Slideshow: Bird Photography Photowalk – Brazos Bend State Park
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Brazos Bend State Park is a park on the upper Texas coast encompassing 5,000-acres of the ancient coastal prairie that still survives here. The park’s scenic terrain has been etched out over time by Texas’ Brazos river and it is an important refuge for birds with more than 300 species recorded. The dense bottom-land hardwood forests and extensive marshes, created as the river has changed paths over the years, make ideal habitats for the American alligator and a rich diversity of other reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. During the warmer months the plentiful wildflowers draw a variety of insects and many types of butterflies. Amazingly, this beautiful park with its rich diversity of plant and animal life is only 40 miles from downtown Houston and offers many activities for all age groups. I took part in a photowalk led by Dr. Laszlo Perlacky that is offered monthly on “The Art and Technique of Nature Photography“
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What I learned:
Get low and close and be patient: I found that getting images of birds doing something interesting is not as easy as just aiming and clicking away with a long lens from a distance. Patience and stealth is a necessity and even then you often can’t get close enough. I still had to crop a lot of images to fill the frame as did friends of mine who had much longer lenses.
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400mm 1/500 f/5.6 ISO250
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Pay attention to what the birds are doing: Still portraits of wild birds can be boring so try to show them doing “bird things” – flying, hunting, singing, even playing with their friends and mates. These Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks were very amusing to watch. I was using a new lens, tripod and ball head on this shoot (doing my part to stimulate the economy) and did not attempt to capture birds in flight this go around. I’ll definitely practice with the ball head and hand holding the zoom lens for next time.
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400mm 1/500 f/5.6 ISO640
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Pay attention to the light: We went on the photowalk in the late afternoon and evening (5PM-8:30PM) when the birds were getting their last minute hunting done and were starting to flock back to their roosts. The golden side lighting made for great colors and details. There were some thick intermittent clouds and metering was sometimes a challenge. I admit, I did not always wait for the right light. I used AV mode and set the ISO to auto. Even at ISO1600 I was surprised at how acceptable and slight the noise was considering how dark it was getting outside at dusk. To protect against blown out highlights, I also shot with an exposure compensation of -1/3 in almost all the shots even though it may not have been necessary with the clouds and late evening sun.
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400mm 1/500 f/5.6 ISO800
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250mm 1/50 f/5.6 ISO1600
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Equipment: The need to get close requires either tame birds or a long lens. I talked to a number of people about lenses for bird photography including Dr. Perlacky. I had neither lots of cash or the desire to lug around really big/heavy gear so that ruled out the 500mm and larger lenses. One person on the photowalk with a 500mm lens was actually pushing it around in a three-wheeled baby stroller… while ingenious in its novelty, that’s not for me.
I was looking for a practical long lens that could be used for multiple purposes. I decided on the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens. A number of people mentioned the Canon fixed 400mm f/5.6 but, while a little cheaper, it doesn’t have image stabilization and can’t zoom out. The IS of the 100-400mm allows for some hand holding where as the fixed lens would almost certainly always be tied to the tripod. The 100-400mm also works with Canon’s 1.4x teleconverter. Dr. Perlacky was using the Nikon equivalent of my Canon lens, the Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D with VR, and he recommends it very much.
I also know a few folks who use a teleconverter and digiscope with their f/2.8 70-200mm zooms with acceptable to good results. The f/4-5.6 70-300mm zooms are good bargains if you’re on a budget and can get fairly close, but are too slow to use with a teleconverter.
I upgraded my tripod to a Giottos MTL8371B carbon fiber tripod with a multi-position center column and rated for 22 lbs and an Acratech GP ballhead capable of acting as a leveling base and gimbal and rated to support 25lbs.
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400mm 1/60 f/5.6 ISO1600
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Be respectful of the creatures and their habitat: While getting close is desirable, avoid stressing out the animals or endangering them or yourself in the pursuit of the perfect image. In the wild, you’ll come across not only birds, but possibly snakes, venomous or biting insects, other predatory animals, poisonous plants and dangerous terrain - pay attention to where you are and what’s around you. Always leave the area at least as good as you found it.
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Gallery: Bird Photography Photowalk – Brazos Bend State Park
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