Better Bird Photography Tips

5 Pointers that will Ensure Your Bird Photographs are Top Flight

Birds are amazing and exciting–your photos of them should be too. Read this to learn how they can be:

We humans have long been fascinated with flight. And birds. And flying birds.

As photographers, we often attempt to capture that action that humans cannot achieve–at least not without the help of an airplane or similar mechanical device!

1. Learn about their behavior–it is generally predictable once you have studied them. Knowing how they move will help you to predict and time your shots for best results.

2. Start slow. By that we mean slower moving birds. Especially if you are newer to photography or action photography, you may have a lot on your hands just mastering focus and holding the camera still. You need to practice, practice, practice. Some examples of birds that fly slower and are therefore good entry level, and still beautiful, subjects are Egrets and Herons.

3. Focus.

“I often select 9-point or 21-point zone focus out of 51-points. The idea is to use less, but enough auto focusing points, to make it easier for the auto focusing system and also for you to compose it in the field. If you do not have zone focusing then you might have to resort to using all focusing points. Also, with newer DSLRs, the 3-D tracking seems to have been improved considerably. You might want to try it too (consult your camera manual).”

4. Patience. Waiting until you have the right background can make all the difference between a bad photograph and a spectacular one. You need to have patience to just track the birds–don’t let that go to waste by shooting the bird where he won’t show up!

5. Pay attention. Especially if you want to capture a bird as it takes off or lands. You need to pay heed to the direction the wind is coming from. Also pay attention to the bird’s behavious so you can anticipate a take-off (hint–they often try to fire away, if you get our drift.)

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Get more bird photo tips from the original article by Prathap DK at Digital Photography School

All photos copyright Prathap