5 - Waxwing

First attempt at photographing this bird. They are winter visitors to the UK, and there was a flurry of WhatsApp messages saying they were about a mile away from where I live, so I popped out after lunch. The light was beginning to fade, and most of my images were pretty useless. If the light is better tomorrow I might try again.

[KoalaGardens🐨]

sweet

[Dawn]

A nice shot

[Olwynne]

What a pretty bird, beautifully captured

[Joan Robillard]

Fantastic

[Helen Jane]

I think bird photography is remarkably difficult. Even if the bird is still, dealing with light conditions and often having to look up to see the bird makes it difficult to take an appealing image. Great to get this decent shot of our visitor.

[Steve Joyce]

Good capture Maddy. I was very lucky to get a little sunshine.

[Glover Shearron, Jr.]

Wow, looks like a painting to me

[amyK]

Nice capture; they are such lovely birds

[Babs]

What a gorgeous bird. I don;'t think I ever saw one of these when I lived in the UK.

I have been photographing birds in our garden at the moment because I am staying away from the tourist areas. Summer here and heaving with visitors.

[Beth]

Nice capture of this beautiful bird.

[Madeleine Pennock]

@koalagardens @Dawn @ollyfran @joansmor @ggshearron @amyk @onewing @eahopp thank you all very much!

[Madeleine Pennock]

@helenhall thank you Helen. Bird photography is easy if you have the right gear and patience! Try to listen to the different sounds of birds and also see if you can learn their behaviour. Ideally a full frame camera (shooting in RAW) so that you can crop in, and a long lens. Use back button focussing. Try and capture the catch light in the eye. Keep the speed high especially if you are trying to capture the bird in flight. The speed should be more than the length of the lens, so with my 400 lens I had to make sure it was over 400th second. Use image stabilisation if your camera or lens have it when hand holding. If you use a tripod/monopod turn it off then. If your camera has a setting to identify birds/animals as opposed to humans, that helps. Ability to track moving objects also helps. If you are panning, start before you get to the bird in flight. Sometimes it works wonderfully, but others times less so. Practice on aircraft, passing cars and other vehicles! When shooting into the sky change the exposure compensation to the right (often expressed as shooting to the right). This will make your picture lighter, but easier to recover in post production. If needed use Denoise software in post production! Finally crop to make the image appealing and remove extraneous distractions from the image! Good luck!!