Photographing Wildlife: Birds!

Have you ever tried to take a photo of brightly colored bird sitting on a branch, or a seagull as it floats on a wind current? How about a humming bird as it sips from feeder? Wildlife photography is one of the most daunting types of photography I have tried. It takes patience, and long hours of sitting, watching, and waiting... Once you have captured a successful image, it suddenly makes all that waiting worth while!

  Getting to know your wildlife a little bit will help in the success of your photography of these typically skiddish creatures. Birds like other some other animals will look for an easy meal and often frequent areas around trash cans, and picnic tables when their preferred meals aren't readily available, BUGS!

   I captured this Blue Jay while sitting down at a picnic table to download a few images at Silver Dollar City. He was particularly interested in my crackers as I munched one down. Sitting about eight feet away, he was content to watch and wait to see if I would leave him a morsel or two. All the time I needed to slowly pic up my camera and use manual focus, as not to frighten him away, and snap this photo. The image isn't an award winning aviary photo by any means, but I learned something that day, hang out around a food source and pic a spot where the lighting is conducive to highlight your subject. My next photo would be even better as I found this new subject matter enticing!

Here are a few successful shots of my next few bird photography excursions. Unlike street photography you can increase you success of capturing a bird in the wild by bringing a little food treat yourself, keeping in mind that this may be a detriment to the species of bird you are shooting by introducing an easier source of food than they are used to, thus causing them to rely on hand-outs instead of finding their own meals naturally.