Beginner’s Guide to Bird Photography

LESSON TRANSCRIPT
So, I stopped real quick ’cause there’s an awesome robin with some pink flowers in the background that I wanna grab, so… Beautiful. (camera beeping) And, the perch is bending to the left, (camera beeping) so we’re gonna get him looking left. (camera beeping) Put him kind of in the top rightish area of the frame. He just needs to look at me. (laughs) The background is composed of these pink flowers that are just stunning. And, when they’re that far away from the bird, they throw the background completely out of focus. And, it looks awesome with the robin’s kind of orange breast and gray back, so it’s a really pretty photo-op, (camera beeping) appreciate it if he would turn his head. Come on! (camera clicking) There he is. (camera clicking) There we go. Come on! There it is. So, I was able to get him nicely. He’s actually turned around, so I’m gonna take a couple more shots, couple more regular shots of him before. But, after that, I like to take a little bit of video, just to kind of… It shows a little bit more about the bird, kind of how they like to move, if they like to perch a lot. (camera beeping) And, also the video, if they’re singing, then the video’s really cool, ’cause you get to hear them, so… Now, actually, what I’m gonna do… The 2X is nice, but it’s giving me a little too much zoom actually, so I’m gonna take that off, put just the 300 on. Maybe get a 600, so I can get a little more of the pink and a little more of the perch. (camera beeping) Also, this means I can drop my f-stop down to F4. (camera beeping) Yeah. (camera beeping) So, this way, if you look at that perch this way, the branches are coming down, kind of. With the 2X, you don’t see that, it’s just these little nubs at the bottom. With the 600, instead of the 1,200, you can get those kind of branches coming down, it just adds a little more pop to the image. (camera beeping) It’s a little cooler. (camera clicking) If you ever find yourself in a situation where the subject is being very cooperative, like this robin is, still there and it’s been, I don’t know, it’s almost a minute probably, of just sitting here and photographing him, try some different stuff. Try different focal lengths, try composing it a little different. Try finding a different background. Like, I am actually seeing a slightly better background right now, and it just means I have to get out of the car. And, that’s fine, once you’ve got your shots that you’re happy with, go ahead and get out of the car and try something else. That way you always, again, always push your boundaries, that’s how you keep learning. (camera clicking) Nice bird, nice background, nice perch. Can’t really ask for better than that. It’s just a robin, but when you begin, everything is really cool. When you get a little more advanced, you become a little more picky. And, that’s actually something that I would try to avoid when you do get a little more advanced. Everything can be really beautiful if it’s just in the right situation. Like, that robin, if it was on, you know, your sidewalk in the middle of town, I wouldn’t necessarily take a photo of it. But, out here, this is a completely wild robin. It’s on a beautiful perch with beautiful pink background. (gear shift clicking)