Warm Weather Ambush

We’re expecting warmer weather here in SW Michigan this week. Just an ambush, I’m sure, but it gets me thinking about my upcoming Spring migration bird photography adventures. The warm weather will be a nice respite, even though we know the brutal cold will be back. The migrating birds won’t be fooled.

Photographing An Eastern Phoebe

This little flycatcher is an Eastern Phoebe with a darkish bill and no wing bars. He sat on his zig-zaggy branch for quite a long while and varied his pose not at all. The camera and 500mm lens were tilted down toward his near ground level perch. The cluttered, deep woods backdrop was less than 3 feet away. The ambient light was sufficient to illuminate the perch and the wooded background equally. (NOTE: I used the camera’s DOF button to see if the background would appear darker compared to the subject.). To get more feather detail, I attached the flash with extender and played with flash intensity (FEC) to add some fill light on the subject. Given the close proximity of the subject with his background, I was quite surprised that, at F/8 aperture, the lens delivered such a pleasing bokeh.

Lenses are Not Eye Glasses

When I attach a tele-extender or swap lenses on my dSLR cameras, I often stand under a bright light to check out how much dust and lint have accumulated on the glass and contacts. There’s usually a lot.

I’ve seen photographers clean their lenses like they would their spectacles….breathe a mist and wipe it against their pant leg, or use their fingernails, or spray a couple pumps of windex directly onto the glass.  They are asking for trouble.

Proper Lens Maintenance

It is perfectly normal for dust to attach to a lens and most dust does not impact the images. Once it is removed, more dust will reattach in short order. Professional lenses are designed (from the seals to the protective coatings) to stand up to all sorts of abuse, including dog slobber, ocean spray, chlorinated water mist, fine beach sand and wind debris.

The only tools I ever use on my lenses are a small blower (no brush attached) and a lens pen. I don’t use a cloth because it tends to just smear. (NOTE: Clear protective multi-coated glass filters that protect lenses from scratches, dust, moisture and fingerprints are not made for the front elements of large, telephoto lenses.)

The best way I’ve found to assess the extent of dust and debris on my lenses is to look for them on my images. I use Lightroom’s spot removal function, click on the visualize box and see if there are any suspicious spots. If spots are there, you can easily fix the images, but you most likely do not have the tools and knowledge to disassemble and clean the lens…. plus you risk voiding the warranty. It’s best to send it in to a certified lens maintenance shop and let them take care of it.

Photographing Black Phoebes

Most mornings, I’m up early enough to greet the dawn. It’s not always sunny, but I still get excited thinking about photographic prospects that may come with the glorious morning light.

One recent morning in sunny San Diego, I woke to a cloudy gray morning with no promise of favorable light for bird photography. I decided to scout around for possible locations that might offer the likelihood of engaging sun-set lit images.

Dawn v Dusk

At dawn, soft luminosity rapidly intensifies into a day long burst. The light seems cleaner, clearer with warm colors embellished by the mist in the air. Moving from darkness into light, my eyes do not struggle to adapt. But sunset feels entirely different. Vision rapidly declines as light fades quickly to murky gray. My impaired vision struggles to discern birdish contours in the diminishing light. Once the sun dips below the horizon, there is only enough light for silhouettes.

Sunset Lit Black Phoebes

Bird photography is always a waiting game, but it has been my experience that birds are more actively foraging during the early morning hours. On this particular evening, a few aerobatic Black Phoebes swooped up, down and around, catching flying insects while airborne. They momentarily rested on lower tree limbs, quickly pounced on unsuspecting ground quarry, then reclaimed their perches to swallow and prepare for the next strike.

I stood with my tripod fairly close to the activity, approximately 8 feet away. (Minimum focusing distance for the Canon 300mm f/2.8L II IS Lens = 78.7″) Long shadows extended in front of the camera…. so much so that I had to move the equipment further back so my shadow did not obstruct light on the subject in front of me.

Wildlife Activity Down

When I searched out possible sunset shooting locations that morning, I saw a lot of potential in way of light and bird activity. I did not however, factor in the influence people have on the behavior of wildlife. Ordinarily, very few people are around to disturb the early morning calmness. Thirty minutes before sunset when I set up my camera and tripod, people were everywhere.

I should have known. Birds were scarce because people generated road and foot traffic was up. Most of the human transients ignored me and continued with their activities and conversations, but some stopped to stare, walked over to investigate the area where the camera was pointing, or just walked by in front of the camera.

Sunset Success

It didn’t take long before the sun’s angle was low enough to flood the Black Phoebe straight on with soft and flattering light (except for a few branch shadows on the tail feathers). The creamy brown bokeh is the result of light intermingling with densely packed wooded tree trunks. Thankfully, there was a good 12 feet between my subject and his background. This distance helped achieve a seamless blur despite using a fairly tight aperture – f/8 – on my Canon 300mm 2.8 L IS lens with 1.4 telephoto attached.  I think this rich background contrasts nicely with the subject and helps bring out the detail in the bird’s plumage.

NOTE: “BOKEH = noun, a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.” No matter how visually appealing, Bokeh is wasted on an image that doesn’t have an interesting subject and composition.