Before I bought a 75-300 zoom lens (and that was a long time ago) I was blissfully unaware of birds! I was of the opinion that there were no birds in Gurgaon. I could probably identify a sparrow even then but all that is a thing of past now. One day I was saying something softly to Chhavi and she turned around and whispered, “why are you speaking softly, is there a bird around?” That is the current state. I have such a love hate relationship with bird photography. I love it when I am able to capture a decent picture, but that happens so very rarely.
Before I discovered the Burst/Sports, mode bird photography used to be literally painful. I distinctly remember trying to photograph a green bee eater at a close range. Freezing anything with a single shot for a bird was almost impossible. And yet I tried till I got a crick in the neck. And then I saw (or rather heard the continuous click of the camera) someone at Bharatpur shooting in burst mode, and it dawned on me that the mode existed for a purpose!
That leads to my next favorite subject. As I have only a puny 75-300 zoom to use for my bird photography, I need to creep closer to the bird. So my modus operandi is something like this, which I have perfected after many trials and errors. I start clicking as soon as I spot a bird. I now shoot birds in continuous modes only. Then I try to inch closer to the spot as quietly as I can. If Chhavi is with me, it is well impossible to do so. She is capable of scaring a bird away from a mile when she tries to keep quiet. Otherwise she can scare them away from 5 miles at least.
There have been times when I am happily shooting landscapes, god bless them, they never fly away. I will have a wide angle lens on my camera and right next to me, I am sure they do it on purpose, an exotic bird will come and plonk itself. Now I get all in tizzy. I creep softly to where my zoom lens is lying, I try to change it at a breakneck speed. and as soon as I turn back, the bird has but of course flown away.
Then I have tried tracking birds in flight. The less said about it the better. If it is difficult to click them when they are sitting, it is outright torture to try the flight bit. I can never locate them in my viewfinder to begin with. If by some miracle I do locate them, it is even a bigger miracle if I can track them as well. And when I see the shots, they are all blurred.
And yet when on a rare moment I am able to take a half way decent shot, it is sheer magic!
Birding is fun but with my puny 300 mm lens I just prefer to watch them through binoculars… This little guy is sure handsome… ( I am assuming guy due to blue 🙂 )
Prasad these pictures are also taken with a 300 mm lens. 😀
awesome… amazing pictures
Thank you Lata.
I believe it is the moment that make picture priceless not picture itself and i do agree with Prasad, that little guy is really looking cool. 😉
Thank you Hemu.
So Beautiful photos
Thank you Rupam.
Really very nice pictures…!
Thank you Murthy.
Fabulous shots – love that first one!
Thank you so much Lady Fi.
Beautiful captures, Mridula.
Thank you Niranjan.
Hi Mridula – those are lovely shots. I have the 300 mm too . Can’t invest in more lenses at the moment so, I click all my bird pics with it – a few turn out really well and a few don’t. I guess one has to make do with what one has.
I have a daughter too, who like yours, accompanies me on most such trips. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts Vibha and daughters are so much fun!
I am experiencing such envy seeing these gorgeous photos!!! I am horrible at clicking birds… Thank you for these tips. What camera do you have?
Chaitali those images are exceptions! 😀
Awesome photography! Whenever I saw your bird photography, I have been thinking I am the only person in this world not to be able to take bird photography… I have almost done everything like you did, but the difference is, you got at least handful of good photographs…
Sindhu 😀 lady luck has to smile on me at least a few times!
You have a beautiful collection of blog posts.. am sure i will go through each one of them…
Thank you so much.
Write-up is so lively. All the pictures are image of the moment. Like the captions you give, they are best. Would sum up , award-winning travel writer and naturalist travel photographer par excellence. Good luck to you!
Thank you so much Vandana! Thank you for your support.
Lovely captures… So candid you talked about Chavi- She is capable of scaring a bird away from a mile when she tries to keep quiet. Otherwise she can scare them away from 5 miles at least.
I am so far from these lens world, yet trying to love the beautiful things around with my smartphone and a Nikon non-DSLR camera.
You take as many pictures as me and beautiful too! I have seen you in action 😀