Oh, I've used just about everything, from the cheapo 75-300 to the 400mm f/2.8 and 500mm f/4, and everything in-between. If you're interested in wildlife gear, check out my Photography Buying Guide (available using the 'worldwide' link in the description).
Hi Tony, great pictures and ideas. This is an older YT so you may not read this. This is a very simple tip I have experimented with that may help you and others get close to wildlife. Animals including us instinctively look for eyes. I use the simple camouflaged netting for the head and face. It is something like the bee keepers use and for bow hunting. Pick them up at Walmart, Bass Pro, etc... use with whatever light camo outfits. I have had ducks land in the water next to me while picking up decoys, a buck stand up on its Hine legs up to the bottom of my stand to see what I was. Had to show squarels away to keep them fro running up me to go up the tree I was leaning on. Endless list of other animals. we tried having my oldest son stand withing one foot of the same type bird feeders you have at my father's house wearing a white t-shirt and levi's and tennis shoes and wearing a paintball mask. The mask was flat primer color grey with the screened out eyes. When he took off the mask everything fled, but putting it back on the trees and feeder filled with little birds of all kinds. Anyway, sorry for the novel, but worth a try.
Another way to attract more species is with water; you can set up a "spring" or similar natural-looking water feature using a trickling hose. Only a handful of species readily visit feeders, but they all need water! A pretty famous example is Tanner's Spring in Central Park.
This is a better idea than using calls, and ethical. The reason calling systems are banned in most bird hides, is because it has a devestating effect on birds, and can be stressful too. Don't do it.
Hi Tony, great video and advice which i mostly agree with. However, using a recording of a birds call to entice them in is not something you should do or be suggesting that people do. This confuses the birds and depending the time of year, they can think that a mate is in the area and then spend time & energy looking for a bird that doesn't exist. O an intruder and in turn the bird can get stressed if it thinks the playback is a territorial threat. A predator may even be lying in wait. The bird could also leave its habitat or stop responding to the calls.
+drubber007 I did extensive research into this and couldn't find a single case of an animal being harmed in this way. There's a more thorough discussion of the topic in SDP.
For this very reason many parks have rules against using bird calls. I have been birding with many birders who will get very upset if you use calls in these situations too. I admit that I do use calls some myself on occasion, but I limit the time I do it and certainly not in places where it is not permitted or situations that it will upset birders. It can actually be seriously harmful for rare or unusual birds where a lot of birders use callers to bring them in for photos. I think common sense is the best way to proceed; the welfare of the birds should come first but there is little harm if restraint is used in this activity.
A blind might be nice for the wild, but seriously it's probably overkill for shooting at a feeder in your yard. In my yard, the birds are so busy eating that I can just walk up with my tripod and get within about 15 feet before they fly away. The hummingbirds are so voracious that I can stand literally right next to the feeder. This lets me use really sharp, fast lenses like my 50mm f/1.4, to take shots of them right up close. But great tips, especially the part about having patience.
It's a bit quieter if you take the picture from live view mode. Other than that, some cameras are quieter than others. The 5D Mark III and 6D have a "quiet mode", which is much quieter but can still disturb animals. You can also buy sound blimps for your camera, if you're really committed to being quiet. You might also check out mirrorless cameras, some of which are completely silent like a camera phone.
Yeah, I'm really excited about that. I'm just letting them work the kinks out a bit (it's still in Alpha). I hope they can get audio recording working, too--it definitely slows everything down to use a separate recorder.
Great video Tony, I,m from Scotland so there is plenty of nesting species near my house so must get to work, I think I have watched all ur video over the last week,and have just ordered ur book. Just like to say a big thank u for the fantastic tutorials. Looking forward to the book.Thank you.
It's a Manfrotto 475B and 502 Video Head MVH502AH. I added links to the end of the description for you. It's not designed for still photos, but it works really well--I like it better for big telephoto lenses than those gimball heads most people use. I have a video covering all my various tripods and what they're each good for, it's "Tripods-Choosing and buying camera support for video and photography"
I put up a blind in my backyard...within 20 minutes I had some great shots of birding perched on branches I had stuck in the ground around this tree near feeders I put out. I used iBird South on my iPhone to have the sound of a Cardinal playing. I just hid in the blind and waited...just as Tony states in this video. It works.
thank you Tony for an excellent video tutorial, without doubt the best I have yet found on this subject on the net. I thought that I was aware of most of this already ,having had some modest success, but I found many tips in your video that I was unaware of .Thank you
Agreed., though too much DoF has never been a problem for me with wildlife shots... instead the challenge is to keep your shutter speed up and your ISO down, while getting as much of the bird in focus as possible.
You can whistle a response to any bird you hear, I have been doing that all my life. However a few years ago I found out that the male birds are calling out for a female mate. So I understood that it's not always a good idea to whistle a response again and again to a bird as it draws them closer to your yard and they expect to find a female. It must be frustrating for them when there is no female. Oh, I still whistle out to them but only once or twice so not as to draw them in. Life is real and we all need to do our part in honoring life. I love all birds.
There's a ton more info in Chapter 8 of Stunning Digital Photography (links in the description), but a single focus point is best almost always. If you have a flying bird and a clear sky behind him, you should use all focus points.
It's cheap, and there's lots more important things for a beginning photographer to spend money on: lenses, flash, tripod, memory card, software, etc. A D3100 or D5100 are great, too. People often spend far too much on a body, blow their budget, and don't have any money left to expand their photography.
Great vid. The iBirds phone app is a great tool for this. I use it in my blind regularly, and it has hundreds of bird calls, illustrations and pictures for IDing various birds. Placing a pie pan of water on the ground near your perching branch can also draw in more birds as well.
Ah, brilliant, thanks for that! I tried several Chrome extensions hoping one would automate the download process but didn't find FVD... works perfectly!
Normally you don't want a lot of DOF since a nice blurred background really makes the images pop. However, using an extension tube will cut the DOF even further so you can always bump up the aperture setting to f/8 or so to compensate if you need more of the bird in focus. I just try to get the eyes in focus as I would a human portrait and let the DOF take care of itself.
Definitely will, Tony. I'm on the facebook (under my real name) page as well, but I've had some family issues lately...but soon I will start posting there.
Discovered your video today. Bought your book on Amazon. You may have already answered this in the comments below and did a quick search, but didn’t find anything. What kind of blind did you use in this video? I look forward to reading and watching more! Thanks!
Hi Tony, I love your photography, I would recommend against using bird calls. Adult male calls can often aggravate other males, preventing them from feeding, breeding and defending their territory and or nests from actual threats. Additionally, large numbers of people using calls can have very detrimental impacts. This is even more important with raptors and predatory birds/bird alarm calls, as birds become 'numb' to the warnings. Sorry to be be negative, I thought it was worth a mention though.
Some good tips here, Tony, but I disagree with your choice of using Shutter Priority mode. By using Aperture Priority and shooting wide open your camera will always give you the fastest shutter seed for a given ISO.
Good lord, your video quality has come a long way. Is that because of your gear, RU-vid bandwidth issues at the time, or have you just gotten that much better at video?
fantastic Tony that you happen to be into bird photography. All the gimmicks seem to be very effective, gonna try out. one thing though: I am using AP and not shutter priority? And 1/250 is that really manageable?
No offense but I would have never pegged you as a hunter, ha ha. I had that same blind for turkey hunting. Nice pics! I've learned a lot from your videos on here. Adam
Or you can use an app on android called ornithopedia. It has all the sounds for all birds, can select your country, area, has bird identification search and whatnot. Super good app.
Hi Tony, Excellent video you have here! I really appreciate the info on how to download the mp3 files of the bird calls. Great tips & thanks for sharing! Best regards, Mick
There is no need to hunt through page source to grab media files. A *much* easier way to get at any media using Firefox or Chrome that's playing on a web site - let the browser do the heavy lifting for you. In Chrome: *CTRL+SHIFT+J* will bring up a Developer's Toolbox sidebar. Click on the *Network* tab. Now below that will be a new list of tabs, click the *Media* tab. Now click play on the audio you want to "borrow". The media info will instantly pop into the developer tab - right click on it and choose *open in new tab* and it should automatically present you with a download option. In Firefox first step is to click *Play* on the audio so that Firefox has loaded the file you want into memory, then *RIGHT CLICK* anywhere on the page and select *View Page Info* (Edit: Some web sites trap or disable the mouse right click - if so *ALT+T* will get the same Page Info option at the top of your browser) from there select the *Media* tab. You can sort the various elements of the page by *Type* and the Audio one should be the very first one listed. In the bottom panel you can play it and there is a handy *Save As* button for you to click.
Great video 👌. I saw somewhere that when taking photos of birds, you should use the mechanical shutter for better iq? But wouldn't you want to be as quiet as possible and shoot in electronical? Any advice would be great cheers.
Hi Tony, I am a subscriber and a fan of urs.Enjoyes watching your videos.And trying to learn from them using my newly bought Nikon D5100. I am using the following method for downloading for chrome browser.May be helpful for you. 1. Download and install FVD video downloader from Google Chrome store. 2. It will display an icon on the right top corner of your Google Chrome Browser. 3. Play the file that you need to download 4. The icon will blink to blue.Click on that icon and download. Thanks
Using my Nex6 (mirrorless), I was within 5 ft of woodpeckers just shooting away. However, Grackles are a different matter. They seem to freak and fly off at any sign of anything. It depends on the bird, but me for and my nex6, it didn't seem to be a problem.
Tony - quick question. I shoot on a 7D with a Sigma 500mm lens. My minimum focus distance is about 4.6 metres. At that distance I need to close down my aperture or I have no depth of field at all. If I buy an extension tube - say a Canon 25mm It will reduce my distance to bird from 4.6metres but what impact will that have on my available aperture and depth of field? (I am in the UK so good light is not always around) Thanks
Rod, the closer you get to your subject, the shallower your depth-of-field. So, it definitely helps to shut down a stop or two. If you're not using an extension tube, you're not close enough. You definitely need one :). Check out Chapter 4 in Stunning Digital Photography (links in the description) for info about depth-of-field, and Chapter 8 for more information about extension tubes and wildlife photography.
4:48 that's not good advice. If you have a tripod collar on your lens, always use that instead. The manufacturer included it for a reason. The weight of some lenses is far greater than the camera body. Worst case scenario is that the lens will snap off of your camera because it couldn't support its weight and break the back of the lens.
Hi Tony, I just bought the Canon T3i and I wanted to take it hunting with me so if I see anything cool, I could take a picture of it.but since you can hear the, i believe it is, the shutter noise, it would scare any animal, do you have any advice?
