Birding tips?

Mitchell

I've nevery done any bird shooting before, but I will be camping out this weekend with my son's boy scout troop at Fort De Soto park here on the west coast of Florida. This park just won best beach in the country honors this year and is supposed to be one of the premiere birding sites in the state.

I have a Nikon D2X and 300mm f4 AF-s lens.

Any suggestions regarding my next few questions would be appreciated.

What is the best time of day to shoot (lighting and/or activity)?
How do you meter for these white birds (spot, matrix, etc...)?
What focus settings do most of you use?
Handhold, Monopod, Tripod??

Thanks for all suggestions!

GraphyFotoz

Mitchell wrote:

I've never done any bird shooting before, but I will be camping out this weekend with my son's boy scout troop at Fort De Soto park here on the west coast of Florida. This park just won best beach in the country honors this year and is supposed to be one of the premiere birding sites in the state.

I have a Nikon D2X and 300mm f4 AF-s lens.

Any suggestions regarding my next few questions would be appreciated.

What is the best time of day to shoot (lighting and/or activity)?
How do you meter for these white birds (spot, matrix, etc...)?
What focus settings do most of you use?
Handhold, Monopod, Tripod??

Thanks for all suggestions!

I can only answer part of this.

Best time of day is early to mid morning.....Birds are hungry and move a lot at this time. By later in the day they are full and don't move as much.
I've been a pretty avid birder for 15yrs now and have found this to be true in my travels.

Handhold....Monopod.....Tripod depends on the shutter speed you can achieve

Don't forget a good field guide like a Peterson's and your Bino's!!

Rohirrim

Mitchell wrote:

I
What is the best time of day to shoot (lighting and/or activity)?
How do you meter for these white birds (spot, matrix, etc...)?
What focus settings do most of you use?
Handhold, Monopod, Tripod??

I can help with some of your questions, but I'm not totally familiar with Nikon equipment so others may have better suggestions.

Mitchell wrote:

What is the best time of day to shoot (lighting and/or activity)?

Early and/or late in the day is generally the best time of day. You get a softer light and less harsh shadows. Try and keep the sun at your back, your shadow pointing towards the bird if possible. Many birds are also more active at that time of day.

Mitchell wrote:

I
How do you meter for these white birds (spot, matrix, etc...)?

Spot metering is good, but matrix works as well.

• Shoot in Av mode
• Shoot wide open (highest f-stop) unless you want increased DOF
• Keep your ISO as low as possible, but try and keep your shutter speeds greater than 1/1000 for moving birds.
• When shooting white birds set a negative compensation of -2/3 take a couple shots and look at your bird in the display. If there are any flashing areas (overexposed) decrease your compensation another -1/3. You can easily have -1 to -1 1/3 exposure compensation when shooting Egrets and other pure white birds.
• It all depends on the surrounding light.

Mitchell wrote:

I
What focus settings do most of you use?

I think this varies between shooters. I prefer to shoot still birds with One shot (Nikon-Single Servo) and Switch to AI-Servo (Continuous -Servo) for moving birds. Others keep in AI-Servo (Continuous-Servo) all the time.

Mitchell wrote:

I
Handhold, Monopod, Tripod??

Again this will depend on the shooter, but a tripod is almost always best, monopods work and many people prefer shooting handheld for inflight shots.

Harryb

Hey Mitchell,

It sounds like a fun week-end. Here's an article with some good info on Ft. DeSoto

http://www.jasonhahn.com/nucleus/item/16

The best time to shoot is usually early morning (the two hours after sunrise) and late afternoon (the two hours before sunset).

I usually use matrix metering. I will shoot in aperture priority and make EV adjustments as called for by the scene. When shooting a white bird like an egret I will usually start at an ev adjustment of -0.7. Check your histogram and blinkies as you shoot and you will quickly get used to making the necessary ev adjustment as you shoot.

Check this article out on focus settings
http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/nikon_articles/body/multi-cam2000_af/index.html

I usually shoot my 300mm f/4 handheld on my D2X. If you can tote the extra weight a tripod or monopod would be an excellent idea. If you can get or borrow a 1.4 TC the extra reach would help you a lot.

Have a great weekend and I expect to see some pics next week.