Top Secrets to Get Closer to Birds for Incredible Photography
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- While your personal safety and the safety of your subject is always the most important consideration when photographing wildlife, if you want to capture stunning detail, there's really no substitute for being close to your subject. Close, of course, can be a relative term when it comes to wildlife photography.
In this video I share tips to get closer to birds that will help you capture powerful images.
Again, both your safety and the safety of the subject is paramount. Additionally, if your presence causes the bird or animal to change it's natural behavior...you're too close.
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Don't miss part 2 of this video!
Capture STUNNING CLOSEUPS | More Secrets to Get Closer to Birds
• Capture STUNNING CLOSE...
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I hate to be that guy, but those are red-shouldered hawks, my friend.
Yep. I misspoke when I was recording. Thanks for watching! 👍
@@matthewgehlyWe all make mistakes 😂
In my eyes the hawks were red, not only the shoulders 😅 yeah, I hate to be that guy too 🤣
I was going to say the same
The hawks in your video are actually red-shouldered hawks, not red tailed hawks! Beautiful photos
Thanks for watching! :)
When I was trying to watch and found he said RTh instead red shouldered hawk, I wasn't interested anymore but I would watch it again later.
Wonderful sharing of your talents
Thanks so much for watching and your kind comment! 😁
Also rather than turning your body so it’s facing the bird (which may be see as a threat) stand sideways and take your picture. You can cradle the lens in your bent arm when taking the photos. Thanks for your great tips. Also those are definitely red-shoulder hawks. Beautiful birds.
Excellent tip! Yes, red shouldered hawks for sure. I misspoke when I recorded. Thanks for the great comment! 👍
I find that information like this usually isn’t easy to find so I appreciate these tips. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching and reaching out! I hope you can use a couple of the tips to capture some awesome shots! :)
To the point and a manageable length, thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Thank you for watching, fellow Mathieu (Matthew)! :)
A good tip could be: don't hide. If the bird sees you hiding it will take off much earlier. Is better to walk on the open, so the bird can control your intentions.
Another: walk with the camera in front of your face. The movement of aiming when you are close will scare the bird.
Two more great tips! Thanks so much! :)
One of my theories is that human movement (especially the walking motion) is crucial in whether or not a bird flees. When I’m on my ride on mower, I can get within 5 feet of birds that would otherwise flee if I got within 150 feet of them when I’m walking/upright (same clothes, same light, same weather). I take this to be that these birds don’t see the mowers movement as a perceived threat, yet the action of walking is.
Absolutely! This seems to be why shooting from inside a vehicle can be so advantageous. Thanks for the great comment!
Good tips. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, John! I appreciate the support! :)
Thanks for these tips. Since I'm a newbie, they really help. Great job. You've got a new sub. Good luck with your channel.
Thanks so much for watching and subscribing! Wildlife photography is such a rewarding hobby! Best of luck as you start your journey! 😁
Looks like your channel is taking off! Good job 👍 🦅
Thanks so much! Slowly, but surely! :)
Just found your channel today, not sure how I didnt find it sooner. Keep up the great work and videos!
Thanks so much! 😁
Great job on this intro dude! Gonna analyze it and share it in my Creator Cohort :)
Thanks so much, Jeremy! As you know, those first seconds are so important. I really wish I could have participated in your Creator Cohort. I think it’s a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow me to commit. Hope it’s all going well! 👍
@@matthewgehly there will be more coming! Planning on 2 a year, so you’ll get another chance 😎
Great advice! Thanks
Thanks so much, Randy! 😁
1) Be sneaky. 2) Be REALLY sneaky.
Haha! Yep! That about sums it up! :)
Great tips mate. I subscribed 😊
Patrik
Really appreciate it! Thanks for the support! 📷👍
Thank you Matthew!
Thanks for watching! Happy shooting! :)
Cool tips🎉
Thanks so much! :) I appreciate the comment and the support! :)
Great information
Thanks so much Eddie! 😁
Such good information Matthew! This is probably multiple years of experience, condensed into a 4 minute video.
Thanks so much! :) Happy shooting!
I'm extremely new to wildlife and I've been struggling with getting close enough to snap any usable photos. These are some great, practical tips and I'll be sure to test them next time I'm out. Appreciate you ^^
Really appreciate the kind comment! Wildlife photography is such a rewarding hobby. With time, patience, and practice you’ll be making images you won’t be able to believe! Thanks so much for watching! Happy shooting! 📷👍😁
You won't get much luck that way. I know it because I'd wasted countless weeks of my life doing this. Try hide photography instead, it's the only way to get close enough. Or buy yourself a flagship camera body with 50+ megapixel sensor, if you have spare money, the equivalent of a brand new SUV to be precise. Thats the easy way, if you can afford it.
@@TatraScrambler I've had a ton of success using these methods.
Yes I know this sort of 'success', I described it in the 'Ansel Adams' comment :-) But honestly, 0:14 - to obtain this shot with your camera, EOS R5, which has a full frame sensor, you would have to get within like 15 yards of the bird or closer, assuming you have a 600 mm lens (it would have been easier with a crop-sensor camera due to the crop factor, e.g. 600 mm lens becomes a 900 mm) - to be able to fill the frame like that. Maybe I'm unaware of something and beyond the Atlantic you guys have some totally different breed of raptors, but here in Europe there is no way on Earth a raptor would let you that close, in fact, the bigger the warier, White tailed eagles for example have a distance of escape of 400 m. Are you telling me you did not take advantage of your 45 megapixel sensor and didn't crop this image at all? Or maybe you didn't but it was taken from a car - which birds are significantly more accepting of, than an out-of-vehicle human and often times you can approach them surprisingly close. Be honest. @@matthewgehly
ive been trying to photograph an eagle but he always takes off before I can get close! nice video, subbed!
Thanks for subscribing! Hope you capture a shot of that guy soon! 🦅
thanks, looks like Red-shouldered Hawks
You’re right. I misspoke when shooting the video. Thanks for watching! 😁👍
excellent
Many many thanks!
Gotta love that one guy with the dog who scares your subject... 😑
Great video, really enjoyed it!
Haha! There's always one! Thanks for watching! :)
So basically I approach birds the same way I approach women. I stare on the ground in an unrelated direction and zickzag my way towards them. Ideally I cover my face because it could scare them. Got it 🤣
Who knew birds and women could have so much in common? Just remember, confidence is key in both situations! Haha!
thank you for all this good advice. can you tell me what brand your clothes are? Thanks a lot.
My coat is Eddie Bauer. I love my Eddie Bauer Rainier pants. I also use comparable Columbia pants.
Had a bluebird patiently waiting for me and I couldn't get my camera ready in time. Bird was like, "I got schedules to maintain."
Haha!
From experience I know some birds do not like the AF confirm beep. One small bird (which a similar tone of call) became puffed up and kept getting closer and closer (nice problem to have, right?). I think it assumed the sound was an intruder invading its territory and became aggressive/defensive, (and probably stressed). Not good birding etiquette so I have turned the beep off for most situations. Thanks for the tips. BTW birds see in UV so avoid clothing with a whte base colour. White cloth usually contains optical whiteners/brighteners (as do many detergents) that are highly UV reflective. Even the mottled camos can show it. UV torch is a way to check.
Really outstanding tips! I wasn't aware of the UV/detergent tip. Thanks for contributing to the conversation! :)
I've looked for snakes in Thailand for 15 years. All fo these tips - except those related to sound, apply for snakes too. Snakes really key in on th eyes!
Yikes! I might be out on a snake photography trip! Haha! Happy photographing! 😁📷
Yikes !
I moved to a farm village just outside of Korat. I'm always scared of their snakes.
I've found that just the act of raising binoculars or pointing a camera, no matter how slowly you do it, or at a non-threatening distance, is enough to make many birds move or leave. It happens too often to just be coincidence. Birds aren't fighters and their response to any perceived danger is simple. Be somewhere else.
For sure! Another great tip! Thanks for the great comment! 👍
Very True!!
Another giveaway that they're about to take off is if they take a dump.
Haha! Yep! When you see that, it's time to boost the shutter speed and get ready for a flight shot!
Well, moving my sight off the target, is a lost target 😬 so the head down is a no go for me 😬 and I have my camera up, so I can get it to the eye right away and scan the field again (which often goes bad as soon I get the evf in front of my eye). I try to train subject focus every day on my eyes, but it still gives problems seeing the target as soon the evf comes at my eye.
I totally get that! It's a challenge for sure!
I think they are red-shouldered hawks, they look really similar to ones that live behind my house that call in a different voice from red-tails.
You're right! I misspoke when I was shooting.
When do birds look away? The prey birds you showed look directly at you with the head in your direction.
But what field of view do small birds have? Do they look directly at you or do they only look with one eye to the side? For example the blackbird. I have the feeling it will notice me easier while it's looking sideways with one eye.
Birds like a blackbird that have eyes on the side have a wider field of view. I like to move when a bird of prey turns it's head completely away from me. They do this as they scan as area for food. Great question!
If you're patient enough, pick your spot and become part of the landscape so to speak. If wildlife sees you as a normal part of the environment, they tend to lose interest in you. Also, don't move like a predator.
Excellent tips! Happy shooting! 😁
Basic stalking skills, tuned to the limits of the photographers technology. 😉
Haha, I wouldn't call it "stalking skills" per se, but I guess photographers do have a knack for capturing those perfect shots! Just remember, it's all about being in the right place at the right time (without creeping anyone out). Haha!
How important is a LensCoat cover (for 500 mm f/4 lens) for bird photography? Would this would be a good investment or not? What is your experience and advice? Thanks for your reply.
Lens cover is to protect your lens.
If you're using a white Canon L-Series lens, a Lens Coat cover might be a good idea. If you're using a black lens, then the Lens Coat would be mostly for protection as @robinlee7531 suggested.
I realized that birds reacts to sun reflexions : I avoid wearing sunglasses and I try to aim the camera without causing a reflexion with the lense
Thanks for the comment. Good tip! 📷
We were just joking yesterday that birds don't seem to pay too much attention to our farmers - so we should put on a straw hat and wrap our heads in cloth to get closer still.
Haha! Great idea, straw hat, flannel, jeans, and cowboy boots! :)
I do almost every single thing you suggest not to do here. No surprise, I have no bird photos. New approach for 2024
Haha! Best of luck! 👍😁
I do almost every single thing you suggest not to do here. No surprise, I have no bird photos. New approach for 2024 😆
Haha! Your luck is going to change this year! Happy shooting! 😁📷
close up? The closest I got to a wild bird for a photo was so close I could catch it just by stretching my arm.
It only happened a few times... with so much animal affinity, Disney will want me for the movies where you whistle and the animals come... 😅
Haha!
So, go naked 😅 I have shoulder strap, but I have my camera just under my jaw while moving closer
No! NO! Haha! I said that you want to hide your skin! :)
Glad I’m not the only”that guy” 🙄
Or maybe I'm just super naive, maybe it's never been about effort, talent, persistence, perseverence... maybe it's always been about money.
1) No amount of 'camouflage' will make you disappear. If a two-legged humanoid creature, albeit with a mask, gloves and what not (even a ghillie-suit) approaches a bird, especially as timid as a raptor, the bird WILL flush, 100%, guaranteed. And even if for some reason it doesn't flush (perhaps it's a juvenile lacking life experience, unaware of how much of a danger humans can pose), it no doubt will see you sneaking towards it. Therefore any seasoned old-time WL photographer will tell you these modern guys in over-the-top camo achieve nothing apart from looking silly. If you decide to stalk the bird, it will see you no matter what, period. As soon as you start moving, you are being noticed. Camo only works when you don't move and blend in with your surroundings. Birds aren't as stupid as some people like to think. Birdbrain is just an empty platitude, you know.
2) Most of the beautiful photographs you see online nowadays were not even taken the 'right' way (let alone by stalking), the way most (skilled) wildlife photographers used to attain their dream-photos, i.e. long, arduous stints inside a hide (or blind, in US EN), preceeded by equally as arduous days if not weeks of careful reconaissance with binoculars, noting every useful detail of the birds behavioural patterns, its favourite perch or feeding spot, etc.
Most of these jaw-dropping photos nowadays are (predominantly, I'd venture to say) taken by mostly talentless, yet well-off idividuals (who watched a handful of videos on YT and now think they are freaking Ansel Adams of wildlife photography) posessing state of the art, top notch gear, like Sony A1 or Nikon Z9, which do all the work for you, to the point all you have to do is point the lens at the subject + optionally, keep it in the frame, assuming it takes to the wing or something similar. Bird-eye AF, made possible by AI in concjunction with machine learning revolutionized bird photography to the point where instead of 1 out of 10 shots out of a whole sequence in the burst coming out semi-decent, now 10 out of 10 are razor-sharp wall-hangers.
You don't need skill, persistence and talent anymore. All you need is money, lots of it. That's the truth whether we like it or not.
All these nabobs sporting 30K euros-worth of equipment take these wonderful shots simply because those cameras also have ridiculously high resolution, over 50 megapixels, and so they can afford to crop into the shot very heavily without any noticeable (at least by a lay person) drop in image quality. So they can effortlessly snap a wall-hanger from a 100 meters away, especially if they have a teleconverter attached, and then pretend they put as much time and effort as you or I did - disgusting. Average Joe will never get a photo like that, not without putting CRAZY amounts of time and effort, except perhaps by sheer luck. I'd like to live to see the day when WF photographers start being honest about it.
So you're saying I can't become the next Ansel Adams of wildlife photography just by watching a few UA-cam videos? Darn, there goes my plan! 😄 All the best gear in the world won't take the shot for you. Understanding photographic techniques and composition will always be necessary no matter how incredible the gear gets.
Yes it will, at least in terms of focus and exposure. Composition / framing the shot is virtually non-existent in this genre, since often times you only have miliseconds to react, and so you put your subject wherever the focusing frame happens to be at the moment. Of course ideally you want to put it in the right spot beforehand, e.g. when you anticipate your subject to fly from left to right, and since e.g. it's a crane you know your gonna have to put the frame towards the right so that the entire bird fits in and you don't clip its legs. But in reality in hardly ever goes according to plan, all this planning often goes outta window, since nature has a mind of its own :) All this mumbo-jumbo about composition is bollocks. Some people simply devise a theory to their haphazard shot in hindsight to make themselves look 'professional'; most of the time however, if anything, in WL photography framing happens in postproduction. @@matthewgehly
So to recap, new technology = bad, suffering = good? Got it, thanks for your input.
Not really, clearly you didn't understand the message. If one can afford to spend an equivalent of a brand new SUV on their hobby, kudos! What's not OK is pretending that you put some effort into aquiring a photograph, which many such photographers do, omitting the fact it was shot from a 100 m away and then cropped heavily with little to no effort. It's not fair towards ordinary people who don't have the advantege of being able to afford top notch professional gear and have to resort to hide photography which is enormously arduous and time-consuming, and that's how WF photography was done (and still is for most folks) until quite recently. Worse yet, there are people out there who intentionally put others down, just because they have this high-end gear - I experienced this myself, I have an "anti-fan" at eBird who notoriously downvotes my photos even though they are perfectly fine in terms of eBird requirements. I'm pretty sure this is one of those $25K gear nabobs getting angry I dared to rate my photo as high as he did his, even though my photo's IQ isn't as superb. Also there are prolific bird photographers on flickr owning such gear, who clearly do this w/o ever mentioning the fact, and thousands of naive gullible folks 'like' their photos showing them undeserved admiration, which wouldn't have been granted, had they known better. @@BlendyStick
@@TatraScrambler "Worse yet, there are people out there who intentionally put others down, just because they have this high-end gear" And yet, you spend long paragraphs putting the "nabobs" down. Do you not see the irony? Time for some introspection.
You can go out right now, buy a Canon R50 and an RF 800 F11 and shoot some birds "100m away" with advanced AF functions for less than $2K. Sounds pretty "fair" to me.