Cardinal in blossoms
Mar, 2020Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken on our horse farm in Tennessee where we have an abundance of wildlife. Over the years our several bird feeders have attracted many species of birds with an abundance of Cardinals. Since birds prefer to have a tree or shrub near a bird feeder for safety, I moved the feeder next to the almond tree which was in full bloom. As I expected, the birds congregated in the flowering tree while they jumped down to the bird feeder providing an extended photo session.Time
The photo was taken in mid morning while the cardinals were very active and feeding. The lighting was dappled shade with only moderate shadows. By afternoon the birds are much less active so morning is the best time.Lighting
The best lighting would be an overcast day to minimize the harsh shadows and bright spots but on this day the skies were clear but I could rely on the light being diffused by passing through the structure of the tree. Also needed was enough light to have a high shutter speed to prevent motion blur from the birds quick movements. My lenses are not that fast so I had to sacrifice some resolution by using a high ISO to give me the desired higher shutter speed.Equipment
I am using a Nikon D5500 which is a good overall camera but limits one due to the smaller image format and uses lenses that are not very fast or letting in adequate light levels. For this photo I used my 300 mm zoom lens and had it fully extended and hand held. In retrospect, I should have used a tripod but find them clumsy to use when trying to get a shot of a bird darting from branch to branch. So I elected to use a faster shutter speed. My location was also a factor where I needed to be out of the direct sight of the birds and luckily the tree is located near the front porch where I stood under the porch roof and braced my arm against the porch pole to act as a tripod.Inspiration
We have a wide variety of birds on our farm and in the spring the cardinals are extremely bright red. Their color fades in summer. When the trees were in bloom in the spring I attempted to get the cardinals in different colors of trees from white flowers to pink flowers. However, my telephoto lens is only 300 mm and does not allow me to hide from the birds and get in close enough for many of the trees. The deep pink color of the almond tree would provide a nice contrast to the bright red color and was within distance for using the telephoto lens being hidden from the birds.Editing
I always run my photos through Lightroom to make any slight changes that the photos need. In this photo I was I I forced to use a high ISO to give me the fast shutter speed that I needed for a hand held exposure using a telephoto lens. However, this sacrifices some resolution which I tried to correct for in the Lightroom application. I was able to slightly sharpen the image to keep the detail needed. Since the cardinals are such a bright red color, I could not add any color intensity as this would cause the reds to bleed out right away. The color red is very tricky to use in post processing so the colors were left as natural in the photo. I have also found the orange color difficult to work with in post processing.In my camera bag
Unfortunately I have much more equipment in my bag than I can comfortably use in most cases. Probably due to lack of experience. My camera is the Nikon D5500 with two zoom lenses. My main lens is the 18mm - 140 mm zoom which I can use for most shots. My second lens is a 55 mm - 300mm to provide longer telephoto ability. However, it is also a zoom which I never use as a zoom but normally fully extended to 300 mm. I should have a fixed focal length lens of 300 mm which would have less glass elements inside a give a sharper image. An assortment of filters form single color filters to polarizing filters to close up filters are stashed in my bag. I rarely use them and really should experiment more with them. A Nikon speed flash and tripod complete the gear that I normally carry.Feedback
I have found that photographing birds is very rewarding but very frustrating. Out of 20 shots you may get one that you like. The main difficulties are birds are very shy and move quickly forcing you to chase them around with your camera lens. The most important thing to do is try to get the birds comfortable with you in their world. Set up bird feeders near trees and sit outside in view of the feeders but at a distance and just sit there for a few hours. The next day move the chair a little closer and sit there. Eventually the birds will accept you in their world and you can begin trying to get some good shots. Be careful, use manual focus. I have found that the birds seem to detect it when an auto focus beam is on them.
