Regardless of how much we may enjoy photographing birds-in-flight there is a risk that BIF boredom can set in from time to time. On a personal basis I find this risk most often surfaces during late fall/early winter and during the hottest summer months. During these time periods we are in-between major bird migration movements. As a result the overall variety and number of birds can be reduced. The local species that remain may seem uninteresting to us from a photographic perspective.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
This past weekend I was out with a friend photographing some birds-in-flight at LaSalle Park in Burlington. It was one of those days when BIF boredom could have crept in… or even caused me to stay home. There are a few things that we can keep in mind to reduce the risk of BIF taking hold of us.
Adjust Expectations to Lighting Conditions.
There will be times when we may be out in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. It can be easy to avoid going out because we may have to shoot at higher ISO values. And, the quality of our resulting images may suffer a bit.
We can reorient our thinking to embrace poorer lighting conditions as a way to experiment with our images in post. If nothing else it can be relaxing just to get out in some fresh air to try to capture some images of birds-in-flight.
Set an Appropriate Goal
After we’ve arrived at a photographic location we can determine an appropriate goal for our session. It may be capturing birds coming in to land. Creating images of a particular species. Waiting for opportunities to create images that feature the underside of outstretched wings. Or trying to capture unusual in-flight body postures.
What we choose to focus our efforts on doesn’t matter that much. What is important is setting an appropriate goal. Shooting to a goal… however modest… helps to alleviate BIF boredom.
Challenge Skill Levels
BIF boredom can set in when we fail to sufficiently challenge our current skill levels. We can fall into a habit of only attempting to capture birds-in-flight when we have the luxury of time to set-up our image captures and pan with incoming birds without any pressure.
This habit may be based on our low success rate when attempting to photograph birds that are flying in very tight to us. Or seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere, potentially creating pressure to react.
Purposely risking failure with our photography comes with a significant benefit… a more intense feeling of accomplishment or success when our image capture attempt is successful. This helps to build our skills and our feelings of self-confidence.
Often when I feel slight pangs of BIF boredom beginning to creep in, I’ll put one of my teleconverters on my M.Zuiko 100-400 zoom and practice my eye-hand coordination. If I have sufficient light, the M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter is a particularly interesting practice extension.
I can’t comment on other photographers’ experiences, but I can attest to the fact that if I’ve been away from birds-in-flight photography for more than a couple of weeks I can notice an erosion in my skill set. So, going out for the sole purpose of getting in some practice is worth the time and effort.
Have a Variable Practice Routine
BIF boredom can occur when we fail to vary our photographic approach. Having a variable practice routine can keep us energized and help build and maintain important eye/hand coordination. We can try to find birds in our viewfinder by always having our zoom lenses fully extended. Or, as noted earlier, practice finding birds-in-flight fully extended with a teleconverter attached.
Lately I’ve been having some fun with some ‘quick draw’ exercises. As I’m watching a bird-in-flight approach I keep my camera at mid-chest or at my waist. I wait until the last possible moment before raising my camera to my eye to try to locate the bird in my viewfinder and capture some images. Suffice to say the number of successful attempts tends to be on the lower end… but this ‘quick draw’ exercise does help to speed up my reaction time.
The following run of five consecutive images was captured towards the end of my visit to LaSalle Park.
If you find some BIF boredom creeping into your photography grab a camera and get out for even a little while. Wildlife, fresh air, and some self-induced challenges can be energizing.
Technical Note:
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard approach in post. I used my standard settings for birds-in-flight which is a combination of Pro Capturer L and Bird Detection AI. I used 10 Pre-Shutter Frames with my Frame Limiter turned off, C-AF +TR at 18 frames per second. This is the 1,243 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.
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Hello,
Do you get a lot of noise in your photos? My set up is E-M1 mark 2 40-150 mm plus 2.0 converter. I almost always have noise unless it is really sunny. I want to upgrade to the newer camera but need to wait – $$. What do you use to lesson the noise in fixing your photos in post process?
Hi Phyllis,
My RAW files have noise in them as I often shoot up to ISO-6400 and sometimes higher than that level. Noise is usually most noticeable in shadow areas so one of the things you can do is try not to underexpose your images. Slight overexposure of an image can be helpful.
In terms of dealing with noise in post I use a two stage process. I use DxO PhotoLab 4 for all of my RAW files and run them all through this program. I apply DxO DeepPRIME to all of my files, regardless of the ISO at which they were captured. I use a value no higher than 15. After I do some basic adjustments in DxO, including applying one of my custom presets, I export a DNG file into PhotoShop CS6. I typically make some pretty minor adjusts with CS6 and the Nik Collection if needed. The last thing I do with my files is apply Topaz Denoise AI. I find this double-barreled approach to noise reduction works extremely well.
Hope this has helped.
Tom
Hi Phyllis,
I’d suggest doing some research on the OM-1 in terms of the level of noise you can expect with the new sensor. There certainly could be many features with the OM-1 that could be of significant interest to you, and thus justify the cost of a new camera.. rather than just a potential reduction in noise.
Tom
Great article Thomas
Thanks John.
Tom