Basics of Bird Photography

Undoubtedly, Bird Photography would be the most popular subject in Nature Photography. And at the same time it would be one of the most challenging job as well. This article is intended for all those bird photographers; who are willing to improve their skills and do a better job in this area.


Understanding the subject
It's very important first to understand what exactly is the Birds Photography and what do you need to know before jumping into this subject.  I am sure majority of us are jumped into this subject after watching some really amazing bird photographs published in magazines OR blogs. Quality, actions, moments captured in the photos tend to attract lot of people to start doing photography. But here we must understand the fact that; each such individual photo had gone through lot of efforts and patience. Photographer might have been researching many spots, hides OR he might have visited the identified spot number of times; he might have been waiting their for many days; he might have even failed on number of occasions to get a desired shot. So ultimately, to get a fantastic photo; usually it needs to go thorough research, disappointments, plenty of efforts, bad weather etc. I underlined usually because you might be lucky sometimes to get a nice shot without much of a trouble but that is not going to be always true. So be ready to go through all these challenges.


Understand and read the photographs
Good start before starting actual photography would be to read the others photograph. Understand the camera settings like focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, brightness etc. And also try to get information about the birding site OR location, how many shots it took to get this photograph etc.


Practice makes you perfect!
If you happen to learn any new camera setting for instance; try it out and observe what you are getting as a output. Try to play with ISO, shutter speed and aperture values and again compare the outputs. Comparison will give you a fair idea how the slightest change can make your photo a superb photo OR worst of all. Always take notes with whatever you are trying and keep them handy. You will become better photographer only after you do lot of practice. For learning bird photography; it is not always necessary to travel far and visit birding sites. I would suggest to start with your nearby places to fine tune your skills. You can practice this even from your apartment window/patio/balcony if you happen to see birds. In case if you have your own backyard... nothing like it; you can try and explore many different things.


Time of day for bird photography
In a day, there are only 2 good opportunities for bird photography. Birds are always active early in the morning and early in the evening. Lot of bird photographers prefer morning time because lighting plays an important role here. In the afternoon OR early evening; photos are tend to get brighter compare to morning photos. But again depend on other factors as well. If it is a winter time OR little overcast afternoon time sometime proves to be a better choice. It is a run-time decision you have to take while planning. But plan it out during these 2 periods only to reduce the percentage of disappointment.


Getting close to the birds
To take a good shot of the bird there are ideally only 2 options. One is to use longest lens available. Usually, 400mm lens would be a good choice. Purchasing Lenses would be very expensive; but don't give up you can still do the bird photography. If you don't have a long enough lens; try to get as close as possible to birds without scaring them away. You need to learn the behavior of birds to do this. Small tip I would add here is; I have often observed that you can get much closer to the birds if you are seating in a car and not walking.


These are just few tips which could improve you as a better bird photographer. We all are students; if you have anything more to share here; you are always welcome to do so.


Happy Photography!