Monday, January 28, 2013

Bird Photography for Birders

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Indigo Bunting
My love of nature began when my father gave me a camera to stick in front of my face.  I was probably 7-8 years old when my father let me use his old Nikkormat camera as we walked around Mt. Diablo in California. In my adult years, though, I have become more interested in wildlife and bird photography, and eventually, birding.  These two interests of mine I believe have been mutually beneficial.  I've found that as I've learned more about birds and birding, I take better photographs--I've learned more about my subjects.  But I've also found that responsible photography has made me a better birder.  I still think of birding as a photographer, and it's become helpful for me to think of four basic types or uses for bird photography.  There are no sharp divisions between these, and they may overlap considerably.  But I think these four purposes for bird photography can be very helpful to any bird photographer or birder with a camera.

1.  Identification
At the most fundamental level, photography can be extremely useful in identifying birds.  After all, birds do not always stay put long enough to make and confirm an identification.  But if you get a photo, you can take your time to make sure you have the right identification. I usually toss these photos out if their only use to me is identification, with one exception.  If it's the only photo I have of a species, I'll keep it as what I call a "placeholder" photo; it holds the place of a good photograph of the species. I found the Louisiana Waterthrush below at Mead Gardens, and it's my only photo of the species.  When I found this bird, it stayed there only for a couple seconds before it flew off.  I was so glad to have taken this photo of the bird so that I could more clearly see the white supercilium.   And since I'm colorblind, it was nice to show this photo to someone with proper color vision to tell me that the rear flanks were buffy in color (I simply can't see it).

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Louisiana Waterthrush
Also, back-lit and side-lit birds can be difficult to identify in the field.  When a bird is back-lit, your eyes often cannot perceive colors or details, but with a camera, you can overexpose the shot to capture details you could not otherwise see with your eyes, binoculars or scope. I found the Merlin below at Marl Bed Flats near my home.  It was side-lit, and with my eyes, the bird was pretty dark.  I knew it was a small falcon, but Kestrels are much more common here.  So I over-exposed this shot by 1 stop so that I could clearly see that in fact I was looking at a Merlin.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Merlin
But be careful.  Photography can also obscure some field marks, especially those that are behavioral.  For instance, one way to tell the difference between probing dowitchers is to look at their backs.  Probing Long-billed Dowitchers have a hunched back look, as if the bird "swallowed a grapefruit."  But photographs of dowitchers stop the motion of the bird's probing, and it may just capture a Long-billed Dowitcher without that trait or a Short-billed Dowitcher with it.  So while photography for identification is extremely helpful, some field marks are best seen in the field.

2.  Documentation
Beyond merely helping identify a bird, photography can be extremely useful for documenting a bird's presence.  Obviously this assumes a certain level of honesty on the part of a photographer, but photos can be extremely helpful. For instance, we see many Palm Warblers in Central Florida over the winter, but most of them are of the "western" variety.  Eastern or "yellow" Palm Warblers are much more unusual.  So when I see one, I always like to document their presence with a photo if I can.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Palm Warbler
Of course, documentation is very helpful for vagrants and rare birds.  A couple days ago I rode my daughter's bike around the northeast section of Lake Apopka to look for a Brown-crested Flycatcher a friend of mine had seen there.  When I found it, I took many photos.  The background is cluttered, and there's a tree limb covering part of the tail, but I was happy to show the photographs of the bird anyway.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Brown-crested Flycatcher
3.  Interpretation
I'm not just interested in seeing birds, I'm also interested in bird behavior.  I find their behavior fascinating.  And as a photographer, I love for my photographs to be interpretive of that behavior.  "Bird on a stick" photos can be wonderful, and I'm always happy to come home with one, especially a well-positioned bird with a clean background and simple composition.  But when a photo also interprets the bird's behavior and place in its environment, well, that's when I start to get pretty excited about bird photography.  I found this Loggerhead Shrike at Viera Wetlands back in 2011.  Shrikes impale their prey for at least three reasons: (1) they store their food for later, (2) over time the toxins in insects like lubber grasshoppers degrade so they don't become sick. And (3) lacking talons, they use barbed wire to hold their prey in place so that it can be consumed.  So I was ecstatic to see this shrike catch a grasshopper, impale it on barbed wire, rip off its legs, and then consume it in just a couple minutes.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Loggerhead Shrike
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Loggerhead Shrike
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Loggerhead Shrike
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Loggerhead Shrike
4.  Artistic Expression
Art is a difficult idea to define, and there are many different ways people define it, but I suspect we can all agree that art is the product of creativity that expresses something beautifully.  I'm not one to divorce art from documentation or interpretation.  Art can take many different forms and serve a variety of different purposes, so I accept that journalistic photographs can be just as artistic as fine art paintings.  But whenever I go out into the field, my hope is to come home with something that has artistic quality to it. For me this means paying attention to form, color, composition, exposure, lighting, sharpness, angle of view, etc. to create a photograph that I would love to hang on my wall as a work of art.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Cooper's Hawk
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Reddish Egret
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Roseate Spoonbill
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Green Heron
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Sandhill Cranes
Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Eastern Meadowlark
Scott Simmons

22 comments:

  1. Excelente entrada tanto en texto como en fotos.Saludos

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful post and topic Scott, very informative!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mia! Though I can tell from your blog that you already know this stuff :-).

      Delete
  3. Excellent post! I agree 100%. I feel like bird photography took me to a new level of birding because, like you said, I was able to study the photographs. That study turned into field recognition.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scott, you're color blind? How do you do it?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, sometimes it's hard. Many times I have to look for other markers besides color. I only have red-green colorblindness, but as you know, that's enough to cause trouble in a lot of species, and it affects other colors with red and green in them, like brown.

      Delete
  5. Neat way to break out the benefits of photographing birds, Scott. And, I love your shrike series!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! I was so lucky with that shrike.

      Delete
  6. I love the color of that bunting

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! That's one of my favorite bird portraits.

      Delete
  7. Excellent post filled with brilliant images! Photography has certainly enhanced my passion for birds. Marvelous shrike behavior series. All of the artistic expression captures are especially stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gorgeous photos, and good info, Scott. I just got the awesome, new, Canon SX 50 HS super-zoom point and shoot camera, which will enhance the birding experience for many birders. It has a 50x zoom lens which is equivalent to a focal length of 24-1200 mm, is lightweight, and has good tracking ability. I love my Canon 1D Mark IV, and the SX 50 is not in the same league, but the SX 50 is a fun camera and will enable may birders to become bird photographers, or photographers to become birders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen a couple of your posts using that camera. Looks like it's a pretty great camera, and certainly a good way to enter into the world of bird photography. For Christmas I got the Canon SX100IS so that I could shoot landscapes while birding, and I love it!

      Delete
  9. Great post and good points! A great camera was a game changer for me. Now I never leave the house without it! Your shots are very very nice:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! I've been trying to do the same thing. You never really know when you're going to need it.

      Delete
  10. Great information and post, Scott. The Indigo Bunting photo is my favorite, it's so vibrant and beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great article with beautiful photos, Scott! Excellent shots of the Shrike in action!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great post Scott! I too, was into nature photography before becoming a birder! Now, I would say I'm definitely both. It drives me crazy if I can't get a picture of the birds I see. It has come in very handy more than once when I saw & photographed birds rare for my area at the time of year I saw them. I was able to verify them with eBird because I had photos. Honestly, I've only been a "birder" for about 3 years, so I still don't even trust my judgement with some birds without a photo.

    ReplyDelete
  13. very nice shot...
    http://www.serkanmutan.com/

    ReplyDelete