On Wednesday November 29th I’ll be doing a short presentation for the Grimsby Camera Group. My topic is photographing birds and insects from a beginner’s perspective.
The session will be held upstairs at the Station 1 Coffeehouse in Grimsby Ontario, located at 28 Main Street East. Presentation doors open at 6:45 PM and my presentation will run from 7:00PM to about 8:15PM.
The presentation is open to everyone and is not restricted to members of the Grimsby Photography Group. A very modest donation is requested by the group to help to offset their facility costs for the event. I will be donating my time.
The session is planned to be an interactive one with questions fielded as we go along.
Content is designed to appeal to photographers who are looking for some beginner tips. For example, considering backgrounds in bird photography compositions.
We’ll be discussing bird photography, both birds-in-flight and static subjects.
Butterfly, bee and other insect images will also be shared, along with some composition tips for these types of subjects.
The presentation will not be focused on gear, but will include some basic considerations when choosing cameras, lenses and other gear.
Technical note:
All photographs were captured hand-held in available light using Nikon 1 gear as per the EXIF data. To calculate the equivalent field-of-view multiply the focal lengths by 2.7. All images in this article were produced from RAW files using my standard approach of DxO OpticsPro 11/PhotoLab, CS6 and the Nik Collection.
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Great article and outstanding bird photos.
The V3 has some faults that should be corrected but it remains one of the most affordable wildlife and sports camera on the market. I lug around a FF DSLR system which for birding can be exhausting and is expensive so I’m thinking for around 2k a Nikon V3 with the 70 -300mm will give me a 810mm lens (2.7 x factor) and my nikon FX glass, with the adapter , will be supersized.
Hi Michael,
I’m glad you enjoyed the bird images – and thank you for the supportive comment! The V3/CX 70-300 is a great combination for wildlife and sports. It is a bit challenged in low light with the small sensor. I used a V2 with an FT-1 adapter with an Nikkor FX 70-200 f/4 which worked well, giving me an efov of 540mm at f/4. Another good combination was a Nikkor FX 85mm f/1.8 prime…that had an efov of 229.5mm at f/1.8.
Tom
Hi Thomas,
Your images always amaze me as I’m an experienced bird photographer. You are very skilled. That said, I think much of your magic with the Nikon 1 is in your post-processing of the RAW images. Using PRIME noise reduction as a first step is probably key. Now that DxO has purchased Nik’s software, I suspect that much of what you use in the Nik Collection will make its way into DxO PhotoLab ..I sure hope so. I have migrated from Canon to Olympus, from a APSC sensor to MFT, so I will also be trying to minimize noise while preserving detail and improving the dynamic range.
Your images fly in the face of many who believe that small sensors won’t cut it!
If I lived anywhere Grimsby, I’d be in your audience!
Hi Glen,
Thanks for your supportive comment – much appreciated! Nikon 1 files do take a bit of a different approach. I put all of my Nikon 1 files through PRIME noise reduction, regardless of the ISO at which the images were captured. For some reason I just like how my initial files come out when using it. From a practical standpoint using PRIME gives me about 2 stops of additional functionality with my Nikon 1 bodies. I never hesitate to shoot any of them up to ISO-3200.
I ‘double bump’ the highlights in most of my Nikon 1 files, using both DxO and CS6…and sometimes ‘double adjust’ shadows in these programs. I am a lot more aggressive with highlight and shadow adjustments than I ever was when shooting with DSLRs. I also use the Spot Weighted DxO Smart Lighting on almost all of my Nikon 1 files. I find this helps ‘balance out’ the images in terms of dynamic range.
Tom
Exceptional as always Mr. Stirr! I noticed you added DxO PhotoLab to OpticsPro11. I downloaded a trial of 11 that is about to expire but just received an email notifying that PhotoLab had been released. It appears PhotoLab has the Prime NR and Clearview options that I have really come to appreciate. PhotoLab is also less expensive than Pro11. Is this a “no brainer” or am I missing something?
I’m glad you enjoyed the images Kevin!
I haven’t had much opportunity yet to play around with DxO PhotoLab, but I think it would be a ‘no brainer’ if you haven’t paid for OpticsPro 11. As your comment notes, PhotoLab has Prime NR and Clearview. It also has DxO Smart Lighing Spot Weighted adjustments which is a tool that I use with almost every image I process. I have not had the opportunity to use any of the spot adjustment tools in PhotoLab yet so I can’t comment on that aspect of the new program. My understanding is that OpticsPro 11 will no longer be offered in the future.
Tom
Did a little more research since my post. First, the email received was for the “Essentials” edition of PhotoLab ($99USD). If you go to the DxO site, like the old OpticsPro, there is an “Elite” version ($149USD) . Essential does not contain the Prime NR and Clearview. Pricing will be same as OpticsPro11 after November 30th. $50 USD off until then.
Hi Kevin,
Since I was already using the Elite version of OpticsPro 11, my upgrade to DxO PhotoLab Elite cost me $69.00 US plus $14.90 US for a back-up disk. I think PRIME noise reduction alone is worth the extra money, but that would need to be a judgement call by individual photographers.
Tom
Hi Thomas, superb illustrations as always :P
Do you think someone from the audience could bring a tripod and a camera to record the presentation? I’d love to see/hear your presentation!
I’m also keen to get some book recommendations, there are few and would like to pick a good one, any recommendation appreciated!
Thanks and see you on PL :)
Hi Bitonio,
From a Copyright perspective I would never allow one of my presentations to be recorded, so I won’t be able to accommodate your request…sorry about that.
When it comes to photography my personal learning style is 100% experiential and experimental. As a result I don’t read books on photography…so unfortunately I don’t have any recommendations in that regard.
I do have an eBook planned for 2018 that is about photographing birds and insects using hand-held technique. At this point that specific book is scheduled for a mid 2018 launch…assuming all of the other things on my schedule go as planned. All of my eBooks will be announced here at Photography Life, and will be available for purchase on my photography blog.
Tom
I understand for the presentation. To bad for me, air fare from California is not an option :-)
I’ll look forward for your ebook then, and may invest in some book, sometimes there is only a tiny piece of advice, very valuable, in hundreds of pages, that is my main concern with book :P
Hi Bitonio,
You may want to join some of the bird photography forums to find out what books other members have found valuable. I’ve found that the Pareto Principle applies to photography, i.e. that 20% of concepts produce 80% of the results. When I’ve done photography coaching with clients we’ve honed in on a few, key areas when it comes to birds-in-flight. These include eye/hand coordination (this is critical for birds-in-flight), knowing your gear in terms of auto-focus performance and minimum focusing distances, image composition/lighting, and observing bird behaviour. Over the years I’ve found that improvement in these four areas can lead to dramatically better photographs.
Bird photography, especially birds-in-flight, is one of those things that simply requires many hours of practice. I try to get out a couple of times of month to photograph birds-in-flight. Sometimes all I can find to photograph are gulls or geese so I know that I likely won’t be getting any ‘keepers’…but it is important to get the practice hours.
Tom
Wow … S U P E R B work!
I have a NIKKOR VR 70-300mm , but I can not get results like this.
Maybe I do not using RAW files.
Congrats, Thomas!
Greetings from Brazil! ;D
Hi Deisi,
Shooting in RAW can make a significant difference to the end result as RAW files providesa lot more latitude in post.
Tom
Beautiful! Hope one day you do a presentation in Oregon, where I might be able to attend!
George
Hi George,
You live in a very beautiful state! Back when I was in corporate life I used to travel out to Oregon on business very frequently. I probably haven’t been out that way for 18 years or so.
Tom
Thomas, These are wonderful pix taken with Nikon 1 V3 and the 50-300mm lens. I have tried the same lens with my friend’s V2. The result was not as good. Also I have tried the V2 with the Histogram and the Histogram would not stay when the shutter button is pressed. The Histogram stays all time in the Sony A6000’s. Is there a way to setup the Histogram to stay all the time?
Sidney
Hi Sidney,
Sorry, but I am not aware of a way to get the histogram to show with the V2. When I get a few minutes I’ll do a bit of investigating to see if there is a way to do that.
Tom
Hi Tom,
I’m on the other side of the globe so I’d be appreciating your work from afar instead.
Love the images you shared though the two ducks flying is absolutely fantastic!
Oggie
Glad you enjoyed the images Oggie!
Tom
Astounding images! Would certainly attend your seminar if I were in Ontario.
Thanks Merlin – I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Tom
Excellent set of images, Thomas!
I’m sure it will be an interesting talk, so I’ll ask Scotty to beam me across the pond to Grimsby Ontario ;-)
cheers,
Greg.
Hi Greg,
Assuming that Scotty does not have any technical issues, I’ll look forward to seeing you at the presentation. :-) I should ask him for some travel assistance with some photography tours planned for next year.
Tom