Lately I've been getting into learning how to capture clear, crisp images of birds in action and in flight. I have a fantastic camera (Nikon D7500) that has excellent autofocus and super fast shutter speeds, lets in a lot of light, and takes such high quality images that I burned through my poor hard drive in a couple weeks. But even with all these awesome features and options, I still have a lot of work to do to learn how to get the image I want.
Working with my 18-55mm lens and a pretty sky, it's relatively easy to get a crisp and alluring silhouette shot, like I did with this dark angel here.
But once I put the 600mm zoom lens on to get those closeups and details, things get a little trickier.
Admittedly, I still have a lot to learn about using DSLRs. The last time I had a real SLR was when I was using film, and every picture cost money. (Not that digital pictures don't cost money-- just ask my wallet about the external hard drive and the thumb drives I made it buy.)
The ISO is a different animal on a DSLR. I can go a lot higher than I could with film, which is nice because the Pacific Northwest has a lot of dark and cloudy days, and birds move fast and require fast shutter speeds that limit the amount of light I can let in per shot. With film, it seemed like an ISO of 800 was the equivalent to taking a picture through a screen door. But I feel like I can push it a bit more with the Nikon before it starts getting to noisy.
But not too much, otherwise I end up with blurbs instead of birds.
Like this song sparrow, which could have been crisp if the ISO hadn't been at 3200. Learning...
Or this poor, overexposed Robin. This ISO didn't need to be so high with that bright background, but I had been experimenting with getting enough light for crows and this was a spur-of-the-moment shot. As well as a learning experience. Thanks, birdie.
And then there are my crows. Big birds are, admittedly, much easier to capture in flight than the little ones, but crows are dark AND shiny. The sunshine can be very challenging. I had been snapping pictures of my buddy Bo in the dark shade of an old tree when he decided to fly off and soak his peanut in a rain gutter. I managed to track his flight path, but I let in way too much light.
I think there's no happy setting for crows on sunny days. I either have to make a decision for sunny flight shots or shaded crow shots, at least until I learn how to switch back and forth quickly between shutter speeds, aperture settings, and ISO. Even in these shots of a crow I call Clip, I had to edit to bring the exposure way down so he didn't end up all silver and bleached like Bo.
And then there's the oh-yeah-that's-right-they're-not-actually-posing-for-me challenge...
Which leads me to my attempts to capture Scrub Jays in flight.
🙄
But maybe that's just a corvid thing.
That's better.
Even though I have my struggles, I still have my moments where I essentially get it right.
And get to say OMFG I TOOK THIS PICTURE! ME! I DID THIS! YAY!!
And share it with all of you. 💛
So, thanks, everyone, for being there, for reading about my learning process, and for looking at my pictures.
Coming soon... ducklings and goslings!
Bye for now!
(Bo🖤)