9 tips for seabird colony photography
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- In this video I spend a day at the coast photographing seabirds from sunrise til sunset and share 9 tips with you on how to make the most of your visit to a sea bird colony. This includes puffins, razorbills and gannets.
There are so many birds to photograph on the coastal cliffs that it can almost be overwhelming. So make sure you have a plan and think about your photos so that you end up with lots of great images.
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:19 Arrive before sunrise
1:24 Position for foreground blur
2:13 Photos with foreground blur
3:00 Use scenery for birds in flight
3:42 Expose to the right for black & white birds
5:20 Photos of razorbills
6:04 Angle to photograph birds
8:28 Photos looking across
9:43 Photos looking down
11:03 Dealing with dense fog
13:50 Photograph diving birds
15:31 Photos of diving birds
16:44 Photograph birds returning to the cliffs
18:28 Photos of returning birds
18:48 Stay until sunset
19:27 Golden hour photos
20:25 Conclusions
Thank you for showing pictures and showing the background area and not just talking in a room
Thanks Freddy, most of my videos are out in the field. It drives me crazy when there are too many videos of the photographer sat behind a desk. Sometimes it needs to be done, such as a photo editing video, but other than those, you'll see me outside. Thanks for subscribing and for watching.
Another great video and as usual some great tips picked up. I like to gradually watch each of your videos rather than many at once. Thankyou Scott
Cheers James, much appreciated. Thanks for watching again.
Thanks for the great tips on exposure in this wonderful enjoyable video Scott and those images off yours are beautiful !!!
Thank you Raymond. Glad you enjoyed it. I’m grateful for your comment and for you watching as always.
Hi Scott, I live on Vancouver Island, this video is absolutely stuffed with valuable information for me. Thanks so much for sharing. Cheers Gord
Oh wow Gord. I've never been there, but I've seen lots of photos from Vancouver Island and it looks like a stunningly beautiful place. So you must get the tufted puffin there, I'd guess. A bird I'd love to photograph. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide I live on the Island’s east coast, south central area. I’ve never seen one but perhaps they show up at the north end. And yes, this is a beautiful part of the world, I am blessed to live here.
Great stuff, very useful. I have recently been to Lunga. It was an transformative experience. .
I’m very jealous. I was up on Skye a few weeks ago and I intended to get over to Lunga, but the weather was awful. There were days that the boats weren’t running, and on the days they were running the light was awful. So I didn’t go - there’s always next year. I hope you had a great time and got some fab photos. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Thank you, I did. And some good foreground blur of bluebells, inspired by your "blur" method.
Perfect timing Scott!. Fantastic video as usual too!
Hey Andy. Cheers, mate. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide thank you for the content mate!...out of curiosity would you recommend exposing to the right or left for Common Pochard?. I've noticed that I always struggle to make the eye stand out from the rust red head.
Hi Andy. Going towards the right will help so that you can sort it out in post. But best is to make sure you’re front lighting and the bird (ie the light is behind you). You should get a catchlight in it’s eye then, which will help it stand out. Or side lighting if the bird is facing the light.
Thank you for this video. I'm off to Bempton later this month and your video has helped a great deal. Bookmarked for future use.
Díky!
Ahoj, David. Moc děkuji za tip - moc si toho vážím.
great advice and some lovely images.
Cheers, and thanks for watching.
Good video, cracking images.
Cheers, and thanks for watching.
What a great session mate , you got some ripper shots. Thoroughly enjoyed it and the tips were super useful as well. Have a nice week Scott!👍👍
Thanks mate. Great day out - there were birds everywhere on those cliffs, it can be quite overwhelming - And the
number of birds will double over the next few weeks. Thanks for your lovely comment, support and for watching again.
Absolutely fascinating episode, Scott. What a fantastic location, your images are stunning. I always learn so much from your lessons and walk away so inspired. Great video, Thank you.
Thank you so much. That’s very kind of you. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
Great video, Scott. I'm really enjoying your insights on photographing the natural world. Here in Homer, Alaska, we have both the Tufted and Horned Puffin. I haven't attempted to grab a shot of them onshore, only in flight (so dang fast!). I shoot a Canon 5D iv and was wondering which AF you use on birds which are on the ground and inflight? Thank you, Scott.
Hi Eric. I'm glad you're enjoying the videos. And I'm very jealous you have the horned puffin. That is definitely a bord I'd like to photograph one day. The focus modes are different between Canon and Sony, so I'll let you know what I'd use if I had your camera. But also, it is as much about technique as it is choosing the right mode. As you become more experienced and put more practice in your accuracy gets better - which means you can choose a smaller focusing area, which in turns gives you camera a better chance of getting it right. For in flight - make sure you're in AI Servo. If you're fairly new you might want to start with Zone AF. Track the bird in flight and make sure to keep the AF zone over it's head. It might not always mean that the eye is perfectly sharp, but at least the head should be. Once you've gotten good at that you can reduce this down to AF point expansion and practice with this. Once you've got that working well (which could take a long time) move on to single point spot AF. When using this you'll want to practice keeping the autofocus spot over the bird's eye. With all these it is best to photograph it in short bursts. Press the shutter and let it fire off a few shots (3-6), Then make sure you've still got the bird in the autofocus zone and fire off a few shots again. If you keep working in short burst you will always be recomposing to make sure the bird is in the AF zone. For subjects on the ground, switch to single shot AF if you have time. It's not terribly important because AI Servo will still work just fine, but if another bord flies past your camera might pick up on the other bird and start focusing on that. But mostly Servo will work for you in both situations. I hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions.
Great video looks a beautiful place no cliffs where I live guess I’ll have to start travelling I’m on north Norfolk coast is a small cliff at Hunstanton with some common gull but not much more And there is also a fence to stop you getting near the edge as people have jumped off which is not good I did see a peregrine falcon there was hunting pigeons unfortunately I never had my Long lens now I carry everywhere thanks for sharing A great video. ❤
Hi Andy. I think you live in the best county in the England for birding. Yorkshire (Bempton) where I filmed this is probably second and there are some really good coastal spots in Scotland - but they take forever to reach. But I spend a lot of time in north Norfolk, I love the place. Snettisham, Titchwell, Cley - all fantastic. And there are some great woodlands around Sandringham, like those near Dersingham Bog. You're a lucky man. But if you get the chance to visit Bempton next year, you should. Starting Mid April and going up to Mid August are the best times.
Hi Scott. Nice primer to get me thinking ahead of my forthcoming visit. I’m going back for a week and am really looking forward to it. Been there once before and it’s brilliant. With black and white birds I find getting the exposure right is always a challenge (keeping detail in the darks whilst not blowing out the highlights), especially in bright light. Predominately dark birds are fine and I will ETTR there but I must admit that with birds such as puffins with as much white as black I normally err on the side of keeping detail in the highlights. Personally I don’t find the histogram that useful unless the bird is big in the frame, preferring instead to take a test shot, review with blinkies enabled and adjust the exposure accordingly. There, I said the video has got me thinking so thanks for that, really useful.
Hi Alan. I hope you enjoy your trip and get lots of nice photos. As with everything in photography, there's definitely more than one way to do things and I also think a lot of it is about understanding the performance of you're camera and its sensor. I definitely find it easier to pull details from the highlights in bright conditions than I do from the shadows, so ETTR is useful. And I always have my eye on the histogram regardless of what I'm photographing. Either way, I'm glad it gave you some food for thought. Good luck with your trip.
Thanks Scott. Totally agree about there being more than one way to achieve the objective (had that in mind when I wrote my initial comment and almost said it then). It allows for creativity and individuality - the tool in the hands of the craftsman!
Great video Scott, what a brilliant place Bemptom Cliffs are. I go every year and I'm so looking forward to getting back there. All the best, Steve.
It really is, Steve! I'll be going back there a few times over the summer, so you never know, I might bump in to you. I think I read that you run some workshops there. All the best and thanks for watching.
This episode brought back happy memories as I first went there as a Birthday treat to photograph the Puffins. I've only been twice but looking forward to returning some day.
Living on the west coast, I get nothing but sunsets. 😀
Cheers
Thank for your comment and for watching. It’s an amazing place for photographers - always worth a visit. Have you tried Skomer Island on the west coast? Another great place for Puffins and other sea birds.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Thanks for the tip about Skomer Island. I will definitely check it out this year.
You've inspired me to dig out my images from Bempton Cliffs, which I will put onto my little Flickr account.
Cheers
What a wonderful lesson. You have truly shown so much in this one. I learned some things and totally enjoyed the entire video from both a bird lover perspective and a learner of photography. Thank you so much.
Hi Tamara. Thanks for your lovely comment. Glad you enjoyed it and I hope it’s useful to you. You’ve got some really interesting coastal birds in the US that I’d like to photograph one day, including the tufted puffins on the west coast. Thanks for watching.
One of the most useful videos I have seen on RUclips for a long time. I will be visiting Bempton very soon and these tips will prove extremely useful. Love your channel - thank you
Cheers Richard. Thanks for your lovely comment and for watching. Hope your Bempton visit goes well.
Wonderful video Scott. I liked when you talk about to not stress birds and get back. And lovely photos you took. So far I saw and photographed only puffins, but not razorbills and gannets. I hope next time I'll go in UK. Take care!!
Thanks Giuseppe. Yes, come to the UK, there will be lots more birds as the season progresses. By the summer there will 400,000 birds on just those cliffs where I filmed. Glad you liked the photos and thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide it's always a pleasure following yours adventures
Lovely set of tips Scott and nice to see some different approaches to photographing the location and birds. I can imagine that most photographers where firing off hundreds of shots at eye level. Very comprehensive mate and leaves me with a problem of what angle to cover when I get up there to do my video😂 All the best Scott
😂😂😂 I'm sure you'll find a topic to cover, Scott. Thanks for watching and for the comment mate. I've had a night catching up on my RUclips watching. Looking forward to getting you your barny vid soon.
Nice one, great Vlog, you have really got my juices going, I’m heading there next week, I can’t wait. Did you see the Albatross
Thanks Alun. Enjoy your visit. I’m certainly planning to be back up there a few times this season. No, the day I was there, there wasn’t a single sighting of Albert. But the great thing about Bempton is that there’s so much to photograph even if you don’t get the rarities.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Your not wrong there, so much to shoot. I’ve pm you on Instagram, hope you don’t mind
I’ll check it out later. I never go on Instagram.
Nice video
Thanks for watching.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one, clearly a lot of thought, time and effort put into it, and it's given me some ideas, thank you!
Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Not at all, a pleasure! One thing I noticed when I visited your website to look at your kit list is that you use the A9 for your wildlife images. I am currently using an A6600 (with the Sony 200-600mm) and am considering the A9 as an upgrade.
The one thing I am worried about though is the loss of perceived reach coming from the APS-C sensor format. I like to shoot lots of small (fast moving) perched birds, Goldcrest, Warblers etc, as you'll be aware these are often in tricky environments with less than adequate light often.
My question I suppose is will I be able to crop the A9 images sufficiently to match the quality (feather detail etc) of the A6600, but of course gain from the better AF system and the low light Full frame capabilities of the A9? I would really appreciate your input on this as I am in a bit of a quandary!
Regards
Marcus
Hi Marcus. I would recommend getting the x1.4 teleconverter for those time you need a bit more reach. I stick that on quite often. It will get you to 840 mm. There’s also a x2 TC, but I rarely use that because you lose 2 stops of light with it. I also use an APS-C, (A6400) but for my video work. I have taken some stills with it and there is a massive difference in file quality coming from the A9 - it’s so much better. I would imagine you’ll notice a similar difference between the A6600 and the A9. Cropping is no problem as long as you’re not planning to print large. If you are publishing digitally or printing at less than A3 I would have no problem cropping by up to 50%
I hope that helps. If you’ve got any other questions about the A9 feel free to ask.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Thanks for the quick reply, that's sounding like it could potentially be a definite step up, with regards to IQ and hopefully capturing the finer feather detail. I guess it's always better to get closer to the subject if possible to fill the frame (humanely of course!).
How do you find it with the 1.4TC stopping down to F9 with regard to low light conditions, and being able to edit files in post?
Can this combinations files handle the lower light conditions, considering of-course they are exposed properly in the first place?
Thanks for getting back to me
Marcus
High ISO noise on full frame is generally much better than APS-C. But the noise levels in the A9 are great. Particularly if you do selective noise reduction and/or use Topaz. I regularly shoot at f/11 or f/13 even when I don’t have the TC on.
Nice to meet you Scott. Andy here.!Some good tips there. I’ve been a few times now and I’m always looking for different shots as I’ve got loads of similar ones. My fear of heights doesn’t help though, I need the barriers to calm me down a bit.!!
Cheers Andy, nice to meet you. Have you tried the boat trip? They should be starting up in May again. I think I might give it a go on one of my trips there this summer, perhaps get some different photos.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Yes I’ve done the gannet feeding trip twice. It’s very intense for that 20-30 minutes but it’s a cracking trip. Great to see the cliffs from sea level. You only need a 70-200 for that and sometimes wider.
Great post mate! I'd' love to see how you did the 'composite" at 16:40 for the razor bill. Thanks! cheers! ;)
Hi Gabriel. Glad you enjoyed it. I have made a video on those actions composites you asked about. You can see it here. ruclips.net/video/FMtnraS7Iw0/видео.html Jump to 11:48 if you just want the photo editing part. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide hey mate! yes! I saw it after I wrote you the message! 😂 Good post! cheers!
Very nice video Scott. As an experienced bird photographer, I am surprised how much I learned from your video. I live in Singapore so don't have a clue for popular sites to photograph these fantastic sea birds. Any suggestions where I can find needed information please?
Thank you. These species are all based around the Atlantic, so it would UK, Ireland and the East coast of North America. There's another puffin species on the Pacific - the tuffted puffin. But I think you'd need to go a lot further north from Singapore to find it (Japan). One of the best resources to find species near you is ebird [dot] org. You can search for locations of specific species or search by locations and see what birds have been reported there. Thanks for watching.
You should of turned your camera inland at sunset when the cliffs go into shade. and photographed the barn owls.
Great content. Which lens do you recommend in such locations?
Hi Felix. Zoom lenses are often the best for such locations because there is a wide variety of sizes of birds. Anything that gets you up to 600mm will be best but a 300mm will be fine if you concentrate on the birds flying close to the cliffs. You might should even be able to get some photos of birds perched on the cliffs if you can safely get close enough to them with a 70-200mm, or equivalent. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide I will take two bodies one with 200-500mm and the other with 100-400mm thanks for the prompt reply looking forward to seeing more of your content