were present that season. Beep Off

The default setting for some cameras is to emit a beep when autofocus is achieved or an image is captured. Turn this function off. Custom Dial Settings

I like to set the dials that control exposure the same way on each camera that I use. This system is intuitive and makes it easy to quickly remember which way to turn dials when the pressure is on. Below is an overview of the system for my custom dial settings. How-to details that are specific to Canon and Nikon cameras follow. First, you’ll set the dial on the rear of the camera (the one you control with your thumb) to control shutter speed and the dial on the top/front of the camera (the one

you control with your index finger) to control aperture. Because of where they are located, I associate the rear dial with controlling the camera (shutter speed) and the top/front dial with controlling the lens (aperture). Next, you’ll set both dials so that when they are rotated left, or “pushed” with your finger, it closes down or reduces exposure, and when rotated right, “pulling” them, it opens up or increases exposure. These directions coincide with the direction your camera’s histogram and meter will move when you make these adjustments. In other words, you will turn the dial the way you want the histogram or meter to move. (This will make more sense when you have read the exposure section below.) Some of the default settings on your camera will already match these and others won’t. For Canon cameras, enter the menu system, and find Dial Direction During Tv/Av, enter that menu, and select Reverse Direction. Then in the Custom Controls menu, select Av for the Main Dial and Tv for the Quick Control Dial. For a Nikon camera, go to the Custom Setting menu, and then select Customize Command Dials. Check the box next to Shutter Speed/Aperture, and leave the box next to Exposure Compensation unchecked. UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE

Achieving a proper exposure—the amount of light you allow to fall on your camera’s sensor when taking a photograph—is a crucial skill to have and one that is often intimidating to beginning photographers. And we all screw it up from time to time! Proper exposure simply means that your image looks the way you intended it to—the whites are white but not blown out, there is some detail in the dark, and the midtones fall in the optimal range for detail and color. In short, the image is not underexposed (dark and dingy) or overexposed (washed out). Exposure results are controlled by a combination of three variables—aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. To measure and interpret light so you can determine the best exposure, your camera has a meter and it generates a histogram for each image. Use your meter before taking a photo as a guideline for predicting the best exposure for your subject. Use your histogram after a photograph is taken for a look at exactly how an image was exposed, and then make corrections as needed for your next image. There are times when intentionally overexposing a digital image shot in RAW format is a good strategy for maximizing flexibility and quality in your image file. Your image will not look properly exposed when you look at the histogram or at the image on the LCD screen (both will appear lighter than you want them in your final image), but you will use adjustments in post-processing to move the tonality of the image back to its proper place. Whether or not you use this strategy, you should always be capable of hitting the optimal exposure in camera (as opposed to in postprocessing) for times when the situation requires it. Sometimes you need every bit of shutter speed you can get and can’t afford to overexpose an image with a slower shutter speed or higher ISO. Knowing the optimal exposure also gives you the correct baseline from which to overexpose an image. Too much overexposure is unrecoverable—do not do this! The good news for modern photographers is that you do not have to hit a precise target exposure every time you trip the shutter. So long as an image is shot within the range between the exposure you want in your final processed photo and overexposed

(but not too overexposed), image quality will be perfect. You have some leeway. Underexposure is the main danger. Underexposing and then lightening an image with software degrades image quality.

Determining the correct exposure for a middle-tone subject against a middle-tone background is as straightforward as it gets. The resulting histogram (see later this chapter) shows most of the image’s tonality in the center third of the graph, with the lights and darks approaching but not touching or climbing either axis. Ruffed Grouse, Washington. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/60 second at f/7.1, ISO 800

The same photo underexposed by one stop, correctly exposed, and overexposed by one stop. Yellowrumped Warbler (Audubon’s), Washington. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/8, fill flash –1⅔ stop, ISO 800

Shooting a bright white subject that occupies a significant portion of the frame on automatic will result in an underexposed image and a histogram pushed to the left. American White Pelican, Oregon. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/4000 second at f/8, ISO 500 MEASURING EXPOSURE

To consistently expose images properly, it is important to understand how a camera’s light meter operates. Your camera’s light meter is a through-the-lens, or TTL, light meter. That is, it does not measure the light hitting the camera, rather it measures the light that reflects off the subject, passes through your lens, and hits the camera’s image sensor. Your camera “sees” that light, interprets it, and gives you a suggested optimal exposure.

In the second image I used the camera meter's suggested exposure and added 1 stop of light to make the whites white as they should be. Notice the whites represented on the right side of the histogram do not touch the right axis but approach it. American White Pelican, Oregon. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/2000 second at f/8, ISO 500

The problem with the suggested exposure is that your camera has no idea what tone the subject has, and it is calibrated to produce a middle-tone image (with one exception discussed below). The technical camera specification for a “middle tone” is equivalent to the tone of an 18 percent gray card. If your subject is medium tone—a red barn, a well-watered lawn, or a female Mallard duck—you are all set. The camera’s suggested exposure will be the right one. But what if you are photographing a frame-filling bright white Snow Goose or a black Common Raven? Your camera will underexpose (darken) the white goose, attempting to make it a midtone, and overexpose (lighten) the black raven. When shooting subjects that aren’t midtones, use the suggested exposure as a baseline and adjust it to get the right exposure for your subject. For a white goose, additional light will be needed to make it lighter than midtone, and for a black raven, you’ll reduce light to make it darker than midtone. How much you adjust your exposure depends on your subject matter and desired results. Understanding how the light meter operates and what it is trying to accomplish is key to making the right adjustment. Your meter wants to make everything middle tone.

Metering Modes

Most cameras give you a number of ways to measure the light in your image frame. Familiarize yourself with these metering modes so you can choose appropriately. They each calculate exposure, emphasizing different portions of the viewfinder. Matrix or Evaluative. Matrix, or evaluative, metering is an advanced metering system. It is the default metering pattern for most cameras and is the one you’ll rely on most. Matrix metering uses a complex algorithm to break the entire image area in your viewfinder into many small segments (more than a thousand for some cameras), analyzing each one separately in terms of both brightness and color. It considers where the camera is focused, and in some cases, instantly compares the scene to a built-in database of reference images to suggest a correct exposure. Matrix metering will usually get you closest to the optimal exposure automatically, and it is always the best option when you don’t have time to carefully consider your exposure. Keep in mind that this metering system does not always aim for a midtone frame since it considers other variables. Center-Weighted. Center-weighted metering evaluates the whole viewfinder screen, but emphasizes the central part for its suggested optimal exposure. In the viewfinder, this center area is indicated by a large circle or markings suggesting portions of a circle. Center-weighted metering can be a useful tool when you are shooting a large

subject against a very light or dark background. Spot. The spot meter is a precise metering tool that measures a very small portion of the image frame. In most viewfinders, the spot coincides with the small autofocus marker, which can be moved around the same way you move the autofocus points, typically with a dial or pad on the back of the camera. The spot meter used to be the go-to tool in the days of film, when evaluating light and dark areas in a frame and coming up with a precise exposure was critical. Today it is rarely used. Meter Scale

When you look through the viewfinder or at the LCD screen, you will see a metering scale, with a zero in the middle and increments going from –2 on the left to +2 on the right. Use this scale to monitor exposure. When the meter is reading somewhere to the left, or minus side, of zero, you are underexposing—darker than midtone. When it reads to the right of zero, you are overexposing—lighter than midtone. Most scales show marks in one-thirdstop increments and go from minus two stops to plus two stops (more on stops below). If your image is underexposed or overexposed by more than that, the meter will indicate that the exposure is beyond the bounds of the scale, often with an arrow icon pointing from the corresponding side.

A typical metering scale as seen through a camera’s viewfinder looks like this. Zero represents a middle-tone exposure and over- and underexposure are indicated in one-third stop increments.

With some cameras, you will not see the meter when you are operating in an automatic exposure mode without any adjustments to the camera’s suggested exposure. Once you start dialing in exposure compensation, the meter will appear. Histogram

The most important tool you have for checking your exposure after an image has been taken is the histogram your camera displays for each image you shoot. A histogram is a graphical representation of the tonality found in an image file. Across the range of the graph are all tones, from black with no detail or color on the far left to white with no detail or color on the far right. At the center of the graph are the midtones. For each image, you will find a different distribution of data along the histogram graph that varies in height depending on the distribution of tonalities in the scene you have shot. If your scene is correctly exposed, the dark objects or shadows in your image will be represented to the left, the middle tones in the middle, and the light tones and highlights to the right. The higher up the vertical axis the graph reads in any area, the more that tone is represented in the image. If your image is incorrectly exposed, your histogram will likely show data bunched up and touching the left (underexposed) or

right (overexposed) side of the graph. You don’t want this! If the image is underexposed you can increase the ISO, increase the aperture (open up), or slow your shutter speed for a longer exposure. If your image is overexposed, do the opposite.

Histogram and other shooting data displayed on the rear LCD of a Canon camera Highlight Alerts

Another tool for managing exposure is the highlight alert function, which you may need to turn on in your camera’s menu system. When highlight alerts are enabled, areas of an image that are overexposed to the point of being blown out will flash black when you review the image on your LCD screen. Keep in mind that when your camera is making these calculations, it does so using a JPEG file that is embedded in your RAW file data, not the actual RAW file, and that some of those highlights are not truly blown out and are recoverable in the RAW file. So, it is okay to have a touch of blinking highlights in the image, but if there are large areas flashing black, you will need to adjust the exposure. The highlight alert feature provides a quick heads-up that your shot may be overexposed—checking the histogram will give you the full picture. CONTROLLING EXPOSURE

Changing exposure is achieved one of three different ways or in combination—by changing your aperture, your shutter speed, or, in Manual mode, your ISO. Each of these variables also has other effects you need to be aware of and manage. How you control these three exposure variables will depend on what exposure mode your camera is set to. We’ll discuss exposure modes once you have a firm grip of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Note that changing ISO does not technically change your exposure but has the same effect in Manual mode.

THE EFFECTS OF INCREASING OR DECREASING ISO, SHUTTER SPEED, AND APERTURE ISO

SHUTTER SPEED

APERTURE

INCREASE

More digital noise

DECREASE

Less digital noise

Better for stopping motion Motion blur if too low

Shallower depth of field Greater depth of field

Aperture

Aperture is the size of the hole in your lens through which light passes to reach the sensor in your camera. The aperture ring is located in the lens right where the lens meets the camera body and is usually controlled by a dial on your camera or, in older lenses, with a ring on the lens itself. Aperture is denoted by f-stops, numbers that lack the intuitive labeling of shutter speeds. Each aperture as you go from f/2.8 to f/4 to f/5.6 to f/8 to f/11 to f/16 to f/22 halves the amount of light passing through the lens. The hole is smaller (less light) as the number gets bigger. Also know that an aperture of f/2.8 on a 50mm lens will pass the same amount of light as an aperture of f/2.8 on a 600mm lens. The side effect of the aperture is that it also determines the depth of field in your final image. The smaller the aperture, the more depth of field and vice versa. More on this below. INTERPRETING HISTOGRAMS

Pacific Golden-Plover chick, Chukotka, Russia. 100mm, 1/80 second at f/11, ISO 800

A wide range of tonalities from dark to light are represented across this image with

the bulk of them toward the center (middle tone) and left-center of the histogram.

Western Grebe, Oregon. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 second at f/9, ISO 400

Looking at this histogram from left to right, the left-most bump represents the dark tonalities of the grebe’s mostly shadowed body and head. The large spike to the right of center represents the lighter-than-middle-toned water around the bird. The tones to the right of that and the small bump on the far right represent the various light tones of the grebe’s neck and face.

Gyrfalcons, Alaska. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/3200 second at f/7.1, ISO 1600

The leftmost data in this histogram represents the dark tones of the rocks and tundra. The two spikes on the right of the histogram represent the light sky and even lighter snow.

Ivory Gull, Nunavut, Canada. 400mm, 1/640 second at f/5.6, ISO 250

Most of the tonality in this image is significantly lighter than middle tone and is reflected across the large bump in the histogram. The small amount of data stretching far to the left represent the eye and the darker tonalities of the gull’s beak and feet. The small amount of data to the right represent the brightest rim lights on the bird’s head, back, and leg.

The relationships between aperture, amount of light, and depth of field Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the amount of time your shutter is open and exposing the sensor to light. The faster the shutter speed, the less light. The side effect of shutter speed is that it determines how motion will show in an image. The faster the shutter speed, the more it can freeze action. Slower shutter speeds may show motion blur. More often than not in bird photography, the shutter speed you need to freeze action will limit your range of choices for the other two settings (ISO and aperture). Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of a second—1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, and so on. Notice that each of these fractions is half or double the amount of time as the adjacent shutter speeds. ISO

In effect, the ISO setting on your camera determines how sensitive the camera’s sensor will be to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive it is to light and the less time it needs to be exposed to light for a proper exposure. Raising the ISO comes with a cost, though. The higher the ISO, the more digital noise in your image file and thus lower image quality. Each camera has what is referred to as a native ISO. This is the baseline ISO that produces the best image for any given camera. You should know what yours is and know that anything above that starts to degrade the images. However, today’s cameras are able to achieve incredible image results at ISO

settings far above the native ISO. The key is to go only as high as you must to get the shot. F-stops

Thinking in stops eventually becomes a matter of course and is an indispensable skill as you develop as a photographer. When you need to make a change to one of the three exposure variables, you’ll instantly know what adjustments the other two variables need to maintain the same exposure. A single stop is simply the doubling or halving of the amount of light reaching your sensor, or, in the case of ISO, doubling or halving your sensor’s effective sensitivity to light. Each of the three exposure variables—ISO, shutter speed, aperture—are measured in a series of numbers that will be the same for any camera or lens you pick up. You will want to get used to these fractions and aperture numbers because they will affect other aspects of your image-making, but for now just understand that you are doubling or halving the light when you change either the shutter speed, aperture, or ISO one full stop.

Often you’ll want to adjust exposure by less than one full stop, so most cameras control each of these settings in one-third-stop increments. Know that between each of the apertures, ISOs, and shutter speeds I’ve listed above, there will be two others that represent these one-third-stop increments. EXPOSURE MODES

When you first turn on your camera, note what exposure mode it is set to. The mode determines which exposure variables—shutter speed and aperture—you will choose manually and which the camera will automatically select for you. The three modes are Manual, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority. Each mode offers different advantages and is useful in particular shooting scenarios. Note that ISO is set independently of all exposure modes. Manual

In Manual mode, the photographer selects the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. The exposure is manually adjusted using the aperture and shutter dials on the camera and monitoring the metering scale through the viewfinder. Manual mode gives the photographer the most control over the settings, and I use it 85 percent of the time for bird photography. While it may seem intimidating at first, you still use your camera’s

meter as a guide. The drawback is that the camera does not automatically adjust for changing ambient light levels. You must constantly monitor your meter and look at the histogram to be sure you are maintaining proper exposure. An advantage to working in Manual mode is that it will help you master the basics of exposure rapidly. To use Manual mode, look through your viewfinder at the meter. Zero represents the same exposure the camera would select in an automatic mode; anything to the left or right of zero represents an under- or overexposure by the increment indicated. As mentioned earlier, in Manual mode, you can move the exposure left or right by adjusting the aperture or shutter speed, or both. In this mode, you can also adjust the effective exposure by making changes to ISO. Like the other modes, you will judge how much to over- or underexpose the image by evaluating the scene and your subject and by reviewing the histogram after taking a few frames. Manual mode is by far the best mode to shoot in when light conditions are constant or slowly changing on your subject, and the background brightness varies from shot to shot. Once your optimal exposure is set for your subject, that exposure will remain fixed no matter how the background changes, and so long as the light falling on your subject remains the same, your images will be properly exposed. Recently, I was photographing Wood Storks in Florida. With the sun at my back, the storks were illuminated as they flew in and out of a colony with nesting material. They flew in front of several backgrounds at different moments—a pale blue sky, deep blue water, or shaded brush around the nest trees. With an automatic exposure mode, these varying scenes would result in a wide range of exposures, many of them incorrect on the bright white stork. Rather than use an automatic mode, I found the proper exposure for the sunlit storks in Manual and left it there. This gave me proper exposure for the storks every time, regardless of the background. Manual mode is also superior to automatic modes when the size of the subject in the frame is changing. Say you are photographing a swimming American White Pelican that fills half the frame. If you set exposure correctly in Manual mode, and the pelican suddenly swims toward you, filling more of the frame, your exposure will still be appropriate. If you are working in one of the auto modes, the pelican filling more of the frame would alter the camera’s exposure calculations, and the exposure would change. Remember that your meter averages things out in your frame, so when you change the ratio of light to dark in an image, the image calculation will be different. In Manual mode, you can avoid this problem. When working in Manual mode, I usually select an ISO that puts me in a range to get the minimum shutter speed I think I’ll need to stop motion and the aperture I want for the desired depth of field. If there is more than enough light for a sufficient shutter speed after I have selected an acceptable ISO, I will usually select my desired aperture first and then dial the shutter speed left or right to find the correct exposure on the meter. If I still have more than enough shutter speed, I consider lowering my ISO. Keep in mind that when working in Manual mode, changing ISO will change your exposure, so if you raise or lower it, you will need to change one of the other two variables to maintain the same exposure. In the auto modes, these changes are made for you when you change ISO.

This white-morph Reddish Egret in Florida was running wildly around feeding under unchanging front light. By determining the correct exposure and setting it manually, my exposure and shutter speed were always where I wanted them, no matter how close or far the bird was from me or how the background changed. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/3200 at f/8, ISO 1000

On most cameras, changing exposure with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is done with a dial on the camera body that rotates in one-third-stop increments as you turn it. So, turning the appropriate dial one click for ISO will change the ISO by one-third stop. Similarly, turning the appropriate dial one click for aperture will change your aperture one-third stop, and turning it three clicks will change it one full stop. Knowing this, it is easy to make quick adjustments on the fly without changing your exposure. Just count your “clicks.” For example, let’s say you are shooting at ISO 400 with an aperture of f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/500 second. When you look at the histogram, you like your exposure, but there is a bit of motion blur—you need more shutter speed to freeze the action. You can very quickly increase shutter speed by moving the dial three clicks, bumping up your shutter speed by one full stop, to 1/1000 second. But now you’ve reduced the amount of light, thus changing the exposure. To return to the exposure you liked, you need to change one of the other two variables (ISO or aperture) by the same number of clicks in the opposite direction. So in this example, you need to add a full stop of light back by moving the ISO dial three clicks from ISO 400 to 800 (because the higher the number, the more sensitive to light the sensor) or moving the aperture dial three clicks from f/11 to f/8 to increase the amount of light passing through and hitting the sensor. Aperture Priority (Automatic)

In Aperture Priority mode, the photographer selects the aperture and the camera automatically assigns a shutter speed based on the meter reading. To adjust the exposure in Aperture Priority mode, you use the Exposure Compensation dial to over-

or underexpose the image. Aperture Priority is often used when you are most concerned about the depth of field (aperture) in an image and the shutter speed is not important. Once you’ve set the mode to Aperture Priority, use the dial to select the aperture, and the camera sets the shutter speed. If the exposure needs to be adjusted from there, which you determine by judging the scene and subject yourself or taking a test frame and looking at the histogram, use the Exposure Compensation control to increase or decrease exposure. Exposure compensation is usually controlled by holding a small button on top of your camera marked with a plus-and-minus symbol and simultaneously turning one of the camera’s other dials. Because you are in Aperture Priority, when you adjust the exposure with Exposure Compensation, the shutter speed will automatically be adjusted to achieve the exposure change, and your aperture setting will remain fixed where you set it. After Manual mode, Aperture Priority is the mode I use most often when shooting birds because I prefer to have full control of my depth of field in most situations. This means that I have to pay attention to my shutter speed at all times if light conditions are changing to be sure my shutter speed remains adequate. If it isn’t, I make periodic adjustments to ISO to bring my shutter speed up. Conversely, if I have more than enough shutter speed, I’ll bring my ISO down. When lighting conditions are unchanging or fluctuating slowly, Aperture Priority mode presents few problems. But when light is varying from moment to moment, such as when the sun is going in and out of clouds or you are working a brightly lit subject with constantly shifting shadows, Shutter Priority may be the better of the automatic exposure modes. Some recent high-end cameras have introduced the option to set your camera to a minimum allowable shutter speed in Aperture Priority mode. The photographer can select their aperture and a minimum shutter speed, and when light levels fall, the camera will automatically raise ISO so that shutter speed can be maintained. Experiment with this if your camera has it—it could be the perfect solution for you when shooting in Aperture Priority mode. Shutter Priority (Automatic)

In Shutter Priority mode, you select the shutter speed, and the camera automatically assigns an aperture based on the camera’s meter. Like Aperture Priority, exposure can be adjusted from the camera’s suggested exposure with the Exposure Compensation function. Shutter Priority mode is most useful when you need to lock in a certain shutter speed to freeze action and you are not concerned about what aperture the camera selects. Using Shutter Priority follows the same steps as Aperture Priority. Once in Shutter Priority mode, you select your shutter speed, the camera sets an aperture based on the standard meter reading, and if needed, you adjust the exposure compensation based on your assessment of the scene or a review of the histogram. I do not use Shutter Priority often, but some photographers prefer it over Aperture Priority. It is helpful if maintaining a constant minimum shutter speed is important and there is little concern about aperture or when you fear losing track of shutter speed. In low light or diminishing light situations, this mode makes for an easier, fail-

safe approach compared to manually adjusting ISO every time you notice the shutter speed is falling. One problem with Shutter Priority mode is that when light levels fall and your camera opens up the aperture to achieve the correct exposure, it may eventually reach your lens’s maximum aperture, say f/4. If the light continues to diminish, and you don’t notice the limit has been reached, some of your images will be underexposed. To prevent this, raise the ISO manually or better yet use a fail-safe work-around if your camera has it—Auto ISO. When the camera is in Shutter Priority mode, Auto ISO increases the ISO automatically when you reach the maximum aperture, keeping images properly exposed. APPLYING YOUR EXPOSURE STRATEGY

Now that you are familiar with what exposure is and how your camera settings allow you to measure and control exposure, it’s time to put those tools to use in the real world. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for determining your exposure. Each situation will be different depending on the reflectance of your subject (light, dark, midtone), the brightness of the background and whether it is changing, whether your scene is evenly front lit or lit some other way, how much time you have to react to changes and set exposure, and how fast the shutter speed needs to be to freeze action or camera movement, just to name a few of the variables. The rest of this section aims to get you thinking in the right direction. Set ISO First

A good first step in many exposure scenarios is to set your ISO to fall within a range that gives you the shutter speeds needed to freeze your subject and leave it there unless light or activity changes significantly. This means you only need to deal with the other two variables, shutter speed and aperture, to make fine adjustments to your exposure. Selecting your ISO is a balance between image quality (lower ISO) and freezing subject or camera movements (an ISO high enough that you can use a fast shutter speed). A common mistake is to set your ISO too low, resulting in a shutter speed too slow to freeze motion and missed opportunities for good action shots. Don’t be precious about maximizing quality by sticking to low ISOs. If action might arise suddenly, even if you are shooting portraits, be ready for it by shooting at a higher ISO. In situations like this, bump your ISO down briefly to get shots of static subjects at a lower, higher-quality ISO, and then reset it right back up to be ready for action. ISO 800 is a good place to start and a good compromise between image quality and available shutter speed on many cameras. For shots of static subjects, drop down to ISO 400 or 250, or your camera’s native ISO. Don’t be shy about raising ISO to 1600 or 2500 if light levels are low and you are shooting action, because if you use an ISO that is too slow and your shots are blurry, they are going in the trash bin.

In this image of a Ferruginous Hawk nest in Wyoming, I exposed to the right, resulting in an image that appears overexposed and a histogram skewed far to the right (without clipping any highlights). This image was shot on a remote camera in partnership with researchers. 50mm, 1/800 second at f/11, ISO 800

In the final processed image I decreased the exposure in Lightroom by two-thirds of a stop, resulting in a properly exposed image and a more balanced histogram. Ferruginous Hawk nest, Wyoming. 50mm, 1/800 second at f/11, ISO 800 Check the Histogram

The surest way to know whether you are shooting a correct exposure, independent of what mode you are in or how you are metering, is to shoot a frame and look at the histogram. When light conditions are even and unchanging, usually the best strategy is to set your exposure for your subject in Manual mode and check your histogram to be sure your settings are correct. This way the exposure on your subject will be correct whether it walks in front of a light background or a dark background. Leave them there until things change. Meter a Middle Tone

When you are unsure of where to start with an exposure or you need to act quickly and don’t have time to take a test shot and review the histogram, it can be helpful to quickly meter something you consider to be a midtone and use that as the basis for your exposure. This can be something inside or outside of your frame, so long as the light falling on it is the same as that falling on your subject. Expose to the Right

Once you know how to shoot a correct exposure, you have a choice to make. Many photographers “expose to the right” most of the time. Exposing to the right means that

you intentionally overexpose your images to a certain degree. You don’t overexpose them to the extent that you have blown out the highlights and your histogram is pushed up against the right side, but you do overexpose them to the point that they are consistently lighter than your final edited image will be. There are a couple of reasons for doing this. The first is that due to the way camera sensors work, there is far more data or possible tonalities captured for lighter tones than for darker tones. So when you expose to the right, you are actually recording more information in your image file for your computer to work with than you would be if you shot the “correct” exposure. This gives you more leeway in your editing without degrading the image quality, so long as your image is being darkened when you edit it. The reverse does not work. Never underexpose your image. The second benefit is that you don’t have to be spot on with your exposure every time you take a picture the way you did in the film days. As long as your exposure falls somewhere between the correct exposure (meaning the exposure you would want in your final edited image) and overexposed without blowing out the highlights, the quality of your final image will not suffer. Depending on the scene you are shooting, you may have two or more stops of exposure leeway to work with. DETERMINING DEPTH OF FIELD

Depth of field is the range within an image front to back that appears sharp. You will notice when you look through your viewfinder and adjust focus that there is plane of focus that shifts closer and farther from you as you turn the focusing ring. The depth of that plane is your depth of field. The portions of the image within the depth of field will appear in focus while everything else in the image will appear out of focus to some degree—the farther away an object is from the in-focus portion of the image, the more out of focus it will appear. The plane of focus you are seeing is essentially parallel to your camera’s image sensor.

Long telephoto lenses with subjects that are close to the camera produce a razor-thin depth of field. Chestnut-sided Warbler, New York. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/320 second at f/6.3, fill flash – 1⅔ stop, ISO 800

Depth of field is determined by two things: the lens aperture you select and the distance from the camera of the plane of focus—in other words, how far your subject is from you. For any lens, the shallowest depth of field is produced by the lens’s maximum, or widest, aperture. As you close the lens aperture, the depth of field increases. For many lenses, the maximum aperture is f/4 or f/5.6. This is where you’ll find the shallowest depth of field. And f/22 is a very common minimum aperture, which is where you’ll find the greatest depth of field, though shooting this closed down is rare in bird photography. For shooting birds, generally you need the shutter speed of a larger aperture and a shallower depth of field, which produces more pleasing images. In landscape photography, however, using an aperture like f/22 with a wide-angle lens is not unusual because you often want everything from the foreground to the distant background to be in focus. The other factor that affects the depth of field in your image is how far away your lens is focused. When your lens is focused in the distance, the depth of field at any aperture is greater than when it is focused close. When the lens is focused at or near the minimum distance that the lens allows, depth of field can become razor thin at wide apertures. For example, a 500mm lens shot at f/4 has a depth of field of approximately three inches when focused thirty feet away. When focused ten feet away at the same aperture, the depth of field shrinks to a quarter inch.

In this image of two Hawaiian Geese, or Nēnē, in Hawaii, a short telephoto lens combined with a wide aperture produced a shallow depth of field where the focal bird is in focus and the remainder of the image is out of focus. Context still exists in this image because of the lens's wide field of view and the subject's distance from the camera. 105mm, 1/2500 second at f/4, ISO 400

When you look through the viewfinder of your camera, you are seeing the scene through your lens at its largest aperture. In other words, if you are shooting with a 500mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/4, everything you see through the viewfinder will appear the way an image shot at f/4 would. It will appear this way through the viewfinder whether your camera’s aperture is set to f/4 or f/11 or any other aperture. You will not see the effects of the actual aperture in use until you shoot the image and review it on the LCD screen. To see how an image will look at a selected aperture before the image is taken, use your camera’s depth-of-field preview button if it has one. When you press the button, you will also notice that the image through the viewfinder becomes darker. This is because you are looking through the lens at that smaller aperture, resulting in less light making its way through the lens to your eye. At very small apertures, you may have to shield your eye from outside light so that you can see the dim image. Cameras are designed to show you the image through the viewfinder at the lens’s maximum aperture because a bright image in the viewfinder makes other aspects of photography easier. In bird photography, the most common approach to depth of field is to select an aperture that renders the bird, or enough of the bird, in focus, while other elements in the image are pleasingly out of focus. In most situations, that means shooting at or near your lens’s maximum aperture, f/4 or f/5.6, for large birds or for birds that are a good distance from the camera. When the subject is very close to the camera—framefilling shots of warblers or details and headshots of larger birds, you may need to stop

down significantly to achieve a depth of field you like, such as f/8 or f/11. Keep in mind that the plane of focus is parallel to the camera, so use more depth of field in cases where a bird’s body is turned toward or away from you significantly. Likewise, the width of the bird species matters. Two birds of roughly the same size—a Virginia Rail and a Ruddy Turnstone, say—are very different in body shape, with the rail being very slender and the turnstone quite stout. At very close range—nearly frame-filling— you could shoot the rail at f/4 and still have the head, shoulder, and wing sharp, but you would have to shoot at f/11 to get the same sharpness with the fat-bodied turnstone. This also applies to other wide-bodied birds like grouse, quail, and ducks.

A wide-angle lens and small aperture created a lot of depth in this image of an Emperor Goose and its tundra nesting environment in Alaska. 20mm, 1/250 second at f/16, ISO 250

For this image of an Atlantic Puffin in Iceland, I shot it with a lot of depth of field to ensure the bird’s head, beak details, and all of the fish were in focus. The background is still rendered “clean” because it is so far away. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/13, ISO 400 FOCUSING

Camera systems today give you multiple ways to attain optimal focus. Though you will occasionally use manual focus, which you are probably already familiar with, most of the time, you will rely on your camera’s excellent autofocus system. The only variables you’ll need to worry about are selecting the focus mode, the focus point pattern, and the location of that pattern in your frame. Sometimes it can be confusing to know which settings will be best in any given situation, but in practice you will rely on just a few combinations for the majority of your shooting. AUTOFOCUS

Your camera’s autofocus system is activated when you half press the shutter button, or, as discussed below, press a button on the rear of the camera. Once it’s activated, the camera will automatically focus on a point that you will see through your viewfinder. How it focuses and tracks subjects and where it focuses are both

controlled by you. Modes

When using the shutter button to initiate autofocus, you have two modes to choose from. A Single-Shot Focus mode that focuses once when you half press the shutter button and a Continuous Focus mode that continuously refocuses while the shutter button is half pressed. Single-Shot Focus Mode. When your camera is set to Single-Shot Focus mode (“AFS” for Nikon or “One-Shot” for Canon), the camera will focus only once when you half press the shutter button. If your subject moves, the camera will not refocus unless you release the shutter button and press it again. Single-Shot Focus mode is only useful for subjects that remain still. The benefit to using it is that you can put your focus point on the part of the image you want to have in focus, half press to lock focus, and then recompose the shot without losing focus, and finally fully press the shutter to take the image. This saves you from having to continually move the focus point around in your viewfinder every time your subject moves. Continuous Focus Mode. Continuous Focus mode (“AF-C” for Nikon or “AI Servo” for Canon) is just what it sounds like. The camera continues to focus on the focus point so long as the shutter button is half pressed. Continuous Focus mode is indispensable for action photography and is the reason we see so many beautiful action shots of birds and other wildlife today. By keeping the focus point on your subject, you can track with moving subjects and retain focus in a way that would never be possible with Single-Shot or Manual focus. The challenge with Continuous Focus is to keep the focus point where you want it to be on your subject. This can be very difficult with fast-moving and erratic subjects like birds! In these cases, try to quickly adjust your focus point in the frame to the rough area where you expect the eye of your subject to be. Know that you will usually shoot a lot of images and that some will not be optimally composed.

This image of a near frame-filling, fat bodied Common Nighthawk facing a bit toward the camera demonstrates depth-of-field choice nicely. In the first image, shot at f/5.6, only a small portion of the bird's breast, shoulder, and face are in sharp focus. In the second image, shot at f/22, a large portion of the bird all the way to its first primary wing tips and the fence post are in focus. In this case the background is miles away so there was no downside to increasing the depth of field. Had the background been closer and more varied, I likely would have chosen a compromise aperture like f/11 for this subject. Common Nighthawk, Oregon. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/3200 second at f/5.6 and 1/160 second at f/22, ISO 1000 FOCUS POINTS AND PATTERNS

When you look through your viewfinder, you will see an array of focus points that can be selected, activated, and moved around in the viewfinder either individually or in different patterns or groupings. Most of the time you will select and use a single point to focus. A single point is precise and allows you to move the focus point to the exact spot where you want it in your composition. At times, such as when shooting fast action with unpredictable movement in the frame, it can be very difficult to keep a single point on a bird at all and a focus pattern will be the better choice. Photographing subjects moving erratically is a good time to experiment with the AFArea modes, like Nikon’s Group-Area AF (GrP) or its 153-point Dynamic-Area AF or Canon’s 9-point AF Point Expansion or Zone AF. When using focus point patterns, the plane of focus will not fall where you want it to in every image, so overshoot, using more depth of field if possible, and hope for the best. AF point groups will usually perform better against clean backgrounds with little contrast, like sky or water. The busier the background, the greater the chance that the autofocus system will grab onto it rather than your subjects. Different point patterns may also be useful when shooting birds in flight, though there is no one recipe that works every time. More on that below. A drawback when using a pattern or group of points is that the camera has no idea where you intend the focus to fall, and it generally picks the point that is closest to the camera. For precision focusing, use a single focus point and move it where you want the focus to be in your composition. Using focus patterns and techniques is a matter of personal preference. Some photographers swear by them. Experiment and see what works for you. BACK-BUTTON FOCUSING

The default functions for the shutter button are to activate your camera’s meter and autofocus when half pressed and to release the shutter when fully pressed. Rather than work this way, I recommend setting your shutter button to activate only the meter when half pressed, and to use the AF-On button on the back of the camera to activate autofocus using your thumb. The advantage of using the back button for autofocus rather than your shutter button is that you essentially have the functionality of both Single-Shot mode and Continuous Focus without having to switch between the two. When you want the camera to focus continuously, simply keep the back button pressed. When you want to focus once and then recompose, take your thumb off the button when you have achieved the focus you desire. The one time not to use back-button focusing is when you are set up only for photographing birds in flight. In this case, you always want to be focusing continuously, and handling the camera and panning is smoother and easier when operating only the shutter button. To set up back-button focusing on a Nikon, go into the Custom Setting menu, and select Autofocus, then AF Activation. In the menu, select AF-ON Only. For a Canon camera, find and select the Custom Controls menu. Select the option that corresponds with the shutter button and select Metering Start, deselecting the default Metering and AF Start. FOCUS LIMITER

A camera’s autofocus system will focus on any subject you point it at that falls between a lens’s minimum focus distance (the closest distance at which a particular lens is capable of focusing) and infinity. An exception to this is when a lens focus limiter is enabled, which allows you to reduce this range. When objects fall outside of the selected range, they will be ignored by the camera. This speeds the time it takes for your camera to “find” subjects and lock onto them. You won’t find focus limiters on all lenses, but many modern long telephotos have them.

A simple way to focus and compose a static subject is to use back-button focusing. For this image of a Harris’s Hawk in Texas I used a single autofocus point to focus on the cheek of the bird, released the focus button, and recomposed. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/6.3, ISO 400

Difficult shots like this one of a Black Skimmer in Florida flying directly toward the camera would be impossible without today’s autofocus technology. 500mm, 1/1000 second at f/8, ISO 800

Frustratingly, no matter how good autofocus is, it is not perfect all the time. There will be situations when your lens loses focus and then takes a long time searching for

the subject again, combing through the entire focus range. This always seems to happen at the wrong time! Using a focus limiter can help mitigate this. Focus limiters will usually have two options, in addition to the default option of focusing on the lens’s entire range. One option goes from the lens’s minimum focus distance to a midrange, something like 3.5 to 12.6 feet. And another that goes from a midrange to the lens’s maximum—infinity. It is usually controlled by a slider on the lens barrel. The best time to use a focus limiter is when you know in advance that your subject will fall only within a certain range of distance away. Shooting birds in flight when you know they will not fly too close or that they will be too big in the frame if they do get close is a common use. MANUAL FOCUS

Manual focus is just what it sounds like—using your eye to judge focus through the viewfinder and adjusting it manually with a focus ring on the lens. It is good practice to be able to do it quickly and accurately, especially knowing instinctively which way to turn the focus ring as a subject approaches or moves farther away. Most of the time you will use autofocus—it is so good and fast that I use it for more than 95 percent of the images I shoot—but there will be instances where manual focus is preferable. For example, you are working with a static subject, a Snowy Owl perched in the dunes, but there are obstructions between you and the owl that the autofocus system keeps trying to focus on, like some swaying blades of beach grass or heavy snowfall. This calls for focusing manually. Very dim light is another time when manual focus may be best. Here you may want to use your camera’s Live View function to ensure accuracy when manually focusing on a static subject. With the focus box on the LCD screen, select the area you want in focus, magnify that spot, and then focus manually. Also use manual focus when shooting video of moving subjects.

Osprey in flight in Florida. 600mm, 1/4000 at f/8, ISO 1000 PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS IN FLIGHT

Successfully shooting birds in flight is rewarding and exciting, and most bird photographers hope to excel at it. But consistently capturing quality shots of birds in flight takes a lot of practice and patience. And there is no single surefire approach to it. If every bird in flight were a slow-flying, high-contrast Osprey against clear blue sky, the task would be easy. But try photographing a dark-bodied puffin flying fifty mph against a dark cliff in flat, overcast light! Camera and lens capabilities, birds’ flight styles and speeds, plumages’ effects on autofocus performance, quality of light, and variable backgrounds—all of these factors and more can make photographing birds in flight challenging and frustrating. Assembled below are tips and best practices to get you started photographing birds in flight. PUT THE WIND AND SUN AT YOUR BACK

If you are going out specifically to shoot flight, try to do so at a time and location when you have both the wind and sun somewhere at your back. Birds generally fly into the wind, and when they are flying toward you at an angle, they are in the best position for effective flight images: underwings showing and their heads in the lead. Birds fly much slower into the wind, which makes them easier to track, and having the sun at your back illuminates them nicely. IDENTIFY PREDICTABLE FLIGHT PATHS

Using your knowledge of bird behavior, identify places where birds fly, preferably in good numbers, giving you many opportunities to practice and make the perfect image. Flight photography is often a numbers game, so the more shots you can get off, the better. Is there a particular spot the Brown Pelicans or Canada Geese always fly over on their way to roost every evening? Is there a ridgeline that hawks follow during fall migration? SHOOT AGAINST CLEAN BACKGROUNDS

Your autofocus system will perform best when you shoot against a clean background with little contrast, like the sky or still water. If this isn’t an option, remember that the farther away the background is, the better. A distant forest is much better than trees right behind the bird. FOCUS WITH THE SHUTTER RELEASE

Though I recommend back-button focusing for most situations, don’t use it for dedicated flight photography. Because you will be continuously focusing when shooting birds in flight, it will be more comfortable for your hands to half press the shutter button for focus and fully press to release the shutter, rather than having to hold two buttons at once. USE THE FOCUS LIMITER

Set your focus limiter so that it ignores close objects. This can help your autofocus system work faster, as it can ignore part of your lens’s focus range. TURN IMAGE STABILIZATION OFF

When shooting flight, you will be using shutter speeds that negate any need for image stabilization. Having it on may make it harder to track subjects and may slow lens performance. PRESELECT CAMERA SETTINGS

In most cases, shoot flight in Manual exposure mode and set your aperture and shutter speed ahead of time. Usually this means shooting wide open at the lens’s maximum aperture and using an ISO that allows for an optimal shutter speed. Your shutter speed should be quite fast for most subjects—try to use 1/2500 or 1/3200 and go even higher if light allows. If there is not enough light or you are shooting slower subjects, drop the shutter speed down to 1/1600 or 1/1250 if necessary, though you’ll have to accept that you may have a lower percentage of sharp images. If you are able to use optimal shutter speed and there is more light to spare, try closing your aperture from wide open to f/5.6 or f/8 for more depth of field and a better chance of getting all of the crucial parts of the bird in focus—the head, body, and forewing. Also set your camera to the highest frame rate.

Hovering Ring-billed Gull in New York. 300mm, 1/2500 second at f/8, ISO 400

In even lighting conditions, shooting in Manual means the background in your photos can change and the exposure on the bird will not. Imagine you are shooting a Sandhill Crane flying across some farmland, and the background changes from open sky to a shaded forest. In one of the automatic exposure modes, this would throw your exposure off and may also dip your shutter speed to an unacceptable level. If your exposure is set in Manual, nothing changes and the bird will remain properly exposed against any background as long as the bird remains in the same light. When shooting birds against a white or very light sky, consider using the sky as the

basis for your exposure and make it as light as you can without overexposing any parts of the bird. I commonly meter the sky and open up two or two and one-third stops. SELECT YOUR AUTOFOCUS SETTINGS

Your autofocus settings will vary depending on the camera system you are using, the flight style and speed of the bird, and the background. For birds that are larger in the frame, use a single autofocus point so you can put it exactly where you want it on the bird. When that is too difficult, switch to one of the camera’s focus point patterns. On Nikon cameras, my go-to pattern is Group-Area AF (GrP), which is a great all-around setting for birds in flight. On Canon cameras, I expand beyond a single autofocus point to a nine-point pattern or use Zone AF. An additional tweak to make on current Canon cameras is to customize the autofocus settings. Canon gives you a number of autofocus cases to choose from that determine the behavior of your autofocus system, but I recommend creating a custom setting for birds in flight: set tracking sensitivity to –2 (–1 or 0 can be better against clean backgrounds), Accel/Decel Tracking to +2, and AF Pt Auto Switching to +2. If you have trouble staying locked onto subjects, especially subjects flying against busy backgrounds, the most useful parameter to play with on any camera is Tracking Sensitivity (called Blocked Shot AF Response on Nikon cameras). The busier and more problematic the background, the lower (more delayed) you should set your AF Tracking Sensitivity. PREFOCUS

When you can, prefocus your lens to a distance within the range of where you expect to pick up the flying bird you plan to shoot. If the lens is grossly out of focus it will be difficult or impossible to see your target in the viewfinder, and your autofocus system will struggle to find it quickly on its own. To prefocus, point the camera at some vegetation or the ground roughly the distance away from you that you estimate you will pick up the bird, and set focus there. Then raise the camera and wait for the bird to come into range before activating autofocus. BUMP FOCUS

Once you have an approaching bird in the viewfinder, you have a better chance of tracking focus successfully if you “bump focus.” When you bump focus, you do not hold the autofocus button (whether it is the rear button or your shutter button) continuously as you track the subject. Instead, you press it intermittently as your subject approaches so that you are keeping the bird almost in focus. Doing this minimizes the chance that your focus point will fall off the subject and focus somewhere else entirely—something that happens regularly if you try to continuously focus on a subject as it approaches and it is small in the frame. Wait until the bird is in the range in which you want to start taking pictures, then fully press and hold the focus button and begin shooting. FLIP UP THE LENS FOOT

Flip your lens foot into the up position, if it has one, so you can cradle the lens and not the lens foot with your hand.

FOLLOW WITH YOUR WHOLE BODY

Use an athletic stance with legs spread a bit and knees slightly bent. Grip the camera firmly with the right hand, extend the left hand as far as comfortable to support the lens, tuck your elbows into your body, and follow the bird with your body rather than your arms or head. FIRE AND FOLLOW THROUGH

It is easy to lose your subject when you start firing the shutter. Try to ignore everything else except keeping the subject in the frame and following through. PRACTICE

It takes a great deal of practice to become proficient at flight photography. Find opportunities to practice when you can on common subjects near home, whether they are images you want or not. Practicing gives you the opportunity not only to hone your technique but to became familiar with different autofocus settings, focus points and patterns, and what results you can get with them.

Evaluating sharpness is best done by viewing your image at 100 percent magnification in your imageediting software.

American White Pelican, Oregon. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/3200 at f/9, ISO 800 MAKING SHARP IMAGES

One of the most disappointing moments for a photographer is getting home after a great shoot, looking at your images, and discovering that few (or none!) of them are acceptably sharp. They are out of focus or “soft.” This can be caused by a number of factors, most of which are within your control. The trick is to be able to look at your photos and identify where the problems arose and then correct, avoid, or manage them in the future. With experience, and by studying this section, you will learn to rectify these issues and make sharp images consistently. The keys to making sharp images are to focus on the part of your image you want to have in focus, which is usually the eye of your subject; to make sure your camera is rock steady when you gently release the shutter; to use a shutter speed fast enough to freeze any movement in your subject; and to recognize when atmospheric effects will cause your images to be soft and respond accordingly. Sharp images also depend on your lenses being properly calibrated and the use of quality optics. If your images aren’t sharp, you have an issue in one or more of these areas. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM

To evaluate image sharpness, open up your image in Lightroom or your preferred editing software and increase image magnification to 100 percent. Look at the area of your image that you intended to have in focus. The boundaries of things like the bird’s eyes and feathers should be crisp and clean with no soft edges or haloing. It is often useful to look at the catchlight in the bird’s eye if there is one. It too should have crisp edges with no distortion.

Choosing a correct shutter speed can depend on the type of image you are going after. In the first image of a Northern Pygmy-Owl at its nest cavity, there is obvious motion blur of the owl’s head due to the slow shutter speed. In the second image the owl sat motionless at the cavity entrance and the same shutter speed was sufficient. Using a slow shutter speed here allowed me to use a small aperture for more depth of field and to work at the highest ISO I deemed acceptable. Northern Pygmy-Owl, Oregon. 26mm, 1/3 second at f/16, ISO 2000

If you find that your intended subject is out of focus, the next step is to look at the rest of the image and determine whether any other parts of the image are sharp. If they are, you have either focused incorrectly (caused by you or your camera), your lens needs to be calibrated to your camera, or your shutter speed was too slow to freeze all of your subject’s motion. If your entire image is out of focus, the likely culprit is that the camera moved or there is some type of distortion coming into play. Focus Point on Wrong Spot

The most common focus issue is one we all occasionally have: focusing the lens on the wrong spot. If you find that the bird’s shoulder is sharp but the eye is not, or a piece of surrounding vegetation is in focus but not the bird, your autofocus point was in the wrong place when you focused and tripped the shutter. This can occur accidentally, typically when there is a lot of action and it is difficult to maintain your focus point, or because you chose the wrong spot to focus on. The size and shape of a bird and its distance from the camera can sometimes make it hard to choose the optimum place to focus on to achieve the best results. In most cases your focus point should fall on the eye of the bird or somewhere on the neck or shoulder, slightly closer to the camera than the eye. Lens Calibration

Lenses in autofocus mode that are not properly calibrated will consistently focus just beyond or just in front of your chosen focus point. If your focus point is on a bird’s eye and you keep getting images where the eye is just out of focus but another part of the bird or the ground just in front of the bird is consistently in focus, you probably have a calibration issue. If you find this to be the case, do some internet research and consult your camera manual on how to calibrate your lens to your camera. If you use multiple camera bodies, each will have to be calibrated individually. It can be a timeconsuming and tedious process, but it is necessary for getting the most out of any camera-lens combination. To make the process easier, use lens calibration software such as Reikan FoCal. Subject Movement

Motion blur from subject movement is generally easy to spot and is caused by failing to use a fast enough shutter speed. The faster a subject moves, the faster the shutter speed required to stop its motion. In many instances, a shutter speed of 1/1000 second will be sufficient to freeze motion, but in cases of very fast movement, like a bird in flight, a bird’s lower mandible while singing, or the rapidly probing head of a foraging sandpiper, you will often need a shutter speed of 1/2500 second or more. There are a couple of situations when you would choose a shutter speed that is too slow to stop all of a bird’s movements. As discussed earlier, you are constantly balancing ISO, shutter speed, and aperture to maximize image quality. If you’re shooting a static portrait, you might choose a lower ISO to maximize image quality and not concern yourself with freezing the bird’s head if it periodically moves or sings. You may also choose a shutter speed where you are intentionally blurring part or all of the bird’s motions for artistic effect. More on this in the following chapter. Camera Movement

For an image that has a degree of softness all over, the most likely culprit is camera movement. Camera movement includes both fine vibrations produced by the mechanics of the camera and any movements you introduce while handling the camera and pushing the shutter button. It is most often caused by poor technique and is amplified with increased magnification. A photographer may get away with using poor technique at 300mm and a very fast shutter speed, but shooting with poor technique at 800mm with a slower shutter speed will get you into trouble. Camera movement and vibrations are also commonly caused by wind. In windy conditions, put your tripod in a low position with as few leg segments extended as possible, the legs spread wide, and all three legs firmly seated on the ground. It also helps to remove the lens hood on long lenses (lens hoods catch a lot of wind), and to dampen as much vibration as you can with your hand on the lens and face pressed against the camera body. In extreme conditions, it can also help to add weight to your lens by hanging a beanbag over it or improvising another way to add mass and dampen vibration. Sometimes you are forced to shoot in less-than-ideal conditions, and you just accept that camera movement will cause a number of images in a sequence to be soft. You may choose to hand-hold your lens at a slow shutter speed when a split-second opportunity arises and you don’t have time to set up a tripod or select better camera settings, for example. When camera movement is unavoidable, the best strategy is usually to shoot a lot of images in the hope that at least a few are acceptably sharp. Atmospheric Distortion

Atmospheric conditions can interfere with getting sharp images. The most problematic of these is heat shimmer, which is distortion caused by temperature fluctuations in the air between you and your subject. It often occurs where the ground is very cold and the air warms quickly in the morning: on a grouse lek in the sagebrush desert in early spring, on arctic tundra with permafrost in summer, or anywhere in late winter or early spring with very cold ground and strong morning sun. The uneven mix of hot and cold air at ground level can cause images to appear distorted and soft in unusual ways. You may see wavy lines where they should be straight, catchlights in birds’ eyes may appear as wobbly stars, or the whole image may look as if you were shooting through a piece of rippled plastic.

Proper long lens technique includes shooting at a comfortable height, applying firm contact to the rear of the camera with the cheek and forehead, dampening vibrations by placing a hand on the lens barrel or applying upward pressure to the lens from beneath, and gently squeezing the shutter button.

If you are shooting in winter out the window of your car, keep your car cold. When shooting in cold conditions from a blind that has been warmed by body heat, cinch a sleeve around the lens hood so air is not escaping through the hole you are shooting from, rising right in front of your lens. If shooting over the hot hood of your car, move away from it. Atmospheric distortion increases the farther away you are from your subject because you are shooting through more air—more fog, humidity, airborne dust, or temperature fluctuations. Unless one of these types of distortions plays into your image artistically, get as close to your subject as you can to minimize the distortion.

Lens Quality and Cleanliness

Some lenses will never be sharp no matter what you do with them. If you are using a cheap lens, especially a cheap long zoom, don’t expect great results. And having paid for an expensive piece of glass, be sure to keep the rear and front elements clean. You may not notice a loss in image quality when they’re only slightly dirty, but you should maintain your lens nevertheless. For details, see the section in the previous chapter on cleaning your camera and lenses. Foggy Lens

There is almost nothing worse than the moment you notice, right as you are shooting something amazing, that the image through the viewfinder is getting milkier and milkier—the lens is fogging up! Atmospheric conditions sometimes make it unavoidable that your lens will fog up. But, there are things you can do to reduce or eliminate lens fog. Your lens fogs when the lens is cold and you take it into a location where the air temperature is warmer than the lens. This can be especially problematic in humid locations. If possible, prevent this by making sure your camera and lens have acclimated to outdoor conditions. Avoid air conditioning, and leave your gear outside or in the trunk of your car when driving. Unavoidable fogging occurs most frequently when you are in the field and the air temperature changes rapidly from cold to warm, as when shooting at dawn in spring and summer. You head out early when it’s cold, and the camera gear gets cold. As the sun rises, air warms and the lens fogs. Sometimes this type of fog can be fleeting, and other times you just can’t get rid of it. Try to speed up the process by letting sunlight hit the front lens element and fanning it to increase airflow and evaporation. When a lens fogs up in a very humid, foggy, or rainy environment, there is generally nothing to do but wait for the lens to warm up and the fog to dissipate. Wiping the fog from the lens is usually futile, as it will form again immediately until the lens is warmer. However, you may want to periodically wipe the lens with a microfiber cloth while it warms as a way to check progress. This may be quicker than letting it evaporate. If a cold lens is inevitable, you can prevent it fogging up when you go into a humid environment by first placing it in a tightly sealed plastic bag before going outside, letting the lens warm to outdoor conditions inside the bag, and then taking it out of the bag. USING A TRIPOD

A tripod is a simple piece of equipment to use in the comfort of your living room, but it is more challenging on difficult terrain when you need to make adjustments fast. You should become very familiar with your tripod’s operation so you can make most adjustments with muscle memory rather than having to look at and think about what you’re doing. Occasionally you will set up your tripod without your camera attached, but most of the time, the camera is attached and the whole thing can be heavy and awkward, especially with a long lens. Just remember that you are in good company— all photographers at some point curse their tripods in the field! SHOOTING HEIGHT AND COMFORT

Some people will be able to shoot at any height, from standing to shooting from a kneeling position (knee pads optional) to lying prone on the ground. Others will need

to shoot from standing or sitting on a five-gallon pail or a chair. Whatever height you shoot from, set up your camera so you are at a natural height whether seated or standing. If you are shooting subjects flying overhead or in treetops, set the camera up a bit higher than you normally would so you can point upward comfortably without having to squat. Avoid bending over to look through a camera on a tripod that is too low; it is a sure way to increase instability and compromise image sharpness. STEP 1: LEGS

Once you decide what location and height you will be shooting from, it’s time to set up your tripod legs. Think of your tripod legs as the base upon which everything rests —your tripod head and your heavy camera. You want your base to be stable, level, and firmly planted whenever possible so that your camera’s center of gravity rests squarely on top of it. You achieve this with two main adjustments that can be made to any tripod: leg length and leg angle. Leg length is adjusted by extending or retracting the tripod’s leg sections—usually three or four—by loosening and tightening a twist or lever lock at each leg joint. Each leg and each section can be adjusted independently, and you should never feel that they all have to be adjusted equally. Depending on what tripod you have, leg angle is adjusted by some type of lever at the top of each leg. Generally, there are stops for each leg so that they catch and lock at a progression of angles. For my Gitzo Systematic Series 5 tripod, each leg can be either folded for transport, or locked at angles of 26, 55, or 89 degrees. Remember that not all legs have to be set to the same angle and there are times you won’t want them to be. When working on uneven terrain, you will generally use leg length to level out your base. There are times, though, especially when working on steep hillsides, when adjusting the angle of just one or two legs is more effective. Adjusting the angle of one leg can also be a quick way to adjust your shooting height in a pinch. I often do this near ground level. Once your tripod legs are erected, the base should be as near to level as you can get it, particularly if you are not using a leveling base. When you don’t have time to make fine adjustments, quick fine leveling can be done easily with a ball head. With a gimbal head, fine leveling can be achieved by loosening your lens collar and rotating the lens. Make sure each leg is firmly planted. Pick it up and jam it into the ground if you have to. When you can, extend the thicker, top leg sections first. The section that touches the ground is the thinnest and least stable. Extend that section as little as you can get away with. STEP 2: LEVELING BASE

A leveling base is an optional piece of equipment that is simple to use and can really speed up your tripod setup. Once your legs are positioned, simply turn the knob on the underside of the leveling base to loosen it while keeping a firm grip on your camera. Use the bubble level to level the base and then tighten the knob again. STEP 3: CAMERA-LENS BALANCE

If your camera-lens combination was already on your tripod when you set it up, you

have already balanced it. If not, now is the time to do so. Slide the quick-release plate attached to your lens collar and lens into the tripod head, and make sure it is roughly balanced front to back. You can do this by loosening the tilt knob on your gimbal or video head and seeing which direction the camera wants to fall and adjusting accordingly. Once it is balanced, firmly lock the lens plate into place. When working with a long lens, it is much easier to keep up with the action with a balanced setup! This step won’t be possible if you are using a shorter lens and attaching your camera’s body to the tripod. STEP 4: TRIPOD HEAD ADJUSTMENTS

Whether you are using a ball head, a gimbal head, or a video head, you will have knobs to adjust the rotation of the camera on the tripod (pan) and the shooting angle (tilt). You will also be able to adjust the friction, or drag, for each of these functions so there is some degree of resistance when you move the camera. When shooting stationary subjects, it is best to tighten these knobs to a locked position to minimize camera movement, though in practice, I admit, I seldom do this unless I am working at extremely slow shutter speeds. When shooting action or moving subjects, keep these knobs firm but loose enough that you can respond quickly to subject movement. GOOD ENOUGH VERSUS PERFECT

Remember that it is usually more important to get the shot than to make sure your tripod is perfectly set up. If you think you are going to miss a moment that won’t repeat itself, do the best you can, act quickly, and get some shots off. Adjusting the length of all of the legs is the most time-consuming step, and you may find that setting the tripod up quickly but unevenly, and then making swift adjustments to a single leg’s length or angle, the leveling base, or rotating the lens in the tripod collar is good enough. I frequently work from a tripod that is grossly uneven in a tight situation. If I have no time and it’s still too unstable, I may put some of my own body weight on the tripod as well. SHOOTING HANDHELD

There is no doubt that a tripod is a cumbersome item and that it can be difficult to react quickly to the sudden appearance of a bird or a changing situation. For these reasons, some photographers forgo a tripod for the majority of their shooting, or, as I do, only in certain situations. But before going handheld, ask yourself a few questions: Am I strong enough and do I have the stamina to handle the camera-lens combination I want to use for the amount of time I want to use it? Is there enough light (shutter speed) for consistently sharp images at an ISO that is acceptable to me? Is it really better to handhold (or am I just being lazy and avoiding the tripod)? If you can answer yes to all of these, you can opt to hand-hold. WHEN TO SHOOT HANDHELD

The number-one time to go handheld is shooting birds in flight. A person’s spatial awareness is much better when looking through a camera that is handheld, which makes it much easier to locate and track subjects in the viewfinder. For specific techniques for photographing birds in flight, see “Photographing Birds in Flight” earlier in this chapter.

Aside from shooting birds in flight, there are a handful of common scenarios when you should skip the tripod. When you will miss something if you set up a tripod, you must hand-hold. For me, this happens frequently when I am in the car and I see something fleeting on the side of the road that I can’t shoot from the vehicle.

Hand-holding is often the only way to shoot birds in flight.

Boardwalks in nature reserves sometimes don’t allow the use of tripods or are too crowded for using a tripod without impeding others. Terrain, like dense thickets and soupy mud, can also make using a tripod impossible. On a boat, unless it's a big ship on calm seas, you will usually want to hand-hold. Shooting from boats in choppy water can be very frustrating, but there are often opportunities for shots you just can’t get from land. Brace yourself as best you can, bend your knees, and absorb the boat’s motion with your legs. In small boats, it is often best to put a leg on either side of the centerline to stabilize yourself. Sometimes you can ride in the bow and use a beanbag. TECHNIQUE FOR HANDHELD SHOOTING

When shooting handheld, you must become the firm base for your camera and eliminate as much vibration and movement as you can. Stand in an athletic stance with knees slightly bent and legs a bit farther apart than normal. Grip the camera firmly with the right hand and extend your left arm as far as you comfortably can to cradle the lens. Both elbows should be tucked against your body firmly rather than having your elbows splayed outward. Hold the eye cup against your brow and try to follow subjects by using your body and turning at the waist rather than using your arms. If your lens has one, flip the lens foot to an upward position to get it out of the way. And of course, use a fast shutter speed. WORKING WITH FLASH

Flash is a powerful tool that many photographers are intimidated by. I don’t blame them. Mastering flash and all of the ways that it can be used takes years of practice and experience. There is a science to most of it, but it is also an art. Fortunately, for basic bird photography, there are only a few flash techniques to learn, and they are pretty straightforward. You will rely on fill flash using your camera’s through-the-lens (TTL) capabilities 95 percent of the time. Fill flash adds life to images shot under heavy cloud cover or strong color casts, and can help restore color balance. If shooting under harsh sunlight, you can fill in shadows and reduce contrast with fill flash, or use it to reveal detail in the shadowed side of a back-lit subject. Use flash as your main light when there is no other light available, as in complete darkness, or when ambient light is insufficient to freeze a bird’s movement. One of the drawbacks of using flash is fiddling with flashes and carrying the extra gear. The ability to open up shadows and adjust color balance during the editing process (which in film days had to be accomplished with flash) has made using it less attractive. Flash also tends to sterilize subjects, even when used well. While it can be great for creating field-guide-style portraits with nice balanced light, it removes some of the natural color casts of ambient light, which affects the mood and aesthetics. Regardless of whether you use flash frequently, it is a good skill to have. It can bring a dull photo to life and save an otherwise unshootable subject. In this section, we’ll focus on the basic concepts, terminology, and techniques to get you started with flash. FLASH BASICS

Before we discuss how to use flash in the field, it is important to learn more about how flash works and the equipment you’ll need. Flash Unit

If you plan to use flash, you will need a proprietary flash unit that you either connect to your camera’s hot shoe or activate with an off-camera cable. Many cameras come with a built-in pop-up flash, but the power output will not be sufficient for telephoto subjects. The latest flash units for Canon and Nikon are the Canon Speedlite 580EX II and the Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight, but any recent predecessors of these flashes with TTL capability (Canon 430EX, Nikon SB-900, etc.) will also do the job if you want to purchase one used. Modern flash units appear complicated and include lots of features, dials, and buttons. Don’t worry, you can disregard most of them.

Flash Power

The maximum output of any flash unit is expressed as 1/1, or full power, in Manual Flash mode. The power can de dialed back from there and expressed as a fraction. A flash at full power is 1/1, at half power is 1/2, at a quarter power 1/4, and so on down to 1/128 power. Notice that each of these fractions is half or double the adjacent number, indicating a change in the amount of light emitted by the flash that halves or doubles, equal to one stop. When working in automatic TTL flash modes, flash output is controlled by the camera and can be adjusted using the Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) dial. The FEC also works in stops and can be set in one-third stop increments. Moving the dial to –0.3 will decrease the flash output by one-third stop, –0.7 decreases it by two-thirds of a stop, –1.0 by a full stop, and so on. Flash power is a measure of the amount of light the flash emits. How much your subject is illuminated depends on the distance your flash is from the subject. It is important to understand that if the distance to the subject changes, adjusting flash power one stop in Manual mode is not equivalent to a one-stop increase in power in TTL mode using the FEC. In TTL mode, flash power output is set automatically and adjusts itself to find the correct exposure no matter the distance to the subject. So, any change to flash output you set with the FEC is based on a correct exposure for the subject as determined by your TTL meter. In Manual mode, any change in distance to the subject will alter the amount of light you need for a correct exposure. If a subject is suddenly two times farther from you, you will need twice the light to illuminate it. You are probably thinking, Aha! That means I need to double the amount of light emitted by the flash by adding one stop of light. But hold on. Light doesn’t work that way. Light falls off with distance by what is known as the inverse square law, which is to say that as distance doubles, light falls off by the square of the distance. So for twice the distance, you will need four times the light. This is why a one-stop change in flash output in Manual mode is not equal to a one-stop adjustment of your FEC. Automatic TTL modes adjust for correct exposure no matter the distance.

Nikon SB-900 Speedlight Flash Flash Duration

Flash power is not gained or lost by how bright the flash is, but by how long the flash stays on. Therefore, some fast-moving subjects will still show motion blur at high power settings because of the length of the flash pulse. In effect, the flash duration becomes the shutter speed, and the shutter speed becomes irrelevant when it comes to stopping motion. This is one of the reasons photographers wishing to stop the motion of a hummingbird’s wings use multiple flash units set to lower flash power outputs. Lower flash outputs happen faster. A flash at full power and emitted in 1/880 second is not fast enough to freeze a hummingbird’s wings. Flash durations will be similar but not exactly the same from one unit to another. As an example, the table below shows durations for a Nikon SB-900. In most situations, you will not need to worry about flash duration, but it is good to be aware of.

FLASH DURATION

POWER AS FRACTION OF TOTAL Full power 1/2 power 1/4 power 1/8 power 1/16 power 1/32 power 1/64 power 1/128 power

FLASH DURATION 1/880 second 1/1100 second 1/2550 second 1/5000 second 1/10,000 second 1/20,000 second 1/35,700 second 1/38,500 second

TTL

TTL, or through-the-lens, flash metering revolutionized flash when it was introduced. When you use a flash in TTL mode, the camera determines the correct flash exposure by measuring the light that bounces back from the subject and automatically turns the flash off when the optimal exposure has been reached. This all happens instantaneously when you press the shutter release! Like a camera’s exposure meter, a TTL meter bases its optimal exposure on middle tone, so any subjects lighter than middle tone will need more flash and those darker will need less flash. You control this with the FEC dial. Be aware that your camera’s meter for ambient light and the TTL meter for flash are two different systems that operate independently of each other. Sync Speed

Each camera has a maximum flash sync speed and will only light your subject properly when the shutter speed is at or below the camera’s sync speed. Sync speeds for most cameras fall in the 1/200 to 1/320 second range. Check your camera manual to determine yours. Many cameras will automatically adjust the shutter speed to the sync speed when the camera detects a flash. Many of today’s cameras also have an option to use high speed sync. High speed sync allows you to use flash with any shutter speed, but it has a drawback—because of the way flash works, the flash’s maximum output power decreases as you increase the shutter speed. This can make using high speed sync problematic when a subject is far away from the camera or when ambient light is too bright for the flash to overpower. The benefit of using high speed sync, when conditions are right for it, is that you can use smaller apertures and control your depth of field. Rear Curtain Sync

When you take a picture with flash, the flash can fire either at the start of an exposure, when the shutter first opens, or at the end, just before it closes. Because the duration of flash output can be so much shorter than the duration of the shutter being open (1/20,000 second for the flash versus 1/250 for the shutter, for example), you’ll want to choose when flash fires—front curtain or rear curtain—for the effect it has on your image. Unless you have a reason not to, set your camera to rear curtain sync so the flash fires at the end of your exposure. When set to rear curtain, if shutter speed is not sufficient to stop the motion of the subject, any motion the subject makes during the

period of ambient light exposure will appear in the position the subject was in earlier in time and it will look more natural. Imagine you are photographing a bird in flight at dusk, and the bird is just a dark silhouette when you shoot it without a flash. When you add a pop of flash with rear curtain sync to nicely illuminate and freeze the bird, the dark silhouette will still be visible, but it will fall behind the flashed bird because you lit the bird at the end of your exposure. If you use front curtain sync, the dark silhouette would appear ahead of the bird. Recycle Time

Recycle time is the length of time it takes for the unit to build up the energy to flash again after it has fired once. When a flash is emitting lower power flashes, recycle time can be almost instantaneous. But when firing at or near full power (as is often needed for more distant subjects), the flash will begin to lag after a few frames unless a supplemental power source is used. Some photographers carry external battery packs to power their flashes and improve the refresh rate when shooting high frame rates with flash. There are third-party companies that specialize in battery packs, but I recommend using one manufactured by the maker of your camera. Using an external power source has the potential to damage your flash, and this is less likely with a unit from your camera maker. Flash Extender

Carry a Fresnel flash extender for use with telephoto lenses to boost the performance of your flash. A flash extender mounts in front of your flash and magnifies its output onto the subject. This results in the flash needing less power to illuminate telephoto subjects, resulting in faster recycle and a greater flash range. The Better Beamer Flash Extender is used by most bird photographers. Be sure to buy one that works with your particular flash model. FLASH FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY

It is entirely possible to set your camera and flash to auto and rely on the camera to make all the decisions. But unless you want to end up with overflashed subjects and lighting that is not balanced for your backgrounds and subjects, this is not the way to go. If you choose to use flash, learn how to control it and use it correctly. The goal when using flash (unless using flash as the main light) is to implement it such that most viewers of the resulting image won’t know it was used at all. The image and the bird should appear natural, as if they were shot in outdoor light. This means balancing flash with ambient light. Master this skill first. Of course, creative ways to shoot images where flash is used for obvious effect can be pursued, but these are more advanced techniques and ones that most bird photographers do not use. Start your journey here, and if your creativity moves you to new areas of flash photography, you’ll have the foundation you need. Remember when using flash that changing your shutter speed will only affect the ambient light in your image, not the illumination provided by the flash. The light from your flash happens much faster than your shutter, so you cannot add or subtract flash light by shortening or lengthening the time the shutter is open. The only ways to control light on the subject with the camera when using flash is with aperture and ISO. If you run into problems with flash and everything else seems like it should be correct,

remind yourself to think about your aperture and ISO. TTL Fill Flash in Manual Mode

The type of flash bird photographers use most often is fill flash. When you shoot with fill flash, your job is to balance properly exposed ambient lighting with a small amount of flash to illuminate dark shadows, or to add a bit of pop and balance colors on a dreary day. The primary light illuminating your photograph will be ambient light. Fill flash just fills in the darker areas of your subject. When used well, the viewer should have little inkling that flash was used. To use fill flash most easily and effectively, shoot in Manual mode with your flash unit set to TTL. First determine your ambient exposure the way you normally would, but recall that your maximum shutter speed will be around 1/250 second, so you may need to lower ISO to your native ISO or below to get to an aperture that you like in bright light. If your aperture is still too large for your taste, set your camera to high speed sync and use a faster shutter speed.

A typical flash setup for bird photography includes a flash unit mounted off camera, a Better Beamer Flash Extender, and an off-camera TTL cable.

Once you are satisfied with the ambient light exposure, add flash to fill in any shadows you deem too dark. The goal is not to lighten the shadows so that they have the same value as the rest of the image and make the image look flat. Lighten them enough that you lower the contrast in the image, but keep those areas as shadows to give dimensionality to the subject. Set the Flash Exposure Compensation to –1.7 as a starting place, and take a shot. Review the image on your LCD screen, and if the shadows are still too dark, add a bit of light by setting the flash to –1.3, which will underexpose the shadows by one-third stop less. If they are too light, take some light away and shoot at –2, which will underexpose the shadows by two stops compared to the ambient exposure. When you are happy with the balance of fill flash and ambient light, shoot away. Remember that your subject’s reflectance will affect your TTL meter. If you are

shooting a light-tone subject, you will need less fill flash. If you are shooting a dark subject, you will need more. The exposure compensation I start with for middle-tone subjects is –1.7. For light subjects like white and yellow birds, I start at –2.3, and for dark subjects –0.7. You can adjust the Flash Exposure Compensation on the camera or on the flash. I prefer to set my compensation on the flash itself to keep things simple.

Though both acceptable images, the second image of this Hermit Warbler in Oregon was taken with fill flash. The differences are subtle but the flash illuminated and removed a bit of the green color cast from the belly and added a bit of pop to the image overall. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/250 second at f/5.6, fill flash –1⅔ stop, ISO 500

It is usually best to shoot a correct exposure in camera rather than exposing to the right when using fill flash. This allows you to view the image properly on the LCD screen and determine if the amount of fill flash you are using is correct. It is more difficult to judge on an overexposed subject. TTL Fill Flash in Aperture Priority Mode

When light conditions and backgrounds are relatively constant, use TTL flash in

Manual mode, as described above. When light conditions and backgrounds are in flux and time is too short to make a good exposure manually and set the correct FEC, shooting in Aperture Priority mode and using FEC is the better way to go. Say you are moving through thick tropical forest and trying to shoot small, fast-moving birds against changing backgrounds. Getting a bird in frame, focusing, and releasing the shutter will be plenty challenging. Situations like this are precisely when relying on your camera to make decisions is the best path. Not all of your exposures and flash ratios will be spot on, but many will be close. This is much better than no images at all. Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode, your meter to matrix/evaluative, and start with FEC at –1.7 for middle-tone subjects. Flash As Main Light

When we use flash as the main light in an image, we are completely overpowering most or all ambient light—the subject is lit only by flash. In some cases, you will set a properly exposed background, and the subject will be fully illuminated by flash. In others, the subject will be flashed and the background will appear black or very dark. When flash is used as a main light, the image will usually have that “flashed” look, but sometimes getting certain subject matter on film requires it. Most commonly, flash as a main light is needed when a subject is back-lit, when you are shooting in a dark forest environment, or at night when there is not enough ambient light to freeze subject motion or to illuminate the subject at all. To shoot back-lit subjects when there is enough ambient light to illuminate the background, set your background exposure first the way you would when using fill flash. Usually this means underexposing the background by a stop or more to bring it closer to middle tone. Then shoot your subject with no FEC dialed in, and take a look at the image on your histogram. For a middle-tone subject, the result should be a flash exposure on the subject that is middle toned (0 FEC), against a middle-tone background (the ambient exposure you set for the background). If the image still needs some tweaking, adjust your FEC.

Whiskered Screech-Owl in Arizona shot with flash as the main light. 600mm, 1/200 second at f/8, ISO 400

When using flash as the main light in situations with little or no ambient light, it is generally easiest to work in Shutter Priority mode and set your shutter speed to your maximum sync speed, usually 1/250 second. Again, your middle-tone subjects start with an FEC of zero and adjust from there. When using flash as a main light, the farther off your camera you can get the flash, the better. This increases the chance for some small shadows in the subject that can reveal dimension and texture and prevent the image from looking flat. Using a long flash bracket or even holding the flash in your hand away from the camera can help dramatically. Manual Flash

Manual flash is just what it sounds like—the photographer manually adjusts the amount of light emitted by the flash; it isn’t controlled automatically by the TTL meter. The only time the camera interacts with the flash is to take the picture when the shutter button is pressed. Using manual flash is unusual, but it is easier and more predictable to use than TTL in some instances. Imagine you are in a situation with unchanging light, like an overcast day or in the shade of a forest. You are set up in a blind photographing a Ruffed Grouse that keeps coming and going from a log parallel to your position, and you decide you need some fill flash. When you use TTL flash, the flash output may vary slightly as the grouse moves around the log, its body position changes, and the background behind the grouse changes. TTL is aiming for middle tone, and changes in the frame may alter the calculations it uses for determining the amount of flash to emit. For the most part, your camera will get things right in a situation like this, but a few frames will come

out a bit off. If you want to get every frame consistently lit on the subject, use manual flash. Whether you are using fill flash or flash as a main light, you can manually set your flash output so that it delivers the exact same light on the grouse every time you press the shutter. Get your flash output set the way you like it and leave it there. This use of manual flash only works if your flash-to-subject distance remains constant. If you move closer or farther from the subject, your exposure will no longer be correct. Your aperture and ISO must remain the same as well. You will also not be using FEC with manual flash. Instead you’ll set the flash to one of its power settings such as 1/1 (full power), 1/2, 1/4, or 1/16. Flash Brackets

When we use flash, especially if it is the main light illuminating the subject, the light is being emitted from essentially the same location as the camera, resulting in a completely shadowless light that makes subjects appear flat and unnatural. Flash can also reflect light from your subject’s eyes, giving them an odd appearance. Remedy this by positioning the flash six or more inches away from the camera. For fill flash, use a flash bracket that holds the flash away from the camera and has an off-camera TTL cable or a wireless trigger. Every camera system has proprietary flash cords you can purchase that connect your camera’s hot shoe to your flash. This way you can get the flash off the camera and still maintain all of its functions. There are many flash bracket options available. Be sure to get one that works with the tripod head you use the most. I use the high-quality Wimberley F-9 telephoto flash bracket and pair it with my Wimberley gimbal head. If you want the flash even farther away from the camera, add an extension post like the Wimberley M-6. Both Canon and Nikon have proprietary TTL cables and wireless triggers for use with flash. You can also trigger your flash with your camera wirelessly if you have a pop-up flash and operate in Commander mode. PocketWizard makes wireless triggers for flash control.

5

CREATIVE DECISIONS

Flock of Snow Geese in New York. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 second at f/8, ISO 400

incredible technological advances in modern cameras, there is one thing D espite your camera won’t do for you. It won’t tell you where to point—that is up to you. There are many creative decisions to make every time you approach a subject to photograph. What is the best subject to shoot? How is the light and where should I shoot from to get the effect I am after? What do I want the background to look like? What focal length should I use? How big or small do I want my subject to be and where will it look best in the frame? Is there something the subject is doing that would make my image more interesting? Am I just making a portrait of the bird or am I trying for a specific mood or feeling in the image? Every time I come upon a subject (and even before then), I am asking myself a plethora of questions up until the moment the shutter is released. There are several fundamentals to consider, and if they aren’t to your satisfaction, move on to other opportunities. Is this the best looking subject you can find? Is the light good? Is it falling on the subject in a usable way? Given how the light is falling, can you approach the subject from the right direction? Can you shoot the bird at or very close to its own eye level? If you can answer yes to all of these and decide to take some photographs, the next step is to position yourself for a good background. This is one of the most important things you can do. Once the bird is in the viewfinder, there is much more to consider and that will be covered in this chapter, but the overarching theme is to simplify and balance. Finding your creative voice is a lifelong process in photography. Images that appeal to you today may not be your thing tomorrow. After all the years I have been photographing birds, I still constantly strive for something different or better. Learning what catches your eye is something you actively pursue. There are hundreds

if not thousands of bird photographers producing outstanding work, and developing your own compositional instincts will be aided by finding photographers whose work you admire. Study their images, try to determine how they were made, and then go out and do it yourself. Remember that the creative side of photography is subjective. Stay true to your own vision as an artist. And break the rules when you want to! SUBJECT

The first step when photographing birds is to pick a good subject. Birds are beautiful creatures, but there are times when they don’t look their best. Most bird species molt and grow new feathers twice a year, and many exhibit a different plumage in breeding season. Herons and egrets, for example, grow elaborate plumes, and their bare skin parts take on deep hues that are absent the rest of the year. Many birds like warblers and shorebirds molt into beautiful breeding plumages that they sport each spring before returning to more muted colors in fall and winter. From mid to late summer, many bird species look particularly shabby—their feathers may be worn or they may be molting after they have gone through the rigors of nesting and raising young. Young shorebirds born in the summer look crisp and beautiful as they migrate south in fall. And male ducks reach plumage perfection in fall and winter before molting into messes in the summer. Individual variation is also a factor; some birds look much better than others. And, of course, many species have drastic plumage differences between males and females and young and old.

Some bird species like this Roseate Spoonbill reach plumage perfection at the height of courtship. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/640 second at f/5.6, ISO 800

Become familiar with the plumages of different birds so you know a good one when you see it and you have an idea for the time of year when they’ll look their best. Birds in the middle of molting, birds with worn, dirty, or bleached feathers usually won’t make the best subjects, unless you want to show them that way for journalistic purposes. Similarly, birds in breeding plumage are usually better subjects than those in winter plumage, but your interest may lie in recording birds in all of their plumage types. When traveling to photograph birds, research in advance the prime time for plumage. Beyond the bird, choosing your subject also means choosing a subject in good light that is positioned for a worthy composition. More on this to follow. LIGHT

Good light is paramount for photography—you can have the best gear, perfect technique, a great composition, and a beautiful subject, but if the light isn’t there, the photo isn’t there. Learn to see the light and its nuances, and to predict how your subject will look under different lighting conditions. Light is constantly changing, and

its character is also transforming, rendering your subject differently from moment to moment. As you work, pay attention to the direction of light, the color of the light, and the quality of the light. All of these are infinitely variable, depending on time of day, season, atmospheric conditions, reflected light, and where you position yourself. Seeing the light is something you should always be practicing whether you are shooting photos or not. It is often said that one of the qualities that separates a professional photographer from an amateur is knowing when not to shoot—this mostly has to do with the light. Do not shoot in bad light. Use that time for scouting, observing, or taking a nap. LIGHT QUALITY, CHARACTER, AND COLOR

The quality and character of light is directly related to its source and the atmosphere between the source and your subject. While the character of light can be affected by its strength or brightness, this does not determine light quality. This is one mistake many beginning photographers make—they think that good light means more light. Today’s cameras can produce beautiful images in the dimmest of lighting conditions, so the amount of light is often not a concern. What is of concern is the quality of the light, and generally speaking, good light is soft light. This means shooting early or late in the day on sunlit days or shooting on overcast days when the light is diffused by cloud cover.

A Snowy Owl in Washington shot in the beautiful warm sunlight just before sunset. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/160 second at f/5.6, ISO 640

Light also has color. The color temperature of ambient light varies significantly depending on its source, atmospheric conditions, and reflected light. Color affects a photograph as much as the direction or quantity of light. Light near sunrise and sunset is dominated by warm reds and oranges, and at midday, light is cooler and dominated

by blues. These color casts, and all of the color casts in between, can enhance or detract from your final image. Seeing the color of light can be difficult. Our brains naturally calibrate to reduce color casts so we see the world the way we think it should look. Whites look white and everything else falls into place from there. But, when you open up your images on your computer, you will see how the color of the light interacted with your subject and rendered your image. The color of the light can be a wonderful blessing or a horrible curse! Sunlight

On clear sunlit days with no cloud cover, it is rare that you would be shooting more than two or two and a half hours after sunrise or before sunset in temperate areas. Aim to shoot early and late in the day when the sun angle is low, the light softens, and the tonal range becomes less extreme. Things like high humidity, smoke from fires or pollution, or thin veils of cloud cover can extend this time frame, but under clear conditions, use it as a general rule. After the morning window, as the sun angle rises, the light gets harsher, shadows and contrast increase to unpleasant levels, and the light becomes cooler. Midday light on sunny days is typically horrible. Be aware that the quality of sunlight is not dependent on time of day but on sun angle. This means the time frame for shooting will be shorter as you approach the tropics and can extend much longer (all day even) in arctic and subarctic regions. I often look at my shadow on the ground as a gauge of sun angle. In bright, sunny conditions, unless my shadow is as long as I am tall or longer, the window for shooting is closed.

Taken just a few minutes apart, one in morning sun and the second as fog obscured the sun, these two images reveal how quickly the mood and feel of an image can change depending on the light. Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons, Washington. 600mm, 1/500 second at f/7.1, ISO 500; 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/5.6, ISO 1000

This image of a Loggerhead Shrike was shot on a Louisiana day at noon. The best overcast light occurs on days like this one, when you can still see the bright halo of the sun through the clouds, providing directionality and a soft catchlight in the eye of the bird. 800mm, 1/1000 second at f/8, ISO 500 Diffused Light

Overcast days when sunlight is diffused by a layer of clouds produce some of the best light for bird photography: soft, even lighting that is low in contrast and without harsh

shadows. It also saturates and reveals subtle color changes—all good for drawing attention to the beautiful plumage of many bird species and for creating gentle backgrounds without distracting light and dark spots.

The character of sunlight changes rapidly as the sun rises or sets. Though both of these images of Marbled Godwits in Florida were shot in acceptable light from the same spot, the light in the image shot a half hour after sunrise (top) is significantly softer and warmer than the one shot an hour after sunrise (bottom). 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1600 second at f/8, ISO 1000; 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/2500 second at f/8, ISO 500

Like sunlight, overcast light is highly variable. The best overcast light usually occurs with light cloud cover that diffuses the sunlight or when the cloud cover is variable, creating brighter and darker spots in the sky. The worst days occur with heavy, even cloud cover with little directionality to the light. These days make your

images dark and muddy and often come with unpleasant color casts caused by reflected blue light in the atmosphere or light reflected off the landscape. When shooting on an overcast day, always look for directionality in the light and shoot with your back to the brightest parts of the sky. With changing skies, this may mean shooting in opposite directions within a short period or waiting for the clouds to move and for bright spots to appear behind you again. It may seem strange to think of overcast light being directional, but you will almost always find that if you stand in one spot on an overcast day and slowly look 360 degrees around you, one direction will look the best. Shoot that way! It is the key to getting good images when it’s overcast. Low Light

After the sun has set, you’re left with low light, and in the old days, the bird photographers went home. Today, cameras have the ability to make beautiful images even in low light and semidarkness without the use of flash. This is a new frontier in bird photography, and one well worth exploring if it interests you. Photographs taken in low light have a very different mood, feeling, and color rendition than those taken in daylight.

Light diffused by smoke sets the mood for this dramatic image of a Greater Adjutant stork and people in a garbage dump in India. 400mm, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 400

A Barred Owl photographed well after dusk in a city park in Seattle, Washington, provides a good example of what modern cameras can do in low light. 500mm, 1/40 second at f/4, ISO 1600

When shooting in low light, slow shutter speeds come into play, as ISO can only do so much. This is the threshold past which you lock up your mirror during exposure and use a cable release. You may also have to focus manually using Live View, as autofocus performance will begin failing in very low light. Shade

Shooting in shade is often an option, sometimes the only option, for shooting bird images in light similar to that found during overcast conditions. The quality of light in the shade depends largely on the surroundings. If you are shooting under an isolated prairie oak on a sunny, blue-sky day, there will be a lot of blue light reflected into the shaded areas, and that will show up in your images. Likewise, if you are shooting under the green canopy of a dense tropical forest, you will find a lot of green light bouncing around affecting your image. Shooting in shade was avoided in film days, or it was done only with filters or flash. But it is quite easy today with the help of digital cameras and their ability to adjust white balance and counteract color casts. You can also balance out some of the color casts found in the shade with a minimal use of fill flash. Unique Atmospheric Conditions

Fog, smoke, mist, blowing dust, and other atmospheric conditions can create unique and spectacular lighting conditions in some circumstances. Be on the lookout for these opportunities, which are often ephemeral. LIGHT DIRECTION

The direction of light on a subject depends on where you have placed yourself and

determines how your subject is illuminated. Most of the time, shooting subjects front lit is the best choice for birds. But changing to a back or side light can add emotion and produce dramatic images. Be aware that proper exposure becomes more challenging to assess in back or side lighting scenarios. Front Light

A subject is front lit when the light comes from directly behind you, the photographer, and your shadow points toward the subject. Front light produces an even, low-contrast light that is good for revealing colors and details because there are no dark shadows. Front lighting is a safe choice—it is easy to make correct exposures and has predictable effects. Often a good starting point for documenting a bird, it is great for action shots too. A drawback to direct front lighting is that the lack of shadows hides the textures and dimensionality that tone variation reveals, so it tends to flatten out the subject. To alleviate that, try shooting front-lit images just a bit off axis—having the light source 10 to 15 degrees off center can add just enough edge shadow to provide some dimension. Front-lit images also tend to be less dramatic and artful, even generic. Consider getting these documentary, front-lit photos first, so you have them in the bag. Then try for other types of lighting if the conditions and species warrant.

Direct front lighting is great for capturing detail and eliminating potentially detracting shadows, but it renders subjects without much dimension. Sanderling, Washington. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/2500 second at f/8, ISO 800

I used side lighting to shoot these Burrowing Owl chicks in Idaho to give them more depth and dimensionality than front lighting would have. 35mm, 1/640 second at f/8, ISO 400 Side Light

Side lighting, directional lighting that illuminates the subject from the side, is good for revealing textures and for emphasizing shapes because shadows are created by this type of light. This can enhance the drama and mood of an image and provide unique opportunities for composition. However, side lighting’s intense contrasts, with both deeply shaded and brightly lit portions, are unpredictable. Not all subjects and situations are well suited to it. Side lighting also changes constantly as your subject moves and the angle of the light changes. You will likely have to wait and hope your subject moves to just the right angle against the background you want. Side lighting can also create very distracting backgrounds, especially in vegetation. Look for opportunities where your subject is positioned against an evenly shaded background and shoot when the light is low as the contrast won’t be as great—differences between the light and dark areas in your image will be softer and less severe. Exposure is most challenging with this type of light because of the variability and high contrast. Concentrate on exposing the highlights correctly and let the rest fall into place. Back Light

Back lighting occurs when you are pointed directly toward the light source (usually the low sun) and the shaded side of your subject is facing you. Like side lighting, back lighting does not work for every situation or subject, but when the opportunity presents itself, you should take full advantage of it because it can produce some of your most dramatic and unique images. In general, back lighting works best with subjects that have fuzzy or textured edges, which will be illuminated and create a halo around your subject. It also works better with lighter colored subjects or with subjects that are lighter than the background. A darker colored bird, like a cormorant, against a

light background won’t work. There can be a range of correct exposures depending on the image you are trying to create. The same scene can produce a very dark image where just the shape and edges of a subject are revealed or a lighter, glowing image where some detail is visible on the shaded side of the subject and colors are enhanced. This could be further aided by adding a bit of fill flash to the shaded side. When shooting back-lit images, be aware of lens flare. Lens flare occurs when direct light from the sun hits your lens and reflects off the internal elements, producing spots or a bright cast over parts of the final image. In some cases, it can be a creative decision to include lens flare, but it is generally something to avoid. Move your camera position a bit until it is no longer an issue.

Light plumage with feathery edges against dark backgrounds are great candidates for dramatic backlit images. Bald Eagle, Alaska. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 second at f/8, ISO 500 Spot Light

Spot lighting is a relatively rare phenomenon when a shaft of light penetrates an otherwise shaded scene and illuminates your subject. With small subjects like birds, this usually happens when a beam of light makes its way through thick vegetation and falls on the subject. This is not a type of lighting that you can deliberately pursue, but be ready for it when it occurs, as you can produce unique images where the viewer’s eye is immediately drawn to the subject. Focus on exposing for the illuminated highlights (whatever the spot light is hitting). If necessary, meter a well-lit area outside of your scene and recompose. Reflected Light

Reflected light does not occur frequently in nature, but when it does, take note and use it to your advantage. When sand, snow, ice, or water reflect light in ways that fill shadows or cast an even, soft light over your entire subject, you have a great

photographic opportunity. If you have ever walked outside on a snowy morning and your entire surroundings seem like they have been lit up, you know what I mean. Snowy landscapes bounce light in all directions, creating lighting akin to what you might find in a studio. It is especially good for shooting birds in flight because the snow acts like a giant reflector illuminating the underside of your subject.

A narrow shaft of light fully spot lit this Brown Pelican in Florida while its surroundings were completely shaded. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 second at f/5.6, ISO 1000

I determined exposure by metering the bright background and selecting the tonality I wanted, in this case two-thirds of a stop lighter than my camera’s suggested middle-tone exposure. After shooting some images, I checked my histogram to be sure only the brightest rim-lit highlights were blown out. Greater Sage-Grouse in Wyoming. 600mm, 1/2500 second at f/7.1, ISO 400 WHITE BALANCE

Adjusting the white balance in your camera so that colors are recorded properly is similar to what your brain does. When you see a white sheet of paper, your brain knows it is supposed to be white and adjusts your perception so that it appears white, and all of the colors around it are calibrated relative to that white. In actuality that white piece of paper and everything around it may have a blue tint in midday or even be pink at sunset. But your brain says white, and the color cast on both the paper and everything around it is removed. Digital cameras have the ability to do this too. White balance is the way in which our cameras record white as white and remove strong color casts. All light has a color temperature, and the Kelvin scale is the way that we measure that temperature. The deep orange and red light at sunset measure between 2000 and 3000 on the Kelvin scale. Neutral daylight measures around 5500 K. The slightly blue light of overcast days measures between 6000 and 7500 K. And the heavy blue cast you find in the shade on sunny days measures between 7000 and 9000 K. When you adjust the white balance on a camera to correspond with the light falling on your subject, the camera compensates for the color cast at that color temperature and brings the image back toward neutral. Most cameras have a variety of white balance presets named things like “cloudy,” “daylight,” and “shade.” When you select one of these, you are changing the white balance to the corresponding range on the Kelvin scale for that type of light. I primarily use the automatic white balance setting. It usually does a good job of estimating the proper white balance, and if you shoot exclusively in RAW format, it

can be manually adjusted later during the editing process. If you are shooting JPEGs, you cannot rely on making adjustments to white balance after an image has been shot. In that case, you may want to use one of the preset white balance modes your camera offers, “cloudy,” for example, if you aren’t getting the desired in-camera results with an auto white balance setting. COMPOSITION

Composition is the arrangement of visual elements in a work of art, and it is a means by which we impose order on the busy world around us. A good composition has a subject that is clearly defined and that is supported by everything else that falls within the frame. The frame as a whole is balanced. The best compositions give you the feeling that nothing could be added or removed to make it better. As a photographer, you should always be deliberating about the compositional choices you make. Don’t just point the camera and shoot away.

COMPOSITIONAL DO’S AND DONT’S DO:

DON'T:

• Find the best subject

• Settle for the first subject you find

• Shoot your subject at or near its level

• Point too far up or down to shoot a subject

• Eliminate distracting objects from the frame

• Shoot against busy backgrounds

• Be purposeful about your lens selection

• Try to capture everything in one shot

• Simplify the image

• Shoot in poor light

• Find the very best spot from which to shoot

• Plop your tripod down and just start shooting

• Balance your image

• Place your subject in the center of the frame

• Preview your depth of field and make adjustments

• Strictly follow compositional “rules”

The size and placement of your subject in the frame is one of the first compositional choices to make. In this instance, it was a no-brainer that the snow-covered tree would be a major element in the image. My job was to find a perspective and framing that felt balanced. Bald Eagle in ponderosa pine, Washington. 600mm, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 400

Guiding principles and ideas to consider when approaching a subject and visualizing your image are offered below. But remember that composition is subjective—there are no right or wrong ways to compose an image. If what you’ve captured with your camera appeals to you and is the image you were after, you have succeeded. SIZE IN THE FRAME

Where you locate your subject in the frame depends greatly on how large your subject is. For a bird that fills a large portion of the frame, you may have few options—move it slightly left or right of center, depending on which way it is looking. But for a bird that is very small in the frame, you’ll have many more compositional choices to consider. Changing the size of your subject in the frame is a matter of zooming in or out with your zoom lens or moving closer to or farther from your subject.

The symmetry of this displaying grouse in its surroundings makes it an obvious candidate for center placement in the frame. There is no question what the center of focus is. Greater Sage-Grouse, Wyoming. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/8, ISO 400

The focus in this image, the owl’s face, falls directly over the top left rule-ofthirds power point. Final tweaking of the composition considered the entire owl’s body in the frame and the balance of visible, close, in-focus tree relative to the background tree. Spotted Owl, Oregon. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/80 second at f/5.6, ISO 1600

LOCATION IN THE FRAME

It is almost always best not to place your subject in the center of the frame. Moving your subject even slightly to the left or right of center gives the subject room to breathe and somewhere to look. As you search for ways to shift your subject offcenter, consider other elements in the frame that might suggest the best place for the subject. Of course, there are exceptions to this first rule of composition. When a subject is dominant in the frame and facing the camera, centering it can make a powerful statement. This approach works best when there is right-to-left symmetry in both the bird and the background. RULE OF THIRDS

The rule of thirds is an ancient guideline for visual composition that divides the image into thirds both vertically and horizontally, giving nine rectangular areas with two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. Placing your subject or the area of focus at one of the four points where the lines intersect (the “power points”) often produces the strongest composition. Not all four points work equally well for an image. In general when photographing birds, place your subject so that its line of vision has some space inside the frame rather than being immediately cut off by the edge.

The black negative space around this displaying Great Egret in Florida is a perfect background for emphasizing the bird’s fine plumes, colorful beak, and bare green skin. The key to composing an image like this is to balance the amount of negative space around the subject. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/8, ISO 400

The rule of thirds should be thought of as a starting point to help you achieve balance in a composition. However, there may be other elements in your frame that make an image feel unbalanced if you follow the rule of thirds strictly. Use it as a general guide but also look at other objects and at the colors, textures, lines, and shadows in the frame as you strive for an aesthetically pleasing image. NEGATIVE SPACE

Pay attention to the negative space in your image and use it wisely. Negative space is the empty space around your subject. It plays an important role in balancing a composition and offers a stark low-impact surrounding that draws more attention to your subject. There are no hard-and-fast rules about negative space. Some images work well with a lot of negative space and some need only a small, balanced area. When your subject is stuffed into the frame, the feeling can be claustrophobic. Space

around it gives it room to breathe. Negative space is common in portrait images shot with long telephotos, where the shallow depth of field renders the background as a nice, out-of-focus, flat swath of color, as an area of little contrast or texture, or as a subtle gradient of color. At any focal length, negative space can play a powerful force in images where the subject is smaller in the frame. Imagine a Snowy Owl against a vast expanse of white, an egret standing in shallow water and shrouded in fog, or an Osprey in flight against a clear blue sky. ORIENTATION

Whether you shoot an image in a horizontal (landscape) or a vertical (portrait) format will determine the subsequent compositional choices you make and can have a strong impact on the emotional content of the image. Photographers tend to shoot the majority of their images in a horizontal format, but sometimes vertical format is the better choice because the subject matter demands it. This is especially true for birds that are taller than they are wide. That is not to say that you can’t shoot a loosely composed image of a tall bird in a horizontal format, but you should always be aware of and try out different options. It is a good exercise to hone your compositional skills. There are three situations when shooting verticals is best. The first is when shooting a bird species that fills a significant portion of the frame and has a body shape that is clearly suited to a vertical format. Cutting off a part of the bird just to shoot it in a horizontal format is awkward. Birds like herons, cranes, raptors, woodpeckers, and songbirds with long tails often fall into this category. The second case is when shooting a bird that is small in the frame and its surroundings, like a background of towering tree trunks, demand a vertical composition. Lastly, when shooting tight portraits that include only the chest, neck, and head of the bird, a vertical orientation is more natural. When shot horizontally, these types of images often leave an awkward amount of negative space. Shooting a vertical allows for better balance in the image.

A vertical orientation is the clear choice when shooting a tight portrait of a long-legged, long-necked bird like this Black-tailed Godwit in Iceland. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/800 second at f/7.1, ISO 800 VIEWPOINT AND PERSPECTIVE

Where you position yourself to take a photograph, your viewpoint, is one of the most important choices you’ll make each time you approach a subject. Your viewpoint affects your image’s perspective (the relationships between subject and other objects), the appearance of relative distance between background and foreground, what is included in the frame, and how the subject itself appears to the viewer. Very subtle changes in viewpoint, even inches apart, can have a profound effect on your composition and the success of your final image. A frequent error that beginning bird photographers make is shooting down on their subject. It is very common to see photographers standing up with their tripod legs fully extended shooting down at a sharp angle at some bird in a bush or duck on a pond. Shooting your subjects at eye level is one change you can make right now to improve your photography by leaps and bounds. This might mean lying on your belly and using a ground pod to photograph shorebirds on a mudflat, or bringing along a

short chair or fisherman’s bucket to sit on to get yourself into as low a position as you are comfortable in. Shooting sharply up at birds that are perched is also undesirable. Whenever you can get yourself closer to the level of the bird without disturbing it, do it—even if you have to do something drastic like standing on the roof of your car! If you must shoot slightly up or down at your subject, consider using a longer focal length to make your shooting angle less acute. Imagine you are standing at a forest edge with a 300mm lens photographing a Red-shouldered Hawk perched thirty feet up in a cypress. To get the frame-filling image that you desire, the hawk needs to be quite close and you need to be standing near the forest edge and pointing up sharply. What happens when you shoot the same hawk with an 800mm lens and fill the frame? You can back away from the forest edge, flattening out the shooting angle to one that is less acute. SIMPLICITY

Beginning photographers tend to be so focused on the subject that they lose sight of the rest of the frame. Experienced photographers focus on the frame first, and once they are happy with it, they turn their attention to the subject and its behavior. By eliminating or minimizing distracting elements, you simplify the image and further isolate and draw attention to the subject—the focus of your image. An errant branch, a distracting shadow, or a busy background or foreground can lead the gaze astray. Always scrutinize your foreground and background to see whether they can be improved. Check the edges of your frame for objects you may have missed. Moving your camera just a few feet can have a dramatic impact on the final image.

These two images were taken just moments apart with identical camera settings. The only difference was changing the shooting height from about six feet above water level to one foot above water level. The water-level image is far more pleasing aesthetically, and the eye-level perspective connects us more intimately with the subject. American Avocet, Oregon. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/2000 second at f/8, ISO 500

Always pay attention to backgrounds and remove elements that detract from your image. I only had to move a few feet to find a location where this portrait could be made against a clean background. Wood Stork, Florida. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/2500 second at f/8, ISO 1000

Although these grouse are roughly the same size in the frame and shot at a similar aperture, the angle of view of these two images—shot at 850mm and 220mm—results in very different backgrounds. Dusky Grouse, Washington. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/640 second at f/10, ISO 800; 220mm, 1/500 second at f/13, ISO 500 BACKGROUNDS

When you approach any subject, start by looking at and considering the possible backgrounds. If there aren’t any that will work for the image, move on. Too often photographers are so fixated on their subject that they forget the importance of the background and come away with subpar images. It can take a long time to move into position and get close enough to photograph a bird, so pick your spots wisely with an eye on the best background option. Don’t spend time getting close only to realize you’d rather be somewhere else. When shooting with long telephoto lenses and small apertures, you can produce

beautiful, clean out-of-focus backgrounds in many situations. The kind of backgrounds to look for are uncluttered, without overly light or dark spots, and with no intruding elements such as a branch sticking out behind the bird. There is nothing worse than an odd branch sticking through a bird’s head. Search for backgrounds that are a good distance behind the subject and provide a color palette that, when softly out of focus, complements the bird. A long telephoto lens with a distant background gives this softer, more out-of-focus appearance. A background that is too close to the bird may reveal excessive detail and distract from the subject. Whether a particular background works is often determined by lighting conditions. Sunlight, even soft sunlight, creates shadows and contrast that can make backgrounds like thickets of vegetation look very busy. Overcast days offer low-contrast lighting, which simplifies backgrounds. Focal Length

The longer the lens, the more control you have of the background. An Eastern Meadowlark on a fence post shot from fifteen feet with a 300mm lens or thirty feet with a 600mm lens will produce the same size bird in the frame, but the 600mm will show significantly less background area because of its narrower angle of view. This narrower angle of view gives you more control over the background you select. Focal length and the resulting field of view is an important element of composition as well. A photograph of a Red-winged Blackbird in a marsh that fills a quarter of the frame shot at 600mm will render most of the bird’s surroundings softly out of focus. The same blackbird filling a quarter of the frame shot at 100mm will show a wide swath of the bird’s surroundings and more elements in focus.

When you step back and use a wider lens, seabird colonies, such as this one in Iceland, provide great opportunities for graphic compositions. 200mm, 1/500 second at f/8, ISO 800

The strength of this image of a flock of Brant is the balanced graphic pattern formed by the birds and

reflections. I shot hundreds of images of flying Brant this day in Alaska and was lucky to get this one, where everything aligned and there were no birds on the frame edges and few birds overlapping. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1000 at f/11, ISO 1000 Level Horizon

Pay attention to the horizon and keep it level, whether visible in the image or not. You don’t want an image of a duck that looks like it is swimming up a hill. If you haven’t leveled your tripod perfectly, as soon as you start panning, you lose true horizontal. Whenever possible, level your tripod. Be especially careful about maintaining a level horizon when working from a ground pod, where your spatial awareness can be easily thrown off by having your body in an awkward position. There are a few ways to use camera features to help with this issue. If your camera has the function, turn on and view a virtual horizon on the rear LCD. Some cameras have an option to activate a level in the viewfinder itself. If your camera doesn’t have those features, buy a cheap bubble level to throw in your camera’s hot shoe. Another method is to turn on the grid display in the camera’s viewfinder, which gives you horizontal lines you can use to judge level against the horizon. GRAPHIC PATTERNS

Most of the time in bird photography, the bird grabs our attention and we overlook the graphic possibilities in a shooting situation. It can help to think of the bird in your frame as an inanimate shape and to look at its relationship with the graphic elements around it—lines, shapes, textures, and colors. Consider all of these as you balance elements within a frame to create your composition. It can be especially productive to think graphically when shooting groups of birds or birds that are small, or when photographing very close details or parts of a bird. Remember, even when composing your shot graphically, your goal is still to draw attention to and support a subject in the frame. ODD GROUPS

When photographing small groups of birds, balance in the image is often best achieved by including an odd number of subjects. Odd numbers allow your eye to fall on a central subject naturally rather than ending up in negative space between two birds or two groups. I find three to five birds to be optimal when shooting small groups. It’s best to find groups where you don’t have to cut off the body parts of any adjacent birds to fit all the members in the frame. Try to have a bit of space between the outer birds and the edge of the image. Beyond five birds or so, it stops mattering whether you have an even or odd number of subjects—your eye just starts to see “lots” of birds. And, of course, birds often hang out in pairs, so you’ll likely break this rule frequently. JUXTAPOSITION

When photographing groups or pairs of birds, look for interesting juxtapositions. The addition of an out-of-focus bird or birds in the background or foreground, when done right, can create a more dynamic image than one bird alone. Sometimes juxtaposition occurs because you have painstakingly gotten your camera into just the right position. Other times you may be shooting one bird when another walks up as if on cue. Depending on how far one bird is behind the other, you may also want to adjust your

aperture so that the detail in the out-of-focus bird is sufficient—if it is too close to being in focus, but is not in focus, that can be distracting. If it is too out of focus, there may not be enough detail to suggest what the blurry object is—a little more depth of field can often remedy that. ENHANCING ELEMENTS

As with juxtaposition, there are times when out-of-focus background elements enhance a composition by adding colors, texture, or hints of context that suggest a bird’s habitat. The key is to control the degree of contrast and busyness, limiting the amount of attention drawn away from your main subject. Enhancing elements need to frame and support the focus of the image. Often these elements will come into play serendipitously, but there are also times where you can plan for them. Don’t get so caught up in trying to get a clean background that you overlook something that can set your images apart.

An odd group of three Great Blue Heron nestlings, Oregon. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/640 second at f/5.6, ISO 500

Brown Pelican juxtaposition, Yucatán, Mexico. 500mm with 2x teleconverter, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 400

A beachcombing fox in Alaska provided an interesting compositional element in this photograph of a Greater Yellowlegs. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/3200 second at f/8, ISO 1000 OBSTRUCTIONS

Most of the time you will be cursing the leaf, blade of grass, or tree branch that is between you and your subject and ruining your otherwise perfect image. But there are times when working with things that get in the way can open up new possibilities for creative shots. I sometimes use obstructions—rocks, tree branches, or the ground—to frame a subject in some way with out-of-focus elements or even to cover up an otherwise unavoidable distraction. The key to using an obstruction well is that it has to be close to the camera, not close to the subject. When it is close to the camera, its out-of-focus edges will create a nice gradient you can work with to obscure an area in the image. Aperture is important—the smaller the aperture, the more the edges of the obstruction will harden. Achieving good results with obstructions is easier in lowcontrast situations like shade or overcast light. DEPTH-OF-FIELD CHOICES

When photographing birds, make deliberate decisions about depth of field. Too much depth of field can bring distracting foreground and background elements into focus and too little can render your subject with insufficient detail or detail in the wrong places. Many photographers try to use the most depth of field the light will allow because they are fixated on getting all of a bird’s exquisite feathers in sharp focus. But unless the background is a great distance beyond the subject, adding depth of field will also resolve the background in more detail. It will still be far out of focus, but elements of it can be distracting. Dark and bright spots and contrasting edges like the horizon will look harder, which can negatively affect the final image. Pay attention to the entire image, and select a depth of field that works for both your subject and the background. Get in the habit of using your depth-of-field preview button. Press it as you run through some possible apertures with the aperture dial to get an idea of how the background changes with each option.

By lowering my shooting angle and using the tips of emergent wetland sedges to obstruct part of the frame, I was able to turn an ordinary portrait into a unique image. Whooper Swan, Varanger, Norway. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/5.6, ISO 800

These two images of a Spotted Owl in Oregon are vastly different despite being taken within a minute of each other. In the second image, I moved to a position where I could partially obstruct the owl with the trunk of a tree midway between us. The resulting image is far more mysterious and evocative, which is more appropriate for this owl of deep, dark old-growth forests than the more standard portrait shot. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/100 second at f/5.6, ISO 800; and 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/60 second at f/5, ISO 800

Adjusting depth of field by changing your aperture can have a significant impact on the appearance of your image. I shot this incubating Red Knot at f/4 to completely isolate the bird from its surroundings, bringing attention to the bird and creating a more painterly image. Red Knot, Chukotka, Russia. 190mm, 1/1000 second at f/4, ISO 250

I shot this image at f/13 to provide a bit more context around the bird and to emphasize the bird's exquisite camouflage. Red Knot, Chukotka, Russia. 190mm, 1/100 second at f/13, ISO 250

The challenge with this image was to select a depth of field that rendered enough of the bird and its intricate nest in focus while not resolving the busy background to the point where it became a major distraction. Araripe Manakin, Brazil. 800mm, 1/6 second at f/8, ISO 800

Beyond a certain distance, it is usually preferable to shoot birds at a wideopen aperture. But small subjects approaching full frame call for ramping the depth of field up quickly in order to get enough area in focus. Depth of field increases the farther away you are focused. For very close objects, like full-frame small birds or a bird’s head, you will need a lot more depth of field unless you are trying to isolate one element like a bird’s eye for creative reasons. HEAD ANGLE AND CATCHLIGHTS

When shooting portraits of birds, it is desirable to have the bird’s head cocked toward the camera to some degree and to have a catchlight in its eye. While there are exceptions to the head-angle guideline, I generally like bird photographs where some light can be seen in the bird’s eye. A catchlight does not always have to be a bright, well-defined reflection of the sun (and you won’t get that on most cloudy days), but there should be at least some illumination in the top half of the eye in any bird with a dark eye. When there is no light in a bird’s eye, it appears lifeless, without personality, and far less engaging to the viewer.

A slight tip of this grebe’s head toward the camera (bottom) greatly improved this image. Eared Grebe, Alberta. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 400

Subjects don’t always have to be looking toward the camera. This image of a critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Chukota, Russia, evokes a completely different feeling than a standard field guide pose would. It was used as an opening two-page spread for an article on this species in Living Bird Magazine. 800mm, 1/320 second at f/7.1, ISO 400 BEHAVIOR

There is no doubt that interesting behavioral moments, when captured and composed well, produce some of the most compelling images of birds we see today. When photographing birds, the most memorable and unique shots you can make occur when you capture a vivid moment of characteristic behavior: a Great Egret as it plunges its head into the water to catch a fish, a Greater Sage-Grouse at the height of its mating display, two Bald Eagles in flight fighting over a fish, or a Red-headed Woodpecker arriving with a beak full of food to feed a chick whose mouth is agape in the nest cavity. Capturing scenes like these does not happen by chance. Often a lot of patience, many near misses, and persevering over many days is required.

Chick rearing provides good opportunities for behavioral images with some species. Black Skimmer in Mississippi. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/640 second at f/8, ISO 400

Some behaviors, like the foraging technique of this Reddish Egret in Florida, provide outstanding opportunities for dramatic images. 500mm, 1/1600 second at f/8, ISO 1250

Rather than settling for nice portraits of the hundreds of perched Least Auklets at a nesting colony in Alaska, I spent more than an hour trying to shoot birds with others landing in the background to elevate the image. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/500 second at f/8, ISO 400

Not all bird behavior is worth photographing, and an image isn’t better just because the bird appears to be doing something. There are positions and postures that birds find themselves in that are unflattering and produce poor images. For example, I often see photographs of birds preparing to take flight where their wings are raised and their legs are outstretched and clinging to a branch. To me, these are some of the most unflattering and hard to look at photos of birds. I find nothing about that instant of bird behavior compelling or attractive. ELEVATE AN IMAGE WHEN YOU CAN

It pays to slow down sometimes and work on getting one special image rather than moving around taking many nice but not particularly unusual photos. A few years ago, I led a photo workshop to Iceland, and the most common approach I saw was for the participants (and often me too) to move from one cliff ledge to the next, photographing different attractive groups of puffins. While many of those images were beautiful in themselves, how could they be made better? My answer was to find the ledge and group of puffins I liked best and to wait until that moment when a new puffin would arrive, wings outstretched, to join the group. I could have kept moving around making lovely images of groupings of puffins, but at some point, enough is enough. The image that outshines the others is that one photograph with the puffin landing. When you can, opt to make better images, not more images, even if the subject matter for making a lot of good images is there. It can be hard to do because it is risky. Looking for that one special image might mean waiting for behavior, waiting for the light change, or waiting for an opportune composition. It might also mean getting nothing. MOTION

Most of the time photographers use shutter speeds fast enough to completely freeze

the action of their subjects, yielding crisp, sharp images. But intentionally using slow shutter speeds to show motion blur can produce stunning images that imply motion in an aesthetically pleasing way—artful and impressionistic even. Motion blur can be the result of subject motion, camera motion, or both. There is no single formula that works every time for this kind of shooting, and making good images requires taking a lot of photographs and experimenting. Including motion in an image gives it a lifelike feel and a strong sense of energy. Compared to freezing every feather tack-sharp, movement makes a strong impression. In a still image, it is conveyed by blurring—of parts of the subject, of the background, or combinations of these. IMPLIED BEHAVIORAL MOTION

Birds in motion often look best when a part of their body is allowed to blur and show the movement. To accomplish this, use a shutter speed that freezes most of the bird but doesn’t freeze the parts of the bird that are moving most rapidly—usually the wings or just the wing tips. This can work with either a bird in flight or a bird on the ground. Choosing the right shutter speed depends on how fast the wingbeats, or other movements of the bird, are. A good starting point is around 1/125 second for larger birds with slow wingbeats and 1/500 second for smaller birds with rapid wingbeats.

In this image of two male Greater Prairie-Chickens fighting on a lek in South Dakota, I added motion to the image by using a shutter speed that rendered the head and body of the birds in sharp focus while blurring the wing tips. 300mm, 1/500 second at f/9, ISO 400

In this pan blur of an eagle streaking in for a landing there is enough definition in the subject to give it meaning though most of the image is blurred by motion. Bald Eagle, Alaska. 400mm, 1/30 second at f/4, ISO 800

Getting the shutter speed just right to imply motion and framing the subject perfectly takes patience. When you have a subject that is repeating a behavior, say a prairie chicken displaying on a lek, get a good round of behavioral images with a shutter speed that freezes all motion first so you have them in the can. Then move on to experimenting with the less predictable but more desirable results that require slower shutter speeds. PAN BLURS

Creating impressionistic pan blurs, where both the background and most of the subject’s movements are blurry, is very challenging. The photographer uses a slow shutter speed while following a subject that is moving rapidly in one direction. The trick to making successful images is to pan so smoothly and accurately that at least part of the subject, usually the head and eye, are sharp or give the impression of sharpness. This means keeping your subject framed as precisely as you can throughout the pan, which is easiest when you have subjects moving at a constant rate parallel to your position.

Groups where some birds are in motion and others aren’t provide good opportunities for more impressionistic images. I photographed this roosting flock of Red Knots in England using a variety of different shutter speeds to see what kinds of images would result. 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/5 second at f/25, ISO 400

The shutter speeds you use for creating pan blurs depend on the lens you use, your distance from the subject, the subject’s velocity, and the effect you are aiming for. In general, the farther away a bird is, the slower the shutter speed you will need. For more distant birds, start with 1/8 second and go from there. For fast subjects flying close by, start with 1/60 second. Remember that the slower the shutter speed you use, the more difficult it will be to get some sharpness where you want it. As with any birds in flight, remember to follow through and concentrate on your framing when you start firing off images. A leveled tripod with a gimbal or video head can help you pan more smoothly than hand-holding, because you can maintain a steady vertical axis and concentrate on only the speed of your pan. Shooting pan blurs is always a matter of volume. Most of the images you shoot will head straight into the trash, but every now and then, everything comes together for a beautiful image. PARTIAL-FRAME MOTION

Another way to use motion creatively is to shoot a scene that contains both moving and still elements in the frame. Imagine a Black-crowned Night-Heron standing stockstill on a rock and peering into a fast-moving stream searching for prey. Because the heron is so still, you can use a shutter speed that will render the heron and the rock perfectly sharp but resolve the water into a soft blur. Try a shutter speed of 1/15 second, or slower depending on the speed of the water. Flocks of roosting birds can provide opportunities for this approach as well. Often many birds in a flock will be standing motionless while others are busy preening. Use a shutter speed that freezes the motion of some individuals while showing motion in others.

STITCHED IMAGES

Stitching multiple frames together to build a single image is a useful tool to be aware of. Most people think of it for creating panoramas, but it can come in handy in other situations too. The technique requires taking several overlapping frames and then “stitching” them together automatically in your image editing software. Stitching images is a relatively straightforward process so long as your subject and its surroundings remain relatively static, your shooting position is unchanged, and your camera settings remain the same. This usually means using a manual exposure setting and not changing your focus.

The picture of the Bald Eagle in a pine is a stitched photo. I was thrilled to find this scene after a fresh snowfall and didn’t know how long the eagle would sit there, so I quickly captured as much of the scene as I could to give myself flexibility for cropping the final composition at home later. The Photo Merge tool in Lightroom quickly assembled my four frames into a single image. 600mm, 1/400 second at f/8, ISO 400

I was working in a blind in Assam, India, when this Greater Adjutant suddenly appeared too close for me to frame it either horizontally or vertically. I quickly made a number of horizontal images that I knew I could stitch together later into a vertical format, which would provide space for the bird in the frame. The resulting image also ended up being much higher resolution than I would have achieved by backing off to a shorter focal length. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/1250 second at f/9, ISO 800

In bird photography, there are three main situations when you would want to stitch images. The first is when you want to shoot a scene as a panorama. This happens most often when photographing a bird in a big landscape well suited to a panoramic image. The second is when you want a higher resolution final image. For example, to produce a very large print, you may need a higher resolution image file than your camera can produce. Stitching images will result in higher resolution in the edited image file. To achieve this, as you are working with a static subject, switch to a longer focal length lens and shoot multiple frames that cover the same image area covered by the shorter focal length lens you first used to compose the image. The third situation is when you are too close to the subject and can’t change to a wider lens: Let’s say you are photographing songbirds from a blind with a 600mm lens when suddenly a hawk lands very close by, but you can’t fit it into your frame without cutting part of the bird off. If you are careful, you can take two or more images of the hawk that cover a larger area and stitch them together later.

While working on an assignment to tell the story of Greater Sage-Grouse and sage habitat degradation in Wyoming, I was lucky to capture this image of a grouse and a natural-gas drilling rig in the same frame. I used a small aperture to increase the depth of field and detail in the drilling rig. The slow shutter speed demanded rock-solid long-lens technique. 500mm, 1/40 second at f/14, ISO 800 STORYTELLING

Most photographers who read this book will focus on producing beautiful stand-alone images of birds. But producing a series of images that communicates something larger about birds is a valuable skill to develop and can bring context and meaning to your work. Perhaps you want to share something about birds with your friends and family, or maybe take it a step further and give a presentation about birds to a local nature club. Maybe there is a conservation issue you want to draw attention to or you want to publish an article in a magazine. In cases like these, showing a series of beautiful bird photographs won’t be enough. You’ll want to show different aspects of their lives, typical behaviors, problems affecting them, their habitat, and so on. This is the realm of photojournalism, and photojournalistic images require that you think beyond a bird image, that you think about the story. Your goal is to figure out how to tell that story with powerful images. Shooting a story may include shooting things other than birds and using techniques beyond the focus of this book. You may want to photograph a researcher in the field, or capture macro shots of the food a particular bird eats, aerials, or landscapes. While not “bird photography” in the traditional sense, it is a worthy pursuit, particularly now when birds and the environment are facing so many threats. Photographs have the power to get people’s attention and to take them on both an educational and an emotional journey. Although the field of photojournalism is too vast to be covered in this book, if your bird photography leads you to become a voice for birds and bird conservation, below are a few tips to get you thinking about how to tell a story with your images. CHOOSE A THEME

A photo story is more than just a collection of pictures, it needs to have a theme. The pictures in your story should not be limited to one subject. Rather, they should support one main idea. DO YOUR RESEARCH

The more informed you are about a subject, the more ideas you will have for images. What your mind doesn’t know, your eyes can’t see! STORYBOARD

When developing your idea, previsualize the images you might make and write or sketch them into a rough storyboard to help guide your shooting. Imagine you are sitting on a barstool next to a friend and telling them about something. What images would you need to tell your story? TELL A STORY

When possible (and this can be hard with small birds), try to tell parts of your story in a single image. In each image try to emphasize one important aspect or idea. ADD VARIETY

Look for ways to add visual variety to your story. Visual variety helps keep the viewer interested and stimulated.

6

DIGITAL DARKROOM WITH ADOBE LIGHTROOM

My digital darkroom at home in Portland, Oregon, with laptop, monitor, hard drives, and a view of my bird feeders. Not seen are the blackout roller blinds on the windows, which I close when doing fine editing.

final steps in the photographic process happen at home in your digital T hedarkroom. At your computer, you’ll combine technical editing skills with your subjective artistic vision to put the final touches on your best images. This is also the place where you’ll catalog and store your hard work and share it with the world. There is no one formula for what happens at this stage—the equipment and processes you use and the style of editing are personal choices. Computer equipment and software are continually evolving, and there are dozens of ways to accomplish the many editing, cataloging, and storage tasks required. Know too that there is a wide divide between bird photographers when it comes to image editing style. Some go to great lengths to “optimize” every pixel in an image file and will even alter elements in an image by digitally adding or removing flaws or distractions. Others, including me, prefer to use a light hand and to present what the camera actually captured, keeping it as true to life as possible. Where you fall on that spectrum will be up to you. Personally, I’d rather spend the time outside making better images than trying to turn bad images into good ones on the computer! Use this chapter as a template to guide your thinking rather than something to follow precisely. Your system and choices will likely look different than mine or anyone else’s, and additional research will be required to get it all done your way. HARDWARE

Working with your image files will be a lot easier and more enjoyable if you have a computer, monitor, and hard drive that are up to the task. Computers with sufficient RAM and a fast processor are a must. You also need fast external hard drives and a quality monitor. The cables connecting your computer to your external hard drives are often the bottleneck when it comes to speed. Make sure your cables are built on recent

technology and have rapid datatransfer rates; consider Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C. My preference is to use my laptop as both my field computer and my desktop computer. In my office, I connect it to a large monitor and supplement it with a fullsize keyboard and mouse. I keep two large, fast external hard drive arrays on my desk. Each can fit my entire photo library with plenty of room to spare. One is my working drive, the other is my onsite backup. I also have additional drives kept elsewhere for off-site backups. One of the big advantages of using the same computer in the field and at home is that my Lightroom catalog is with me wherever I go. Transferring images and the Lightroom catalog between computers is a cumbersome process, and this way I avoid the headache. MONITOR CALIBRATION

Calibrating your monitors is essential if you want full control over the color in your images. Every computer monitor differs slightly in how colors are portrayed, and monitors lose brightness over time. Calibrating ensures that your monitor is displaying colors properly, and it is especially helpful if you edit on multiple monitors, like a laptop and a desktop, because your colors will match between machines. Having a monitor that isn’t calibrated can cause you to make errors in your editing. Imagine you have a monitor that trends toward the cool side, rendering reds less saturated than they should be. You may then boost the red saturation in your editing, but your reds will look oversaturated on a monitor that is correctly calibrated. There are a number of manufacturers that make devices that attach to your monitor and automatically calibrate them. I use the excellent Datacolor Spyder series of monitor calibration tools.

Monitor calibration is an easy process with the Datacolor Spyder. After positioning the sensor on your screen, it is just a matter of following a series of onscreen prompts and waiting about five minutes for the job to complete. ADOBE LIGHTROOM

Adobe Lightroom is the primary image editing software used by most photographers

today. I use Lightroom Classic CC. Lightroom packs most of the image editing features that photographers need into an easy-to-use and affordable interface that has continued to improve over the years. Occasionally, you may wish to work in the more complex Adobe Photoshop for some advanced editing tasks, but most of the time Lightroom is sufficient. I use it for 95 percent of my editing. Where Lightroom really shines is in combining editing with a robust database that manages every aspect of your photographic catalog. One of the principles of digital asset management is that your photographs must be searchable in order to have any value. Your picture of an Osprey catching a fish isn’t worth anything to anybody if you can’t find it quickly and easily. Lightroom gives you plenty of ways to manage your image files, attach information to them, label them, sort them, search for them, and a lot more. It is a one-stop shop for everything you need to do with your image files.

Adobe Lightroom Classic CC Library module

There are two things you should know about Lightroom right off the bat: First, Lightroom is nondestructive. What this means is that no matter what you do in Lightroom, no alterations or changes are made to your original image file—it remains untouched. Instead, Lightroom creates a preview file from your original so you can visualize what your edits will look like. It records your edits and any metadata you have added as a set of instructions and saves them in the Lightroom catalog. Not until you export a new image file are those directions and data applied to create the new file. Nothing ever happens to your original image file. Second, Lightroom is set up to give you multiple ways to accomplish the same thing. Flexibility, redundancy, and numerous options are built into the editing and cataloging features and how you use them. So, the way I do things might not be the way your friend does them or how you end up doing them. See what works best for you. BASIC TOUR

Lightroom’s interface is divided into modules that you toggle between using a navigation bar at the top right of each screen. Each module gives you a different workspace focused on a related set of tasks. In this book, we’ll only be discussing the two most important modules for organizing and editing your images—the Library and Develop modules. Take a look at the other modules too, which are designed primarily for sharing and presenting your work—the Map, Book, Slideshow, Print, and Web modules. Each module has a similar look and layout and is loaded with different functions. Along the very top of each screen is a standard toolbar with drop-down menus like what you see in any computer application. There are Lightroom functions you can only access using these menus, and many others that are duplicates of actions available within the module workspaces. Beneath the standard toolbar is your workspace. At the top is a bar where you select the module you want to work in. To the left and right are panels containing most of the controls for that workspace. The left panel is more focused on catalog organization and navigation, and the right panel is where you’ll get most of your work done. Along the bottom is a filmstrip that helps with navigation, and in the center is a grid of images or a single image, depending on what you are working on. There are a lot of ways to manipulate these various panels, visualize your workspace, and navigate through your images. You can hide any of the panels by clicking on small triangles adjacent to them, giving you more room in the middle. You can also use the letter “l" key on your keyboard to “dim the lights” and darken the area around the image you are working on. I find this helpful for looking at my images without distraction. There are entire books dedicated to all the things you can do with Lightroom and many tutorials online. Play around and you’ll discover a lot on your own. Library Module

The Library module is all about viewing, organizing, and adding information to your image catalog. It is also the easiest place to quickly cull your images during a firstround edit and the place you’ll go to search for specific images. The left panel is where you organize your actual image files and file structure on your hard drive. It also has options for organizing groups of images virtually by creating collections or a Quick Collection. When you add or delete an image from a collection, nothing happens to the image on your actual hard drive. It is simply a place to group images together any way you choose. The right panel displays the histogram and shooting information including ISO, focal length, shutter speed, and aperture for the selected image. This information is helpful to have handy and will help you evaluate your images on your first-round edit. Beneath that are all of the controls you’ll use to add information to your images and all of the data about each image generated by the camera. In the center of the screen, you see your images in either a grid view or a single image view. This is where you review images, select images, delete images, zoom in on images, and see what images are in a collection or on a specific drive. In a small bar below this main work area are options for sorting images, color coding them, rating them, and other tasks. Above is a toolbar where you can search images in many different ways: by attributes such as keywords, the specific camera or lens used, or

color codes. Develop Module

The Develop module is where you’ll do all of your individual image editing, and most of the controls for doing so are in the right-side work panel. We’ll look at specific tools in more detail below. SETUP

There are some choices to make when you first start using Lightroom. The first is deciding where you want to keep your Lightroom catalog. Your Lightroom catalog is the database you’ll create to manage your image files; everything you do in Lightroom is stored in your catalog (except your actual image files). Some photographers maintain multiple catalogs, but I keep all of my photography in a single master catalog for simplicity. My Lightroom catalog (named Master.lrcat) is in a folder named “Lightroom catalog” in the Documents folder on my laptop. To create a new Lightroom catalog, go to the File menu and click on New Catalog, then choose a location, give it a name, and click Create. OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE

Many things affect the speed and performance of your Lightroom catalog. In addition to the speed of your computer, the file sizes you usually work with, how many images are in your catalog, and a whole host of other settings can affect performance. Because photo editing is time consuming, every second your computer lags adds up. For a list of ways to optimize performance of your system, review the web page provided by Lightroom: Go into Preferences and select Performance. At the bottom, find the link to a page for Optimizing Lightroom Performance. MANAGING MEDIA

Over the years, I have developed a simple, systematic approach to file management and editing and come up with a workflow that works for me. It is certainly not the only way to do things, so consider it a starting point as you create your own method. It’s important to keep your process consistent and stick to it. Doing so will keep you from making costly mistakes. You will lose image files if you do not have a good process. Back up your images and catalog at regular intervals. Media management begins each time you capture images in the field and continues in perpetuity, assuming you back up your images, catalog them, and migrate them to new technologies and storage systems as they evolve. What follows is the process I currently use from image capture to migrating my files to their final resting place to managing them with Lightroom. ORGANIZE MEDIA CARDS

When shooting in the field, it is important to know which media cards are full and which are empty. I format all of my cards before going into the field so I’m ready to shoot as soon as a card goes into the camera. This also saves me from accidentally shooting on a card that already has media on it. Blank formatted cards are kept in a protective case with the labels facing out. Once I fill a card and need a new one, the full card goes back in the case with the back of the card facing out. I like to write a name on the back of each card, like “Bobby” or “Tiger.” This way if one of the cards

is not behaving properly, I can easily remember which one is the problem child!

Named media cards in a protective waterproof hard case DOWNLOAD AND COPY

When traveling, the first thing I do when I come in from a shoot is download my full memory cards to an external hard drive using a card reader and make a backup copy. I use LaCie Rugged portable hard drives as my field drives and have found them to be very dependable. If I am shooting locally and I’m home for the evening, I will download images directly to my main working hard drive. When backing up your media in the field or at home, it is good practice to use a checksum program to verify your backup copies were made successfully and no data was corrupted or remains uncopied. ShotPut Pro is a checksum application used by many media professionals. When traveling, carry a spare card reader for each type of memory card that you’ll be using. SPECIFY FOLDER STRUCTURE

When I download each day’s images, I put them in a folder on my hard drive that specifies what’s in it (RAW image files) and the date. I use a year-month-day format (yymmdd) so my folders will be sortable chronologically. So, for each day of shooting, I have a folder named something like “RAW_180617,” which holds all images shot on June 17, 2018. I usually put all the image files from the day directly into this folder, but occasionally I will add subfolders within this main folder to specify a camera or card.

My folder structure and naming scheme IMPORT INTO LIGHTROOM

I keep my Lightroom image catalog on my laptop, so I always have it with me and can begin editing processes in the field without that work getting lost. To import a day’s images, in the Lightroom Library module, click the Import button at the bottom of the left panel. Then navigate to your external hard drive in the left panel, select the folder that holds that day’s images, and click Import at the bottom right of the screen. Lightroom will import your images, and you can begin reviewing and culling them. Lightroom offers other ways to import images, including the option of copying or moving your original files to a new location. COPY MEDIA TO WORK DRIVE

When I get home from a shoot and have media on my portable hard drives, I first copy that media to my desktop working hard drive and check that the download was successful with my checksum application. My dated folders for each day go into a master folder for image files, “Digital Images.” Once the files are copied, I disconnect the external hard drives, but I keep both field copies until I have updated the backup of my main desktop drive to include the new media. RECONNECT MEDIA

Once you have copied your media to your main drive and your field drives are disconnected, Lightroom will no longer know where your RAW image files are. You will still be able to see previews of what you have imported into Lightroom in your workspace and the new folder you have created in the left work panel, but there will be indications that the files are missing—a question mark will be imposed over the folder, a small square with an exclamation point in the upper right corner of each image, and as soon as you try to work with one, you will get a message: “The file could not be found.” Worry not—your images are still there. You just need to reconnect the files to their new location on your master working drive. Lightroom is still looking for them in your disconnected field drive. To reconnect the media, go to each new folder in the left work panel of the Library module (it will have a question mark imposed on it), right-click (PC) or Command+click (Mac), and select Find Missing Folder. Then navigate to the corresponding folder on your master drive and click Choose. Your media is now reconnected and all is good in the world. You will need to do this for each new folder that you added from your field drive. BACK UP

I won’t go into detail here as there are other resources for learning the best ways to back up your computers and hard drives. Have a good plan and implement it, back up

often, and keep at least one backup somewhere other than your home. If your house burns down and all your backups are sitting on your desk, you’ve lost everything. ORGANIZING AND CULLING IN THE LIBRARY MODULE

Once your image files have been transferred and imported into Lightroom, the next step is to do some initial organizing and housekeeping by renaming files, adding some standard metadata, and doing a first-round review of images to eliminate the obvious losers and anything that is technically flawed. PREVIEWS

Large image files can be slow to load, and waiting a few seconds for each one when you have thousands to go through can be a huge time waster. To make that process faster, Lightroom can generate preview images for each of your image files that will load instantly. The downside is that it takes time to process and create them. When I know I have a huge number of images to go through and I will be comparing many similar images to find the best, I will leave my computer to generate preview images overnight or when I am doing something else. It is not a necessary step but sometimes a helpful one. You can set up Lightroom to generate previews automatically, or do as I do and generate them when you need them. To generate previews, select a group of images in the workspace of the Library module by highlighting the first image in a range, holding the Shift key, and selecting the last image in a range. Alternatively, you can select all by pressing Ctrl+A (PC) or Command+A (Mac). Then go to the Library menu, select Previews from the drop-down menu, and finally Build 1:1 Previews. FILE NAMING

Most cameras have the character space to generate only a limited number of file names, so you run the risk of having duplicate file names in your system if you do not rename your images in Lightroom. I rename a day’s images immediately after import or, more often, after I have made my first-round cull. First, select all of the images in the folder for a single day. Then go to the Library menu and select Rename Photo from the drop-down menu. A dialog box will appear, and the first time you perform this function, navigate to Edit and click OK. What appears next is a dialog box where you can create and save your own custom filenaming convention. This feature allows you to choose custom text, metadata drawn from the image file, or a serial number and combine them to create custom file names that you use every time you rename your images. Once established, each time you rename photos, “Custom Settings” will appear as the default in the first dialog box, and you simply click OK. Lightroom will rename your files with your custom convention.

My custom file-name settings in the Filename Template Editor: my last name followed by the date the image was taken and a sequential number FIRST-ROUND CULLING

The first step in my image editing process is to look at the images and trash any images that are flawed. Unless an image is so special that it merits being kept even if it is technically imperfect, it should go to the waste bin. I immediately throw out any image that isn’t sharp where it needs to be or is not properly exposed, likewise anything where part of a bird is cut off, its head is turned the wrong way, or its eyes are closed. Be on the ruthless side when making your first-round edits, and know that you will likely make another pass or two to get rid of more. For this first-round edit, I activate the Caps Lock on my keyboard and just use two keys: the right arrow and the X key. As I work through the images sequentially in the Library module with the arrow key, I hit X when I land on an image destined for the trash. With Caps Lock enabled when you strike X, the image will be marked and you’ll move to the next one, saving a keystroke. At the end of a batch of images, I go to the Photo menu in the top toolbar and select Delete Rejected Photos. METADATA

Very early in the editing process I make an initial pass to add basic key words to my images. Key words allow you to find images easily by search terms. I add place names first (Tryon Creek State Natural Area, Portland, Oregon, Multnomah County) along with basic species information (Barred Owl, owl, raptor, bird). Later in my

editing (maybe years later) I may add more information, but knowing I may never get to it, I add the bare bones early on. I also make sure I add key word data to an entire folder at a time so I don’t forget any images. In addition to key words, I also use the Caption and Title fields for select images that I want to attach additional information to. These are usually images that I am passing on to editors, posting to my website, or exporting or sharing for some other reason. Adding a title (I usually use the species name) is helpful because the field can be added to your image file name automatically when you export an image. A caption would include a more complete description of the image in sentence form. Adding key words is done in the Library module in the right work panel under the Keywording tab. Enter key words separated by commas in the Keyword Tag box. Lightroom also offers “Keyword Suggestions” and the “Keyword Set,” which help speed the process. These provide recently used and suggested key words you can click on to add quickly. Find the Caption and Title fields under the Metadata tab in the right panel. IMAGE EDITING IN THE DEVELOP MODULE

After making a first-round cull of a day’s images, you’ll want to start playing with the images that caught your eye. Lightroom’s Develop module is where you edit individual images, and most of the editing functions are in the right work panel. I recommend doing your fine editing in a darkened room (lights dimmed, windows covered), as you will be better able to judge your images without competing light hitting your screen or eyes. Remember that images shot in RAW format all require some amount of editing to bring them to life. This does not mean you are altering reality when you add saturation or contrast, because RAW files are inherently neutral when they come out of the camera. The JPEG files you may have worked with on your point-and-shoot or your iPhone have saturation and contrast boosted automatically, and those changes are baked into the image right in the camera. When you shoot RAW, you control those adjustments yourself after the fact, rather than letting the camera make changes formulaically.

You can add and view metadata in the right work panel of Lightroom’s Library module.

Each photographer has a different threshold for the degree to which they will alter an image in the editing process. Many go to great efforts to reduce noise and to selectively sharpen parts of an image, among many other tweaks. My approach is to use a light touch and stay true to the scene I witnessed through the viewfinder. I find overprocessed images—too much saturation, lifting the shadows so much that the image looks unnatural, or excessive sharpening—distasteful. Some bird photographers go further and remove objectionable elements and “clean up” anything they don’t like. Some noted (and quite vocal) bird photographers have championed this approach to image editing over the past decades, and I believe they have influenced amateurs to take things too far.

Collapse the left work panel in the Develop module to maximize the image area. The film strip can also be hidden.

How deep you go into the editing process is up to you. It’s your artwork and your vision that matter. What follows is where you’ll start, with the most common edits you’ll make to most images. PROFILE

Located at the top of the Basic panel, the Profile setting determines Lightroom’s baseline interpretation of your RAW image file data and presents the image on your screen. Profiles differ in how they handle color and contrast, and the one you choose will be the starting place for your editing process, which will affect subsequent editing decisions and the look of your final image. Adobe offers a number of profiles calibrated to give you good results with the camera you shot your images with. You also have several Camera Matching profiles that correspond to the profiles you would set in your camera model if you were shooting JPEGs (called Picture Style in Canon cameras and Picture Control in Nikon cameras). With an image selected, click on the small grid icon to the right of the Profile drop-down menu. You can then hover over all of the profiles available to see how they will affect your image. Start with the profile you like best and work from there. Unless you specify otherwise, images will default to the Adobe Standard profile for any camera you use when you first import them. I prefer to change this so that the default is the Camera Standard profile, which is the manufacturer’s profile for the specific camera I am using. To change the default, select any image shot with the camera you want to change it to in the Develop module. Then click Reset in the bottom-right corner. Next change the profile to the one you want to make default for that camera under the Basic tab. Now hold the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key while you click Set Default (in the same place as the Reset button). When the dialog box appears, select “Update to Current Settings.” Now every image you shoot with that camera will be assigned your chosen profile on import. The default is camera specific,

so you will need to make this change for each camera you use. EXPOSURE

Make any fine adjustments to your exposure using the Exposure slider. You should be within one-third stop (plus or minus) of the optimal exposure unless you have exposed to the right, in which case you will be decreasing exposure by a larger amount. Watch how your histogram changes as you adjust exposure, and be sure the highlights remain properly exposed and that they aren’t clipping. WHITE BALANCE

Some images will require a bit of tweaking to obtain the best white balance. The most common adjustment I make using the White Balance slider is to warm up images that were shot on cloudy days or in the shade by moving the Temp slider to the right. If you are struggling to obtain a white balance you like, it can be helpful to click through the white balance presets (the same ones you have in your camera) and the automatic white balance feature in the small drop-down menu above the Temp slider. If you don’t like those, you can always return to the auto white balance setting your camera calculated by selecting As Shot. CROPPING

Enter crop mode by selecting the Crop Overlay tool from the left panel beneath the histogram or by hitting the R key, its shortcut. Next click and drag one of the image edges to make the image frame smaller or tilt it slightly right or left if you need to straighten it out. To fine-tune the crop, you can also click and drag the image beneath the frame. When you are satisfied with your crop, hit Enter/Return. The absolute minimum I will ever crop anything is 4000 pixels on the long edge. If you would like to crop an image to a different aspect ratio than your original image (a 35mm frame is 3:2), click the lock icon in the upper-left of the Crop and Straighten work panel. You can now crop the image any way you like. You can also select an alternate aspect ratio in the drop-down menu to the left of the lock icon, and constrain your proportions to a variety of other ratios and dimensions.

The primary tools you’ll use are found in these three panels in the Develop module. TONE

Tone is the relative lightness and darkness of colors in an image, and Lightroom gives you a number of ways to control this. To better visualize tone, imagine an image shot in black and white: all of the different shades of gray from white to black are considered different tones. When you edit, you can lighten and darken tones selectively so they interact with each other differently. Tone applies in the same way to a color image. Across the color spectrum, tones can be lightened or darkened. The primary reason to modify tone in an image is to increase contrast and/or edge contrast to add more punch to an image. The second is to adjust a specific tonal range, to lighten dark areas to reveal more detail or tone down areas that are too bright. Lightroom provides several tools to alter tone, and you will typically use a combination of the options listed below. Learn how each of these operates and the subtle differences that can be achieved with each of them. Tone Curve

The Tone Curve panel provides several ways to approach tone control in your image. I recommend reviewing online tutorial videos to better visualize how the different tools work. The easiest way to make selective tone adjustments is to use the sliders in this panel: Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows. They do a great job of targeting specific tonal ranges.

Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks

Each of these sliders focuses on lightening and darkening a specific tonal range in an image. Because of the way these sliders work, however, they also change the tonality in other parts of the image. I generally like the results of these sliders less than I like the similar sliders in the Tone Curve panel, discussed above. Those sliders are better at isolating and altering the tonal ranges they are supposed to and leaving the rest of the image alone, but I will usually experiment with both sets. Clarity

The Clarity slider adjusts contrast in an image’s midtones only. It is especially good at making edges appear more defined and enhancing detail in images with patterns and texture. Be careful not to overdo it with the Clarity slider. Keep it subtle and be aware that it is a global adjustment that will affect the background of your image as well. Sometimes bringing up the clarity can make a background appear busier. Contrast

The Contrast slider is the most heavy-handed way to add contrast to an image in Lightroom. Adjusting contrast means the darks get darker and the lights get lighter. I usually add a bit of contrast to images with the Contrast slider, but prefer to be more specific about what parts of the image I am lightening and darkening using the Tone Curve or the individual sliders for Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks. VIBRANCE AND SATURATION

You will usually add some vibrance and/or saturation to boost the color in your images, but these are two sliders to be careful of—do not oversaturate your colors! The Vibrance slider works differently than the Saturation slider in that it is designed to increase saturation in more muted tones while protecting or ignoring tones that are already well saturated and hues that resemble skin tones. The Saturation slider boosts the saturation of everything equally. Bear in mind that desaturating an image can sometimes be an interesting approach, especially with monochromatic scenes. Some photographers have made their careers and defined their style by leaning toward desaturation. DUST SPOTS

No matter how careful you are, from time to time, you are bound to find dust spots on your images due to particles on your camera’s sensor. Dust spots are most noticeable in large areas of even tonality such as the sky, but they can show up anywhere depending on their size and what aperture the image was shot at. As depth of field increases, dust spots become more visible. Lightroom has a great set of tools for easily finding and removing them. In the Develop module, click on the Spot Removal tool in the right work panel. Then find and click the Visualize Spots button below your image. Use the slider to adjust the tool to a point where your dust spots become visible. Next, place your cursor over the spot, which will be a circle when the Spot Removal tool is selected, and adjust its size to be a bit bigger than the dust spot using the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard. Then click and watch the dust spot disappear. You can unclick the Visualize Spots button to see your results.

LENS CORRECTION

Every camera lens model ever manufactured has inherent flaws and weaknesses. Most of these are invisible to us when looking at an image, but they can be measured and quantified by engineers to create a lens profile. Lightroom contains the lens profiles for thousands of lenses, and chances are it has the profiles for your lenses. By ticking the “Enable Profile Corrections” box in the Lens Corrections panel, Lightroom automatically adjusts the image to eliminate these minor imperfections. The most common changes are the removal of subtle optical distortions and corner vignetting (darkening in the corners of the image). Check this box early in the editing process to see its effects on your image.

A very dirty image sensor is revealed by activating the Spot Removal tool. Visualizing and cleaning up dust spots is much easier with this tool.

Some lenses also exhibit chromatic aberration in certain situations. Chromatic aberration is a lens distortion that results in slight color fringes around the edges of objects in your image. Less expensive lenses tend to have more chromatic aberration, so if you are working with a budget lens, this can be a useful tool. Check the “Remove

Chromatic Aberration” box in the Lens Corrections panel to automatically remove it.

In this image of a female Dusky Grouse captured in Washington, I added a subtle vignette to darken the light, busy corners and draw the eye toward the bird’s face. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/80 second at f/11, ISO 500 VIGNETTE TOOL

Vignetting is a subtle darkening of the corners of an image that happens with some lenses especially at wider apertures. Vignetting can usually be removed using the lens correction feature, but sometimes you will have to do it manually with this slider. Alternatively, you may want to add a slight vignette because it brings attention to lighter subjects located centrally in the frame. If you have distracting light elements in the corners of the frame, you can darken them with this tool. Be careful to not overdo it. The Vignette slider is located at the top of the Effects panel. SELECTIVE COLOR

You may want to selectively adjust specific colors, usually blues or greens. I often darken blues when the sky in my image is too light and I want to decrease the tonal

difference between my subject and the sky or the ground and the sky. Even when it appears white in your image, the sky has a lot of blue. By increasing luminance with the blue slider, you can darken the sky and bring out some color. Play with the green sliders (and other colors) if you have busy vegetation in your image that could be improved by reducing contrast with the Luminance and Saturation sliders in a single color. By increasing or decreasing the saturation, luminance, or both, you can make the background more pleasing and even in tone. Selective color adjustments are made in the HSL/Color panel (HSL stands for hue, saturation, and luminance). Select a color, and then the box with the color you want to work with. Then adjust the Luminance slider and Saturation slider to see how they affect your image.

DEHAZE

The Dehaze tool is a slider located in the Basic panel that adds clarity, contrast, and punch to flat images. When you have images shot in fog or even when trying to save an image shot through a slightly foggy lens, take a look at how this tool affects your image. It is also good for landscapes and aerials shot in hazy conditions.

Most white skies have blue in them. By increasing luminance in the blue channel using the Color editor, I decreased the distracting brightness of the sky and added some complementary color to the scene. Lapland Longspur, Alaska. 600mm with a 1.4x teleconverter, 1/400 second at f/9, ISO 400

In this image of a Spotted Owl in Oregon, I reduced both the saturation and the luminance of the greens using the HSL/Color tool. 500mm, 1/40 second at f/5.6, ISO 800 GRADUATED FILTER

The Graduated Filter tool gives you the option to add the effect of a graduated filter to your image in editing rather than in the field. It is a useful and flexible tool when you need to change the exposure or make other adjustments to a large portion of an image. I most frequently use this tool when I want to bring down the exposure of the sky in relation to the ground. Seeing how this tool works visually is the best way to learn it —look for a tutorial online. LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS

In addition to making a global adjustment to an entire image, many edits can be made to certain portions using the Adjustment Brush and Radial Filter tools. With these tools, you can select specific areas to change certain qualities—such as saturation, clarity, contrast, and sharpening—without altering the rest of the image. Using these tools takes some practice. An online tutorial is a good way to learn more about what these tools can do.

Lightroom tool shortcuts: Crop Overlay, Spot Removal, Red Eye Correction, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter, and Adjustment Brush NOISE REDUCTION

Digital noise in images resembles film grain and can be seen most clearly in parts of an image that lack detail, such as blue skies. You can reduce this noise in Lightroom in the Detail panel, but reducing noise is at odds with sharpening—it makes details less sharp. Because of this, it is not advisable to apply much noise reduction to bird images, which are so rich in detail. I generally leave the Noise Reduction sliders set to their Lightroom defaults and accept a little grain in my images. Rarely does it affect how an image looks, online or in print, to a degree that I find objectionable. Some photographers use Photoshop to remove noise selectively by creating masks and reducing the noise around a bird but not on the bird itself. This is an advanced technique you may want to pursue, but be aware that it is tedious and time consuming. My hope is that this function will soon be built into Lightroom and operate similarly to the Masking slider in sharpening but in reverse. SHARPENING

RAW images inherently require a bit of sharpening to make them their best. Sharpening increases edge contrast, resulting in an image that appears more in focus, or sharp. Some photographers spend a great deal of time on image sharpening, often doing it in Photoshop, and they have detailed workflows for this one task. I find the tools in Lightroom to be more than adequate to do the job quickly and simply. Know that when you post images to the web, the sharpening algorithms in popular social media applications will alter your hard work anyway. It is not something to agonize over.

To bring the exposure of the sky down in this image, I used the Graduated Filter tool. I also added clarity to the selected area to subtly increase contrast and definition in the clouds. Red-throated Loon chick, Alaska. 24mm, 1/200 second at f/8, ISO 400

The most important thing about sharpening is to not overdo it, despite how tempting it can be to crisp up the detail “just a little more.” Our eyes and brains like contrast, detail, and definition. But step back and ask yourself whether it still looks natural. Does it look like something you would see with your own eyes? If not, dial it back. In fact, I advise always sharpening a little less than you think you need to. Sharpening is done in the Detail panel with four sliders. Lightroom automatically applies a default amount of sharpening to RAW image files: 25 for Amount, 1.0 for Radius, 25 for Detail, and the Masking slider is zeroed out. What follows is my approach for these four settings. For each of the sharpening sliders, you can hold down the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key while dragging the slider, and Lightroom will visualize your image in a way that helps you define how you use each tool. Masking

The first and most important slider to look at is the Masking slider. This slider allows

you to set a threshold for which parts of your image will be protected from sharpening effects. When the mask is set to zero, your sharpening adjustments will be global, affecting the whole image. The problem with global sharpening is that digital noise and grain in your image will also be enhanced. Selectively sharpening the parts of your image that contain the most detail allows you to leave large areas, like softly outof-focus backgrounds and sky, untouched. When you hold down Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) with the Masking slider, the entire image will appear white, indicating that all of it will be sharpened. As you drag the slider to the right, black areas will appear among the outlines of details in your image. The black areas are the parts that the sharpening tools will leave alone. Drag the slider so that the details that you want sharpened are still visible, and let large portions of clean background go to black. Amount

The Amount slider controls how much sharpening will be applied to the areas left uncovered by masking. Hold down the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key to get a visual of how the slider affects the image. For most bird images, I tend to go a bit higher than the default—something between 40 and 75 on average. Radius

The Radius slider helps define the breadth around each edge that sharpening is applied to. With minimal radius, the edges are finer and more feathered. At higher values, edges become bolder and more haloed. Use the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key to visualize the effect. I tend to back this slider off a bit from the default, setting it between 0.8 and 0.9. Detail

The Detail slider sets a threshold for which details Lightroom tries to sharpen— sharpening down to very fine details or instead focusing more on larger details. This is again best visualized with the Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key held down while zooming in on a portion of your image. When editing photos of birds with lots of fine feather detail, I generally raise the Detail level above the default. EXPORTING IMAGES

Exporting your images from Lightroom or resizing them for different uses is simple. In the Library module, select the image or images you want to export, and click Export. A dialog box will appear that gives you a set of straightforward choices to make. Export Location: Specify the location on your computer where you want the exported images to go. File Naming: If you want to use the same file name as the original image in your catalog, leave the Rename To box unchecked. If you’d like to use a new custom file name, check Rename To and select Edit to create a custom file name. File Settings: Select the image format and color space for the new file. Use JPEG and sRGB for the web. Select TIFF and Adobe1998 for print. Image Sizing: Choose the dimensions you want for your exported image. If

posting to social media, look at the suggested size specifications for the platform and match them. Set resolution to 72 dpi for web or 300 dpi for print. Output Sharpening: When images have been resized, it’s good to add some additional sharpening. Watermarking: Here you can create and add a custom or generic watermark overlay for your images. A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Evaluating your images without bias, as truthfully as you can, will be key to progressing and improving as a photographer. It is not an easy thing for most of us to do. When you look at one of your photographs, it is difficult to separate the image itself from the effort that went into making it and the feelings you have about that. What the image means to you on that level is not visible to other viewers. For them, the image stands alone. When we look at someone else’s images, we know pretty quickly whether we like them and why. When we look at our own, it’s not that simple. By now you should have an idea of whether or not your image is technically good. Judging whether it is properly exposed and sharp where it should be is much easier than assessing composition, light, mood, and impact, which are subjective. And, there are those rare instances when a photo is not technically perfect but is strong enough in other ways to compensate for its flaws.

When doing a final export of images, I instruct Lightroom to add the Title field to my exported file name. Remember the title field is typically populated with the species name, and I like to include that.

Make an effort to look at your own images as if they were taken by someone else. Do not think about how many hours it took to get them, how rare the bird is, or what it felt like to be there. Whenever possible, get feedback from friends or others whose work you admire. But take others’ comments, especially online, with a grain of salt. There will always be someone who calls your image spectacular when it clearly is not—it is average or worse. On the flip side, don’t pay too much heed to the critics. Mainstream bird photographers have developed a very narrow view of what a good bird photograph is. I don’t subscribe to their view and neither should you. Some of the most stunning, emotive bird photography has been done by individuals who aren’t even a blip on their radar. So, if your bird photographs don’t look like standard field guide shots with perfectly clean backgrounds and the head tipped just so, don’t fret. Listen to yourself. Grow where you feel you need to. Experiment. And enjoy the birds.

RESOURCES

Great Blue Heron with its begging nestling at a breeding rookery in South Florida. 600mm, 1/2000 second at f/8, ISO 2000

BIRD CONSERVATION ORGANIZATIONS American Bird Conservancy: https://abcbirds.org BirdLife International: www.birdlife.org Cornell Lab of Ornithology: www.birds.cornell.edu National Audubon Society: www.audubon.org CALIBRATION Datacolor: www.datacolor.com (Lens calibration software) Reikan FoCal: www.reikanfocal.com (Spyder computer monitor calibration)

CAMERA AND LENS MANUFACTURERS Canon: www.usa.canon.com Nikon: www.nikonusa.com Sigma: www.sigmaphoto.com Tamron: www.tamron-usa.com CAMERA RETAILERS B&H Photo and Video (New York, New York): www.bhphotovideo.com Glazer’s Camera (Seattle, Washington): www.glazerscamera.com Hunt’s Photo Video (Massachusetts): www.huntsphotoandvideo.com CAMERA REVIEW WEBSITES Digital Photography Review: www.dpreview.com Fredmiranda.com: www.fredmiranda.com Ken Rockwell: https://kenrockwell.com EQUIPMENT RENTALS BorrowLenses.com: www.borrowlenses.com LensProToGo: www.lensprotogo.com Lensrentals: www.lensrentals.com LIGHTROOM TUTORIALS Adobe: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/tutorials.html SPECIALTY PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR Kirk Enterprises: www.kirkphoto.com (Gimbal heads, lens plates, quick-release clamps, flash brackets) LensCoat: www.lenscoat.com. (Neoprene lens covers, rain covers) Really Right Stuff: www.reallyrightstuff.com (Tripods, tripod heads, and accessories) Think Tank Photo (MindShift Gear): www.thinktankphoto.com (Camera bags, roller cases) Tragopan: photographyblinds.com (Photography blinds, lens protectors, tripod waders)

INDEX The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below. A

accessories Adobe Lightroom Develop module Library module media management in overview of setup aperture Aperture Priority mode aperture ring apps atmospheric conditions audio collections auto–cleaning autofocus autofocus lens B

back lighting back–button focusing backgrounds backpacks bag blind baiting ball head batteries battery grips beanbags behavioral motion binoculars biologists bird behavior bird feeders bird guides

birders “birding ranches,” birdsong blinds. See also specific blind buffer size bump focus C

camera brand of comparisons among covers for fixed settings of high–ISO performance lenses of. See lens(es) movement of settings of variable settings of vibration of camera support. See also tripod camera system camouflage clothing cars as blinds catchlights center–weighted metering chromatic aberration cleaning clothing color temperature composition crop sensor cropping D

depth of field depth–of–field preview button diffused light digital noise drones drop–in filters DSLR camera dust spots E

enhancing elements equipment. See also specific equipment ethics

exporting images “expose to the right,” exposure controlling definition of histogram for measuring of metering modes overexposure strategy for exposure modes extension tube F

fast prime telephoto lenses field biologists field guides field notes field trips and classes fill flash filters flash basics of disadvantages of fill as main light manual sync speed flash brackets flash duration flash extender flash power flash unit flight, birds in flushing f–numbers focal length focus limiter focusing autofocus back–button manual foggy lens food placement frame rate Fresnel lens

front light f–stops G

gel filters gimbal head graduated neutral density filter graphic patterns ground pods H

habitat habituated birds handheld shooting hardware head angle highlight alerts histogram horizontal orientation I

identification image editing of exporting sharpness of stabilization of stitched ISO J

juxtaposition K

Kelvin scale L

learning materials and methods leg waders lens(es). See also specific lens calibration of covers for definition of functions of third–party travel considerations lens correction lens hood

lens protectors lens speed leveling base light light meter long lens bags low light M

manual flash manual focus Manual mode masking matrix metering media cards memory cards metadata meter scale metering modes mirror lock–up mobile apps motion motion blur movements N

negative space neutral density filter noise reduction normal lenses O

obstructions online bird guides orientation overcast light overexposure P

padded leg covers pan blurs partial–frame motion pelican cases perches permanent blind photographers playback

polarizers pop–up blind prefocus prime lenses private property processing power Q

quick–release plates R

range maps rear curtain sync recordings recycle time reflected light resolution roller bags rule of thirds S

saturation screw–on filters sensitive locations sensor cleaning of resolution of size of shade sharp images shutter Shutter Priority mode shutter speed side lighting silent shutter sound(s) identification using minimizing of speakers, playback split neutral density filter spot lighting spot meter stitched images storytelling straps subject sunlight

super–telephoto lenses T

tame birds teleconverters telephoto lenses through–the–lens meter tone trails traveling tripod accessories for advantages of base of head of legs of using of U

used equipment V

variables vertical orientation vests vibrance video head viewpoint vignetting visual identification vocalizations W

waist belts wall blind white balance wide–angle lenses Z

zoom lenses

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gerrit Vyn is a wildlife photographer and cinematographer for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and a Senior Fellow at the International League of Conservation Photographers; he has been photographing birds and wildlife professionally for twenty-five years. His most recent book, The Living Bird, was a New York Times bestseller and a National Outdoor Book Award winner. Best known for his work documenting endangered birds and conservation issues around the world, Vyn is a sought-after speaker on the topics of birds, conservation, and photography. His work is published regularly in magazines including National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, and Audubon, and he has been featured in media outlets including NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, PBS Nature, and CBS Sunday Morning.

www.gerritvynphoto.com @gerritvyn

THE CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY: YOUR HOME FOR BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY If you love taking photos of birds, we invite you to join us in your pursuit, whether you’re looking to enhance your enjoyment and skills, or to give back to birds by sharing your photos. For more than a century, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s nonprofit mission has been to improve the understanding and protection of birds and biodiversity—through scientific discovery, conservation action, and lifelong learning—and photography has played a key role throughout. Founder Arthur Allen, an ornithologist and avid photographer, began capturing the images and sounds of birds across North America through expeditions in the 1930s for science and conservation—and he popularized birds and photography through radio, magazines, and books. Today, the Cornell Lab partners with bird photographers around the world to document our planet’s birdlife and inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to care about birds and nature—not only through books like this one, but through far-reaching interactive websites, social media, mobile apps, and courses. The Lab’s Macaulay Library offers unparalleled access to more than 13 million bird photos, a number that continues to skyrocket each year. When you record a checklist of your bird sightings and upload your photos to eBird and, by extension the Macaulay Library, you contribute critical scientific documentation for global birdmonitoring and conservation efforts. Your photos may also be featured by the Cornell Lab in websites, publications, and educational outreach to inspire and teach countless others. Looking to continue learning about photography and birds? Bookmark the All About Birds website where you can enroll in our Bird Academy courses and explore free articles and tools to enhance your success in capturing photos that are timeless for their beauty and scientific value. Need help with finding and identifying birds? Download the Merlin Bird ID app and ask it to identify the species based on your photo. Tap into sounds, maps, and natural history information using the Merlin app, go deeper on the All About Birds website, or subscribe to our comprehensive Birds of the World to find coveted species, anticipate their habits, and understand their behaviors. Getting involved in bird photography is an amazing way to give back in all directions. Photographers make it possible for the Lab to offer informative and compelling images in interactive resources that help people around the world to connect with and enjoy birds. That enjoyment inspires people to learn more and get involved through photography, citizen science, and support of nonprofit work that

advances knowledge and action for bird conservation. We do all this so that birds, the source of our collective inspiration, will continue to sing and thrive on our planet for generations to come.

Harlequin Duck, Iceland. 600mm with 1.4x teleconverter, 1/8000 second at f/11, ISO 800

We invite you to delve into birds and photography as part of a lifelong journey with the Lab as we explore and protect the endlessly fascinating world of birds and the places we share with them. To get started, visit AllAboutBirds.org/photography. I hope to see you there. Miyoko Chu Senior Director, Communications The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit, member-supported organization. Our mission: to interpret and conserve the earth’s biodiversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds.

MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS, including its two imprints, Skipstone and Braided River, is a leading publisher of quality outdoor recreation, sustainability, and conservation titles. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we are committed to supporting the environmental and educational goals of our organization by providing expert information on human-powered adventure, sustainable practices at home and on the trail, and preservation of wilderness. Our publications are made possible through the generosity of donors, and through sales of 700 titles on outdoor recreation, sustainable lifestyle, and conservation. To donate, purchase books, or learn more, visit us online: MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS 1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201 • Seattle, WA 98134 800-553-4453 [email protected] • www.mountaineersbooks.org

Mountaineers Books is proud to support the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, whose mission is to promote and inspire responsible outdoor recreation through education, research, and partnerships. The Leave No Trace program is focused specifically on human-powered (nonmotorized) recreation. For more information, visit www.lnt.org. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE