Staying Opportunistic - Western Bluebird
Lesson 10 from: Beginner's Guide to Bird PhotographyBen Knoot
Staying Opportunistic - Western Bluebird
Lesson 10 from: Beginner's Guide to Bird PhotographyBen Knoot
Lesson Info
10. Staying Opportunistic - Western Bluebird
Lessons
Class Introduction
00:25 2Location Scouting
12:54 3Gear
07:43 4Camera Settings
05:54 5Four Tips for Bird Photography
02:09 6Composition
01:51 7Lighting for Bird Photography
01:43 8Setting Photo Goals - Lewis's Woodpecker
08:03Lesson Info
Staying Opportunistic - Western Bluebird
I know this area has got a nesting Western Bluebird so what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna get out of the car, I'm gonna see if I can find it. I'm gonna maybe use some playback, maybe not, it depends on if they have chicks out yet. If not, I'm just gonna walk around and see what else I can find, taking advantage of every opportunity. I decided it's okay to use the playback on the Bluebird so what I'm gonna do is I see this nice, lit perch here. And then also in the background there's a really nice lit section of the meadow that has some pink flowers and some green so I think it's gonna be a really nice complement to the blue of the Western Bluebird. Now this is something you'll pick up a little later as you get more advanced but I know that Bluebirds really like to perch above the speakers so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put the speaker low hoping that he'll fly onto the perches above it so there's these, the perches I want him on are up here and there's a fence post down there, ther...
e's also some kind of perching material down there so you can choose what you put your speaker on. And again, you'll figure that kind of stuff out as you work on it, that's just something I've figured out over the years. Bluetooth speakers have a range of roughly 30 feet. You do want to give your subject a lot of room so you want to back off as far as possible but you obviously still need to maintain a connection with your speakers so you kind of have to test the (laughs) test the waters a little bit so let's see if it works from about here so I want him just on the end there where it bends down. I'm hoping he'll land right there. Nice and lit, background's nice and lit so I won't have any exposure issues. And this is a bright Bluebird so I'll actually need to underexpose a little bit because the direct sun onto a Bluebird is really gonna make those colors pop and if you don't underexpose you're gonna lose the detail on those blues, so we're gonna underexpose a bit. Nice, low ISO, it's full sun, shutter speed I'm gonna assume is gonna be something around 1250-1000 to keep it nice and dark and keep the details in the blue. So let's give it a go. All right. (chirps) So that's me that you hear, the background there. Again, pausing every once in a while to listen and see where it might be coming from. And again I've preset my camera so it's ready to go as soon as the bird lands there with what I think will work. I don't get it right all the time. And you know, I've been doing this for about 15 years so. It's not something that everyone will get right first try but the more you do it the more you, the more you'll understand kind of what the area you need to be in and then it's just maybe a quick turn of the dial to get it just the ISO stop lower, ISO stop higher, whatever you need. No response just yet. Sometimes different apps so I use both of, I use two apps, I use iBird Pro and I use Merlin ID. Sometimes different apps have-- (chirping) Some slightly different calls that work a little differently so we're gonna try the Merlin app. See if that call works a little better. All right, so the chicks are out of the nest. And the male is coming into the call currently so they started coming from over there. Hopefully they're gonna make their way this way. But now that I know that they have chicks outside of the nest, do this very limitedly I'll probably give it another minute at most. I don't want the adults spending too much time focusing on me rather than their chicks so yeah. We'll just give them a couple more go's and then we'll leave them be. Hopefully they'll come in here. It's really low now. Now it might be tempting at that point, when they get really low it might be tempting to go over and shoot them but what I would recommend is just waiting at that point. Because at that point, they've come down from the high part of the tree which means they're really, really interested so they're more than likely, no, see, there they go. So right now they're flying away, and I'm, oh actually. What they've done is they've just landed right on a perch, right in front of the sun. So we're gonna try to get like a cool halo shot so if you see right there. So what you wanna do there, is keep the halo, overexpose a tad, and then take your shot. That's pretty cool. The other thing we're gonna do, you notice how the sticks there are all back-lit, I'm gonna take off the 2X get a little less zoom so I can get a little more of the sticks and I'm actually gonna go vertical as well. Oh yeah, that's cool. Now what you really want to do, up that F stop, so you get all those sticks in focus, and that way you can get a really nice combination. That was cool. Very cool. Nice. So I wanted him on a perch over there in a nicely lit (laughs) a nice lit situation, nice warm, vibrant colors with a really nice pink-ish green background and I ended up getting a halo shot against the sun with kind of a gray-ish background but you know it's um it'll still be interesting so it's, you definitely want to keep an eye out for opportunities as they pop up. And don't be afraid to act. I've seen a lot of, or actually I've missed a lot of photos by just being a little too timid on acting and what you wanna do really is move with a purpose, move slowly and cautiously but with a purpose.
Ratings and Reviews
Cynthia
I liked this class. It gives beginners a great place to start photographing birds. I especially liked his lesson on post-processing. Too many classes skip that part. The use of bird calls is what it is. To be competitive in bird photography you probably have to use them. I personally won't; it's just not worth it to me. So nice to see a young person active in this field!
Colleen Church
This class is wonderful. Ben give you some very helpful information to starting your photo birding adventures. The apps he suggested are very helpful. The tips for scouting and what to look get you going. I will definitely be watching it again.
a Creativelive Student
I really enjoyed this course. The instructor doesn't beat around the bush. He gives you useful information that you can implement. I especially loved that he talks about apps on your phone that could be used to make your experience more fruitful. The only thing I didn't like was the advertisement for Olympus, but you can just skip that part.