One of the biggest misconceptions in photography is that in order to achieve sharp images you need an expensive lens. I often hear people say “if I had this or that lens I could get pictures like that too.” I myself shared this same belief when getting started in photography, but quickly learned that this simply is not true. While expensive glass does have its advantages it certainly does not guarantee results. In reality, several factors are to blame for images that lack sharpness none of which are the fault of the lens.

When reviewing my images after a day of shooting rather than blame my lens for the images that are not sharp (yes there are plenty, but I don’t share them), I always take time to analyze each one and ask myself what I could have done differently in order to have obtained a sharp image. By doing so, I have learned how to adjust my settings and technique and implement those changes the next time I am in the field under similar conditions, which results in sharper images. Learning form my mistakes has helped improve my photography tremendously over the years. 

Not everyone can afford a top of the line super telephoto lens, and even if you can unless a significant portion of your income comes from photography it’s hard to justify spending over $10,000 on a 500 mm or 600 mm prime lens. If you currently own or are thinking about purchasing one of these lenses, you are still unlikely to get sharp images unless you follow these three simple tips.   

The Importance of Shutter Speed 

Motion is regularly the biggest reason images are not sharp. Motion can be caused by either camera shake (not holding the camera steady) or the speed of your subject. The general rule in photography to eliminate camera shake when shooting hand held is to make sure your shutter speed is at least 1/focal length of your lens. This is known as the reciprocal rule. For example, with my Canon 100-400mm lens fully zoomed at 400mm I want my shutter speed to be at least 1/400th of a second . If you are shooting with a 250mm kens, make sure you are shooting at 1/250th of a second, 1/300th of a second for a 300mm lens and so on. This is one of the quickest ways to achieve sharper images, so adjust your aperture or ISO accordingly to achieve a faster shutter speed. 

As mentioned, motion can also come from the speed at which your subject is moving and is a huge factor in wildlife photography. Unfortunately the reciprocal rule only applies to stationary subjects. When photographing birds that are constantly flitting or birds in flight, a much faster shutter speed is required. My goal when photographing any type of wildlife stationary or moving is to achieve a shutter speed of at least 1/1000th of a second as this has consistently delivered sharp images for me. I always start every shoot at ISO 800 even on sunny days as this typically gives me my desired shutter speed. 

Steady Your Camera And Lens

Holding your camera and lens steady are crucial to sharp images even with a fast shutter speed. Keeping a focus point on your subject becomes more challenging at longer focal lengths and when your subject is farther away. Even with fast shutter speeds, good technique is key to sharp images. When holding your camera, keep your arms bent and your elbows close to your sides. Place on foot in front of the other and bend your knees. The closer your camera is to your centre of gravity the easier it will be to keep a focus point on your subject. 

Most people, especially those using zoom lenses, hold their lenses at the 9 o’clock position while rotating the zoom ring with their thumb, index, and middle fingers. This method may seem the most comfortable, but inevitably is setting you up for increased camera shake. Rotating your wrist in this manner puts it in an unnatural position and increases tightness on the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your forearm. After a few minutes of holding a lens like this arm fatigue will set in and your hand will start to twitch. This twitching will present a real challenge when trying to hold a focus point on the subject, especially at great distances or with long focal lengths resulting in blurry images. 

If you wish, you can experience the effects of holding a lens like this while reading this post. Hold your arm straight out in front of you with your thumb up. Rotate your wrist 90 degrees clockwise and you will instantly feel tightness in your forearm. Continue to hold your arm outstretched like this with your wrist rotated for several minutes and you will notice your hand start to twitch. Remember this will be amplified while supporting the weight of a camera and lens. To correct this, try supporting your lens from underneath at the 6 o’clock position with the palm of your hand facing up. This technique has helped me tremendously to steady my camera and lens, thus achieving sharper images.

Other helpful techniques for steadying your camera and lens would be to drop down to one knee while using the other to steady your elbow or sit down and use both knees to steady both elbows. Using various objects as supports including trees, fences, park benches, and picnic tables will also lead to sharper images.        

Shoot At A Narrower Aperture

All lenses regardless of price point are sharper one stop either side of their widest and narrowest apertures. For this reason I always try to shoot at f/8 whenever possible. This is known as stopping down. Fully zoomed to 400mm, my lens’ widest aperture is f5.6. By stopping down to f/8 my images are noticeably sharper. Not only is my lens sharper at f/8 than at f/5.6, the narrower aperture gives my images more depth. Since getting close enough to my subject to fill the frame is rarely possible, most of my images are cropped at least slightly. This added depth really helps improve the sharpness of my images by keeping more of the subject in focus. 

For those of you shooting with a kit lens in the 250mm to 300mm range, you too will have f/5.6 as your widest aperture when fully zoomed. Stopping down to f/8 will yield sharper images for you as well. If you are using one of the new Sigma or Tamron 150-600mm lenses, your widest aperture at 600mm will be f/6.3, so stopping down a full stop will put you at f/9. Keep in mind stopping down will cost you one stop of light in terms of shutter speed, but in decent light with your ISO at 800 you should still achieve a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second. 

If you already own a 500mm or 600mm f/4 lens, these same tips apply and will result in sharper images. If you don’t own one of these lenses, give these tips a try before you rush out and drop five figures on a new lens. By doing so, I’m certain you will be impressed by the capabilities of your current lenses. The blame for previously unsharp images will shift from equipment to photographer and the onus of sharp images will be on you.

Getting to know and understand your current gear is the biggest investment any photographer, professional or amateur, can make when it comes to achieving sharper images. Next time you are out in the field give these three tips a try, I think you will be pleased with the results.

Good birding,
Paul

Wildlife photography can be extremely challenging. Often times we photographers add to these challenges by making critical errors resulting in missed opportunities. In order to put the odds in your favour for capturing an image of a lifetime, avoid making these common mistakes.

1. Not Being Prepared

If you are not ready for the shot before it presents itself, you are going to miss it. Several things fall into the category of not being prepared all of which will cause you to miss potential images. Preparation should always begin at home the night before heading out for a day of shooting. First, make sure your camera’s battery is charged and your memory card has enough room to accommodate plenty of images. I always charge my battery the night before and have at least two empty memory cards for every shoot. Second, when you arrive at your destination turn your camera on and remove your lens cap. Often times I see people walking around with the power off and their lens caps on in fear of draining their battery or damaging the front element of their lens. The fact is if you have to power up your camera and remove your lens cap before taking a shot, in most cases you are going to miss the shot.

2. Shooting In Automatic Mode

Most photographers start out shooting in automatic mode after purchasing their first camera. In this mode the camera chooses the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO resulting in a decent exposure based on the amount of available light. This is a great way to get comfortable with a new camera, but if you want to up your game when it comes quality wildlife photos the faster you get out of automatic mode the better. The reason why automatic mode is not the best choice for quality wildlife images is the camera does not know your subject and whether it is moving or stationary and only calculates the exposure based on light. This often results in a shutter speed that is too slow to freeze wildlife in action. These slow shutter speeds lead to blurry images destined for the recycle bin. Shooting in either aperture priority mode or manual mode gives you more control of your exposure and allows you to factor in both light and subject to achieve a sufficient shutter speed which will result in sharper final images.

3. Shooting At Too Low An ISO

Increasing your ISO will consequently lead to a faster shutter speed, something that is crucial for capturing sharp images of fast moving wildlife. Granted a higher ISO will result in more digital noise, but I personally have deleted more images due to a shutter speed that was too slow than I have ones that were too noisy. Digital noise can be removed in post production, but shutter speed can never be increased once you return home. I rarely shoot below ISO 800 even on sunny days when photographing birds and other wildlife because this value gives me the shutter speed I need to freeze fast moving subjects. Many folks are afraid to shoot at an ISO above 400 due the increased noise, but bumping this up to 800 will result in sharper images because of the faster shutter speed while the slight increase in noise can be removed in post.

4. Choosing Too Many Focus Points

Many cameras today have sophisticated auto focus systems with as many as 65 focus points. This can be a benefit in some scenarios but can also be a hindrance in others. In many situations when photographing wildlife in their natural habitat obstructions come into play. Branches, grasses, and even human made objects within the habitat can cause your camera to focus on them rather than the subject if too many focus points are selected. For this reason I almost always choose a single focus point and place it on my subject.

5. Improper Focus

How many times have you taken a photo and when you got home and opened it up on your computer the subject is out of focus? Unfortunately, this happens to a lot of us for many reasons. Sometimes it has to do with mistake #4 where too many focus points were chosen and the camera locked onto an object in the foreground or background that wasn’t the subject. Other times it may have been a case of not holding the focus point on the subject. Placing a single focus point on the subject’s eye will result in sharper final images, because let’s face it, when the eye is sharp the image is sharp.

Next time you venture out to photograph wildlife avoid these common mistakes. By doing so, your chances of capturing an image of a lifetime will be greatly increased.

Good birding,
Paul

It was another cold week in the Forest City with wind chills hovering around -20 Celsius or colder most days. These frigid conditions are among my favourite to get out birding. As area lakes and ponds freeze, large quantities of waterfowl make their way to the Thames River in search of open water. During these conditions, Bald Eagles are also readily observed along the river, and despite being a species at risk in Ontario, are commonly found within the city during the winter months. 

Throughout winter the majority of my birding is done along the Thames River in both Greenway and Springbank Park. The moving water in this section of river remains ice free regardless of how cold it gets attracting a variety of birds. I made several trips to the river this past week hoping to observe and photograph the multitude of birds on the river itself and along its banks. As a result, I was delighted by my observations and the images I was able to capture. 

To enjoy birding in these conditions being properly dressed is paramount. I have tried a lot of different clothing over the years and consequently wasted a considerable amount of money on garments claiming to be warm that in fact are not. If you are curious as to what I wear in order to be able to spend half a day or more outside during these conditions, please visit this blog post I wrote a few years ago titled Enjoy Winter Birding By Dressing For The Weather. 

One observation I am happy to report is the number Bald Eagles observed daily along the Thames River. Along the north bank across from the pollution plant in Greenway Park is the best place to observe these majestic raptors. One morning just after 9 a.m., I observed seven Bald eagles, mostly juveniles, perched in the large poplars. Despite their immense size, juvenile eagles can be challenging to locate when perched, so watching for movement along the bank will assist in locating these birds. Birding in Springbank Park also revealed a number of Bald Eagles, again mostly juveniles, with at least one of these birds observed on each of my visits. 

As mentioned previously, waterfowl numbers were quite impressive this past week. With the extended period of cold weather, both dabbling and diving duck numbers increased substantially. Easily found were: Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Hoodeded Merganser, and Bufflehead. Again this week, I located a male Northern PIntail in Springbank Park. Also found within the park were my first Red-breasted Mergansers of the year with two females and one male observed. These birds only show up on the river during particularly cold winters and are more of a rarity in our immediate area. Reports on eBird indicate a female Long-tailed Duck and Pied-billed Grebe were present in Greennway Park on New Year’s Day.  While birding in Greenway Park, I observed  a male Lesser Scaup, presumable the same bird I first observed in mid-December, downstream from outflow at the pollution plant. This bird is extremely challenging to locate as it tends to stick close to the near bank often obstructed by the tree cover. 

Each winter Great Blue Herons can be found along the Thames River. The section of river near the pollution plant often yields the best results. Open water provides a food source for these birds which sustains them throughout the harsh winter months. As a result, many of these birds remain in the area all winter. Last week I observed six Great Blue Herons in this small section of river. Look for herons on the leeward bank seeking shelter from the cold wind.

Birding along the Thames River during the winter months is not limited to water birds and raptors as many songbirds are also abundant. The forested areas throughout the aforementioned parks as well as the shrubby, tree-lined banks provide the perfect habitat for a variety of species. Black-capped Chickadees are perhaps the most numerous, but Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, Nuthatches, and Woodpeckers are also readily present. Paying attention to wind direction and finding sheltered areas will increase the number of birds observed.     

If you have not made it out to either of these parks yet this winter, you truly are missing out on some great birding opportunities. Observing many of these species does not require hours spent searching in the cold. Many of these species can be observed within minutes of arriving at the park and only a short walk from any of the designated parking areas. 

I was never a big fan of outdoor winter activities until I got serious into birding and photography. With the abundance of birds at these two beautiful  parks, I find myself looking forward to winter each year and aside from spring migration, it is my favourite time to bird. If you get the chance, layer up and try birding at one or both of these great parks in the coming weeks. By doing so I think you will agree there are certainly many fantastic birds present and will be rewarded with great views for your efforts.  

Good birding,
Paul