Northern cardinal
Jul, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in one of my favourite places in the world for nature photography - Baja California Sur, Mexico. This cardinal was on Los Frailes, which is a great place to photograph Xantu's hummingbirds, but on this day, the cardinal was definitely the standout bird as most of the hummingbirds had already started their migration.Time
This particular day, we arrived at Los Frailes about mid-afternoon and by the time I took this photo, I had already spent quite a bit of time waiting to see if any hummingbirds would arrive and taking photos of a few of the other birds around. Then around 4pm, the cardinal arrived and it probably took me another 30 minutes to get this photo as he was very nervous and would not stay down very long.Lighting
With my photography, I only want to work with natural light. Because this was taken later in the day, the sun was starting to get lower in the sky but as a result, it really highlighted the colours of the cardinal.Equipment
The camera used was a Canon 7D Mark II using just my Canon EF-S55-250mm. The photo was taken at 250mm and as always unless for special circumstances, the ISO was set at 400.Inspiration
So much of Baja California Sur is pristine and therefore has incredible wildlife and nature. Los Frailes is a place not quite so untouched as it gets a lot of people coming south to escape the northern winter but those same people put out bird feeders therefore co-existing nicely with the natural world. I wanted to take a photo that reflected that - the beautiful bird on the man-made item, in this case one that had been left behind. When I was taking the photo, I was concentrating on the reflection created by the car window and it was not until later that I realised I had managed to get the second full reflection made by the mirror. As a result, of the double reflection, this is one of my most favourite photos.Editing
The only post-processing I ever do with photos is cropping them, which I have done with this one. Other than that, this photo is completing unedited.In my camera bag
The cameras I carry are the Canon 7D Mark II for when I want speed, the Canon 5DS for when I want exceptional clarity, and also the Nikon AW1 for those times when I know there will be a lot of splashing (i.e. whales). For the lenses, there is always the variety but I never leave home without my Canon EF 100-400mm zoom, my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens, my Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM. Tucked in are more memory cards than I could possibly use along with polarising filters for all sizes.Feedback
Patience is key above anything else and also managing your expectations. On the day I took this photo, all I wanted to do was take a photo of a hummingbird but because I was later in the year than normal, the hummingbirds had left. So I just waiting and looked around to see what else there was and eventually, along came the cardinal to give me this photo. I then took numerous average photos of the bird, waiting whilst he got used to my presence so that I could take the photos I actually wanted. If you are taking photos of animals, whether it is insects or large creatures, give them time to get used to you and the photos will be better. And don't expect every photo to be good - we all take lots of poor to average photos to get the single excellent one we love.
