Bird Photography Is Such A Joy!

I have been fascinated by bird photography for quite a while. Bird photography, especially wild bird photography, is very challenging. Wild birds usually don’t pose where you want and it’s often difficult to get close enough to take quality pictures.

Bird photography is one of the greatest photographic pursuits and also one of the most popular genres of nature photography. I have been told that one needs knowledge, patience and skill, but those challenges make the rewards that much greater.

Birds in flight are one of the toughest subjects to photograph. Birds are very fast and some of them are very small, making them much harder to track with a camera. The action often occurs at such a fast pace that you have only a fraction of a second to capture those precious moment. Beautiful capture of a flying bird represents the essense of what these winged creatures are – flight.

Like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, my photography skills suck big time. I have always envied friends who are able to snap beautiful photos of birds in flight or birds with food in their beaks or claws.

I made a brief stop at Taman Selera this morning. From the car park near the condominiums, I had a vantage view of the beach. My eyes combed the beach for birds but there was none in sight.

Undeterred, I waited at the car park, enjoying the cool breeze. Then I suddenly saw the bird on the beach. It looked like the pacific reef heron that I had photographed a couple of weeks ago. Excitedly, I made my way to the beach. By the time I reached the beach, the bird was no longer in sight.

From my past experience, I felt that the heron would be back so I just strolled along the beach and waited. My hunch proved to be correct for the bird was back on the beach after I had waited for several minutes. I quickly took a few shots of it and as I tried to edge closer to the bird, it took flight. But it soon came back to land on the beach again. I quickly snapped a few photos in quick succession using the Al Servo settings on my Canon DSLR. I was so happy that I managed to capture the heron in flight till its landing on the beach. Though the shots are just nothing to shout about, they gave me a deep sense of satisfaction.

After a while, the heron took flight and soon disappeared from sight.  It was time for me to make a move.

After leaving Taman Selera, I went to the waterfront area in front of Yi Ha Hai Seafood. I saw an egret resting on a wooden trunk. I quickly took a few shots of it before I went down to the river bed to move closer to the egret. As usual, the egret took flight and then landed on a branch in the river. I again took many series of shots of the egret. It flew off for a while and then came back. I was able to photograph it in flight.

I was distracted by a fishing boat passing by on the river. Diverting my attention to the boat, I took a few photos of it as it sped by. Then I refocused my attention on the egret, taking another few series of shots of it. It soon flew off to somewhere quite far away on the opposite side of the river. It was time for me to go home.

Once I downloaded the photos on to my computer, I was in for a surprise…. A BIG surprise! Not only had I been able to capture decent shots of the egret in flight but the photos that I took of it after I had photographed the fishing boat showed the egret with a fish in its beak. It must have caught the fish when I was photographing the fishing boat. Though I missed out on the chance of photographing the exact moment the egret actually caught the fish, I felt really elated for finally managing to photograph a bird with a fish in its beak.

It has been a great day for me!