It’s been a while since I published a blog, so putting out a quick short one which I had in mind for a while but couldn’t get the chance to execute photos required to go with it. Which changed last month. I wanted to share how I work the scene and try to get most out of the situation in a blog.
I know a lot of people have their style of photography and they try to wait till the bird lands in a position where they wanted before they take the photo. I have some of my personal preferences too when in comes to it but I also try to take different kinds of photos just to exercise different compositions and styles as a few of my favourite styles or looks are byproducts of such experiments. When I think of it may be a lot of people are taking these kind of shots but only sharing the one that goes with their feed/work. So in a way blog is the best way to showcase these.
On this given morning I was at a beach where some shorebirds often visit but as I hadn’t been there before and the morning was going to be sunny with clear sky I went for an early morning session. Usually for shorebird photography I check the tide times because when there is low tide, it exposes all the muddy areas for shorebirds to feed on. And as the tide rises they keep coming closer the shore. But this day when I reached this area the tide was going from high to low and I noticed a couple of Sooty Oystercatchers on my right. The sun was rising from a bit left from where they were standing so If I had to get traditional well lit shot of theirs, I had to wait till they moved from my right to my left.
They usually are very flighty birds, hence I had to pick a spot and stay put to make sure they don’t flyaway from the area. This is how I normally photograph, I walk around to find birds and when I do; I pick a spot and stay still depending on the birds I am photographing. While the birds were standing near the cliff, I flipped my camera to vertical position and snapped the below shot. As many of the other photos in this blog, it isn’t anything special but if the birds had moved away after this shot, it would have been the only shot I had from the day. The reason for going vertical was to show more of the cliff/their surrounding.
After I sat there for a bit, one of the bird got a bit adventurous and moved out towards the beach to look for food. At first, the area it was hanging at was under the shadows so I turned towards shooting motion blurs. On a side note – I love photographing motion blur and photos with intentional camera movement (ICM), so on my first custom setting option I have it as shutter priority at 1/15 with ISO100. When the opportunity comes I just have to flick my dial from Manual to C1 and shoot away. I usually try this during sunsets or when a bird is either colourful or there’s a flock of birds but here I gave it a go along with paning my camera with the bird to get below shot.
As it kept moving more towards my left, I kept on taking photos whenever any clear frames opened up.
When the bird moved right in front of me, I tried placing my camera on the ground to bet some foreground bokeh from the light reflections but as the sun a bit higher I couldn’t get right effect, neither could I get a decent backlit shot. The shot below was the best I could manage.
When it moved a little bit further to my left, I finally had light hitting it directly. As it was coming out of the water towards me, I got few shots with some good poses and one with even some funny motion blur as it was trying to shake off the excess water.
If I can, I try to show the photos with poses showing some movement. Another thing I try to do is make sure I get some vertical shots too.
When it finally came to my left, I could only manage a couple of shots before it flew away. The light was hitting it perfectly but unfortunately background was average. But all these shots were taken with me sitting at the same spot.
After it flew away, I noticed the other bird had flew away with it too, but to my delight they didn’t go too far away, instead they just went further down the beach where more area had opened up due to the tide going lower. So I watched them from a distance and then found a spot from where I could manage different compositions with them in the landscape. If you know me then you may know that I rarely share frame filling shots, bird in its surrounding it my preferred style. I do take closeup given the opportunity, I just keep them to myself.
Most of the below shots are almost as they were shot in terms of composition, I did minimal cropping and some straightening in some of them but that’s it. For some of the shot, I was happy composition wise but then bird didn’t give the best poses but there were others I was really happy with.
So that’s it for this little blog, hope you enjoyed it. Please share your thoughts or let me know if you have any tips for me either here or on my insta.