Bird Photography pointers? (gear and technique)

[jmbower]

I currently have a Pentax K100d and, among other lenses, a tamron 70-300mm di 4-5.6.

I have become interested in birds/bird photography. However, I also have a fairly tight budget. These things do not seem to mesh well. Other enthusiasts I have trekked about with have ridiculously large and expensive teles that I will never be able to afford.

I am not covetous of this, but it would be nice to get better long range tele performance. at 300mm, I still can't get very close to birds unless they happen to be perched quite near me. Even then, a good deal of crop is involved.

I most likely plan to upgrade to the k20d fairly soon. The extra resolution may help a bit, but I still have a 300mm cap...

So what I'd liek to know from fellow bird photographers using Pentax is:

1) what do you use?
2) any recommendations for a budget shooter? (And in budget I mean, no way no how can I afford a lens at or remotely near the 1000 range, let alone anything more expensive. Several hundred might work, but the reaon I bought the Tarmon was it ran me all of 140 bucks. Even used, I think a Bigma or better are outside what I can afford.)
3) if I am going to be handicapped by gear in my price range, can you suggest techniques, etc that may help? (I'm not really interested in feeder shots, I shoot mostly in the field. )

any help would be appreciated!!!

[Wheatfield]

Well, you will want a longer lens.
Sometimes mirror lenses can be found fairly inexpensively and can work well as long as the background isn't really busy.

[Marc Sabatella]

See some recent threads on telephoto lenses in the Lens forum. I've been in a similar position asking questions and posting my experiences, and there has been lots of good discussion. I'd agree a mirror lens could be worth considering, but be sure to get a "good" one - the Tamron 500 or Sigma 600 (both discontinued), for instance. Most of the ones sold today are pretty bad in comparison - likely not an improvement over cropping your 70-300. If you don't mind the mch greater size & weight, there are "telescope" type lenses available for just a few hundred that apparently do better; I just can't see myself using something like that much.

[WerTicus]

could try mirror lenses... i've seen some good shots come out of them.

[ivoire]

The Tamron 70-300 is very sharp up to 200mm. You might try a kenko 2x AF 7 element teleconverter with it ($125) or the promaster 1.7x AF tc ($99). Hinman uses a TC and gets decent pics with that lens. The sigma 135-400mm comes up on ebay for around $350+ and the images from it are quite good at f8. The 55-300mm images are good also. Find an area birds frequent and wait in one spot for 30 minutes and let the birds come to you. With good stealth technique, they come very close.

[Ron Boggs]

Since you won't likely be getting close optically due to budget constraints you'll want to consider a couple ideas to fill the frame.
1. Work with larger species--ducks, geese, herons, game bird species like pheasants etc. Bigger birds fill the frame easier than smaller birds. Much of the best little tweety bird work is done at feeders which you prefer to avoid.
2. Exploit birds when they are less wary. Typically, birds comfort zone won't allow you close enough to fill the frame. But during breeding season which is now through June, birds may let down their guard a bit in order to attract mates, build nests, incubate eggs, and feed the insatiable appetites of the young. Don't get close enough to bother them on nests in particular, but knowing the nesting areas will get you closer to preoccupied breeders.
3. Go where birds are accustomed to people. Herons feed in city park ponds, waterfowl congregate in refuges and wildlife viewing areas, pheasants gather along farm roads...these types of target birds may be less concerned with human presence. They are used to being gawked at. Even typically hard to photo hawks may be easy to get close to when they are following a tractor plowing a field--hawks often follow tillers to grab mice on the ground.
4. Use your vehicle as a blind. Where birds are accustomed to people gawking at them they are also used to vehicles. Shoot from your window on a small window pod or from a beanbag.
5. For flight shots use the wind as your ally. Birds hover in the wind, use this to your advantage. Of course, you'll need to be in areas with lots of birds in order to use this method of catching them on the wing. Note that hawks and eagles tend to poop immediately before flying from a perch. So when you see them squirt, prepare to hold the shutter down for a blast of images as the bird takes wing.
6. Place yourself along migration corridors. As birds are returning North, they take routes that are well established and known to birders in your area. Your local Audobon Society is filled with the best bird watchers in your region. They'll know the high percentage migration routes and their weekend outings can be very helpful in leading you to birds that may be photo cooperative. You probably won't get tons of shooting time while on an Audobon bird watching outing, but you'll learn where to go on your own the next day!
Have a blast. Bird work is very challenging, but also very fun.

[Canada_Rockies]

I would suggest one of the inexpensive long focus lenses rather than a mirror. I think that for the same price as a mirror you well actually get a bit more image quality than from an inexpensive mirror lens.

Keep your eyes open for a longer "real" lens, too. I lucked into my M 400/5.6 some 20 years ago. A newspaper photographer was switching to Nikon so he could share the office lenses, and I paid a whole Cdn $330 for it. Haunt the pawn shops in your area. Keep an eye on the used equipment in the local brick and mortar shops. You just might come up with something better than you think.

[tybeck]

I'll put another vote in for a "real" 400mm telephoto prime. I picked a Sigma 400mm/5.6 MF APO prime a few months back and found it to be pretty good for mid-distance wildlife photography. I can decent results even hand held since the lens and camera body weight isn't too bad. In a few cases I've gotten pretty close to the birds using a blind (public set up in a wildlife refuge).

Took a photo of this guy hanging out a school bus window.

[palmor]

Just some options (with AF) in the "several hundred dollar" range.

* You can picked up used 1st generation Sigma 70-200EX for around $500-$600 and add a 2x TC to it. Do a search here, lots of examples with this combo.
* Another used lens, either the Tokina AT-X 400mm f/5.6 (my choice) or Sigma 400mm f/5.6 lenses. They usually go for ~%600 used
* New, the Sigma 120-400mm lens. It gets mixed reviews optically but it is probably better then some super cheap options. $750 new from BH
* The newest lens and just out of your price range but I thought I'd mention it.. seems to get decent reviews is the Sigma 150-500, but it is ~$850 new


There are a ton of manual options that other people know more about then I do.

A lot of good suggestions here about how to get close to birds . Another thing that can get you close is using a hunting blind where you know birds frequent but usually fly away when you approach.



John

[jglover]

Originally Posted by jmbower

I currently have a Pentax K100d and, among other lenses, a tamron 70-300mm di 4-5.6.

3) if I am going to be handicapped by gear in my price range, can you suggest techniques, etc that may help? (I'm not really interested in feeder shots, I shoot mostly in the field. )

any help would be appreciated!!!

An interesting twist on feeder shots is to set up a feeder with some "wild" perches a few feet away. There use to be a quite well known nature and bird photographer near where I lived in southern Illinois. He shot over half his published images in his back yard using homemade perches for the birds just a few feet away from his feeders. His specialty was woodpeckers and he used to collect dead trees and "plant" them in his yard to lure in the birds. So you can set up feeders and artificial perches to make them look very natural (though planting dead oak trees in your yard is a bit of work!)

Another trick was to use a large piece of camo netting as a portable blind. He'd cut a small opening for the lens then just drape the netting over his tripod and himself and slowly move around the area to get in closer.

[jbinpg]

Just a note that I have the DA* 300/4 and it is a superb lens. 300 is generally poo-pooed in the bird photography world but with the K20D it is equivalent to a 450mm in the 35mm world and the 20D allows me to crop aggressively and not lose too much making it even more useful. When Pentax releases the planned teleconverter in a few months, this lens+TC combo will be a killer bird machine.

Jack

[jmbower]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have managed to get a couple shots I like, but mostly they were larger wading birds. I realized I had an issue when, not too far from me, couldn't have been more than 25 feet or so, a prothonotary warbler flew up, perched on a tree, with a dragonfly in its mouth...a fantastic shot, but I couldn't get close enough to really get the detail I wanted even at 300mm.


One follow up questions, I've noticed some teleconverters say something about AF only working at f4 or higher...is this common? Is it just an assumption that it's manual focus for the most part at long tele lengths?

[jmbower]

I am down on the Texas Gulf Coast (Houston area) so have a lot of NWR's around (have already been to Anahuac, Brazoria, San Bernard, Attwater's, etc). So finding the birds hasn't been an issue... getting good shots...that's been harder

[newarts]

Spotting Scopes?

Are there any reasonably priced spotting scopes with sufficiently good optics to be an option here?

Once one gets beyond 300mm hand holding is pretty much out of the question anyhow.

Iowa Dave

[palmor]

Originally Posted by jmbower

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have managed to get a couple shots I like, but mostly they were larger wading birds. I realized I had an issue when, not too far from me, couldn't have been more than 25 feet or so, a prothonotary warbler flew up, perched on a tree, with a dragonfly in its mouth...a fantastic shot, but I couldn't get close enough to really get the detail I wanted even at 300mm.


One follow up questions, I've noticed some teleconverters say something about AF only working at f4 or higher...is this common? Is it just an assumption that it's manual focus for the most part at long tele lengths?

So when you add a TC to your lens you are reducing the amount of light that comes in. With a 1.4x TC you are reducing 1 stop and with a 2x TC you are reducing 2 stops. Most (not all) cameras are made to give reliable AF up to f5.6, what that means is that the max aperture of the lens has to be f5.6 for good AF. If you add a 1.4x TC to a f5.6 lens then you essentially have an f8 lens.

Now there is wiggle room here. Depending on the lens and camera you can still get AF to work with a f5.6 lens and 1.4x TC. What you will find is that it will be slower to AF and it will hunt (sometimes a lot) if it starts to get dark out. The acceptable limits of the AF hunting is really up to the photographer. I've used a 1.4x TC with a Tokina AT-X 400mm f/5.6 prime lens (on a K10d and K20d) and it has been OK.

Hope that helps
John