bird photography Archives

Victoria’s Coast and Photo Tip: Charming the Birds

There are some great bird photography locations in Victoria, but during my January trip the drought was playing havoc, with days of unexpected rain, paralytic heat, and dust storms. But even with a little persistence, even in the worst of weather you can still find a few plucky birds. The scenery along the shores of […]

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Bird Images, Bird photography, Habitats, On the Beaton Track, Photography Techniques, Quick Tips, Victoriabird photography, birds, national parks, Nature photography, wildlife photography

Think the Reciprocal Rule is safe? It fails with high resolution cameras

Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) on nest among casuarina trees, Lake Tuggerah, Central Coast, New South Wales

The reciprocal rule is handy to know when you are hand-holding your camera, especially with a long lens attached. It states “always use a shutter speed whose reciprocal is faster than the focal length of the lens”. So if you’re hand-holding a 500 mm lens, you have to use a shutter speed of 1/500 or

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Bird Images, Photography Techniques, Photography Workshops, Quick Tips, Wildlife Photographybird photography, D810, flash photography, Nature photography, Nikkor lens, Nikon

28 Best Reasons to do Bird Photography

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) (subspecies coromandus) at nesting site, in willow tree, farm dam, Dooralong, Central Coast, New South Wales

Bird photography is the most challenging, difficult, expensive and time-consuming of all the areas of nature photography. Why on earth would anyone want to go to all that trouble? But something’s going on, because not only is there a rapid rise in bird watching, but also in nature and wildlife photography. If you’re not already

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Bird Images, Photography Techniques, Photography Workshops, Wildlife Photographybird photography, Central Coast, photography workshop

5x Growth – a Conservation Success Story

Several years ago, I partnered up with science writer Karen McGee to produce a feature on Gould’s Petrel for the UK magazine, Geographical. Most stories of endangered species I find confronting, but this one turned out to have a happy ending. Gould’s Petrel nests almost exclusively on a tiny bunch of rocks off the coast

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Behind the Scenes, Bird Images, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, New South Wales, Professional Photography, Threatened speciesbird photography, Cabbage Tree Island, conservation, environment, Gould's Petrel, John Gould Nature Reserve, National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, Port Stephens, seabirds

Don’t frame too tight

Sometimes, when I’ve been judging photo competitons, I’ve had to evaluate an image where the subject in the photo is wedged so tight in the frame that you get an uncomfortable feeling looking at it. When I’ve commented that “there’s no room to breathe” the photographer usually rebuts me by saying “but I’ve been criticised

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Bird Images, Cute Animals, Nature and Wildlife, New South Wales, Photography Techniques, Quick Tips, Wildlife Photographybird photography, composition, hollows, Nature photography, old growth trees, photography, tree hollows, wildlife portrait

5 Steps to Buying a Tripod

So many of my students avoid tripods. Sure, they bring them to the workshops, but then they diligently avoid using them until I just about take a leg off and beat them with it. The reason they don’t want to use them is because they’ve brought along a tripod that is painful to use. You

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Photography Equipmentbird photography, landscape photography, nature, tripods

Let’s Encourage Young Photographers

I’d like to acknowledge a budding young nature and wildlife photographer, Mikaela Clews. She won the Young Encourage-ment award at the recent Gosford Council photo competition. Mikaela Clews deserves a lot of credit for getting out into the bushlands around Gosford, New South Wales. The aim of the photo competition was to portray how nature

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Photo Competitions, Photo Critiquesbird photography, photo competition, photographers, wildlife photography, youth

Magic happens when you least expect it

I arrived at Cooper Creek, in South Australia’s Channel Country, in the middle of this year’s unusual rains. The scene I planned to photograph was grey and ordinary. But after spending an hour or two – and after I stopped whinging about the gloomy skies – the real beauty of the scene emerged. To get

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Did You Know?, On the Beaton Track, Outbackbird photography, Cooper Creek, floods, Innaminka

Meredith’s Superb Wren and the Great Tripod Debate

Thanks to everyone for the great comments on my first blog post. I’m really stumped by who could be behind some of those quirky aliases! Instead of one of my photos, I’d like to post a winner sent in by Meredith Foley, one of my Day Safari participants. She’s asked a question and I’m sure

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Photo Critiquesbird images, bird photography, birds, photo critique, telephoto lens, tripods