Rain dance
A Cape Robin Chat doing the rain dance around my bird fountain at home.
A Cape Robin Chat doing the rain dance around my bird fountain at home.
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Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at home. I have created a special location by chopping off a palm tree at eye level about 3m (10') from my dining room window. It has the added advantage of overlooking a ravine, offering beautiful bokeh as background. It is also about 3m high up from the ground, offering a drink safe from cats or other predators. The method I'm using is to open a window and shoot from indoors. The curtains form a nice 'hide', preventing the birds from seeing me as I take the shots. The camera is set up early in the morning and left in position all day long so that I do not disturb the birds at drinking / bathing time.Time
It was created at 9:35 am.Lighting
The lighting was not the best as the sun was shining from the other side of the bird, creating heavy shadows. Fortunately I could eliminate most of that in post processing.Equipment
I've used a Nikon D600 camera with 70-200mm f2.8 lens, mounted on a tripod. A reasonably fast shutter speed (1/1250s) guaranteed a 'frozen' bird and continuous shooting mode was used to try and capture every little movement of the bird as it was enjoying its bath.Inspiration
We live in an area with an abundance of beautiful birds. I always wanted a convenient place to photograph birds from so when this palm tree grew larger than originally planned and thus robbed my dining room from sunlight, I decided to create this nice-to-have spot as described above.Editing
Yes. Post processing mainly involved: - - lowering highlights in order to get more detail from the reflection on the water; - raising shadows (to get rid of too-dark areas on the bird.In my camera bag
This particular image was taken before acquiring my Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens which nowadays fill a permanent spot in my bag. Add to that a set of binoculars, a bean bag, 3x extra camera batteries, a rain coat for the bag in a side pocket and a lens pen and sunblock in another side pocket.Feedback
Identify a spot as close as possible (+/- 3m or 10') from a room in the house where there is not too much movement or noise from other occupants. Shooting in a southern direction in the southern hemisphere (and vice versa in the norther hemisphere) will ensure that you will stay within your camera's dynamic range. Set up a bird bath / fountain at the identified spot and ALWAYS keep it filled with water. If there are times when it is dry, the birds will not visit as regularly as you might want them to. Having no objects close to and behind the bird bath will be an added bonus in terms of a nice soft background if you shoot at wide apertures (f/2.8-f/4). Have a curtain hanging on each side of the lens and pin them together just above and just below the lens (use washing line pegs or something similar), leaving the full camera accessible on your side of the curtains. Keep your exposure at more or less the correct settings so that you do not have to spend too much time readjusting when the visitors arrive. Shoot away!
