A cold afternoon

Since embarking on the ‘Beginner’s Photography’ series I have had several e-mails asking me not to forget the needs of those who might describe themselves as ‘intermediate photographers.’ I was mulling the idea over as I drove home yesterday afternoon. It was early afternoon and I was passing a small animal park, one of those places beloved of children in the summer. Yesterday however was grey and overcast and the affects of a hard over-night frost were still in evidence. It was an chance to kill two birds with one stone I decided. An opportunity for some photographic copy for the Blog with perhaps some accompanying notes.

Photographing birds in enclosures and cages has none of the challenges that you encounter when photographing birds in the wild, but they still pose some interesting problems.


I parked my car, paid my admission, grabbed a camera with a telephoto lens and sallied forth. The light was very poor, which presented enough problems in it’s own right. I increased my ISO to 400, I hate going higher because of the subsequent degradation in image, but realised I was still going to have to use low shutter speeds and suffer camera shake or blur if a bird moved, along with the need to use wide apertures which in turn meant a very limited depth of field –something which was already limited with a telephoto lens. Having second thoughts I grabbed a flash. I hate using flash for a whole host of reasons, particularly as on camera flash always makes your subject look so stark due to the hard shadow. Still undecided I reduced the output by a stop and a half and attached it to the camera.

My first subject of the day was a sleeping owl. It’s enclosure was a wire mesh cage, made of white galvanised wire set at 2cm centres. If I was using a small compact camera I might have just got the camera lens in through the hole in the wire, however with a large SLR and lens I had the problem of the wire to deal with. The only way to deal with it was to shove the lens hard up against the wire to get it out of focus as much as possible. Unfortunately the galvanised wire being new and bright (and rather thick) didn’t help.


I was left with a very washed out looking owl. However I was undeterred as I knew when I got home that I could adjust the ‘levels’ in my photo-editing software.


The easiest way is usually to use AUTO LEVELs which can be done at the push of a button. This simply adjusts the dark and light tones to a more ‘normal’ range. In ‘Photoshop’ type products it is found: IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>AUTO LEVELS. This is not what I would usually use, but decided to use it as it is what is available to most readers. Here is the result.

Readers will find better control if you opt to do this manually, although this requires a few moments experimentation.


Next bird was less of a challenge a peacock sitting on a fence. Here the photographer’s problem is different – produce a camera and they run for it. So I had one chance.


To my delight I found they had a Kookaburra possibly the best-known bird of Australia. Here I had exactly the same problem.


Here is the resulting after photo, again proving not all is lost!


I could have stayed photographing the Kookaburra all afternoon as they are such fascinating birds. The trick with all bird photography is usually to focus on the eye whenever you can. This means getting your focusing point directly over the eye –sometimes no easy task. If an eye is even slightly out of focus it is usually sufficient to ruin your shot.


In Australia the kookaburra is called the ‘laughing jackass,’ but even though I waited and pulled funny faces I couldn’t induce her to let rip. Then I had an idea I whispered I’d bought with me a stack of Donna stories. She immediately began her jackass impersonation the little sack under her chin pulsating away.


In the next cage was some kind of egret.


Again the subsequent ‘after’ photo. Focuss again on the eye.


Thankfully there was no wire problem with the ducks, but the frozen pond was surrounded by trees limiting the light even further. This little fellow was skidding about forlornly. You can see the result of a lower shutter speed as her nearest leg skids and becomes a blur.


Next on the itinerary were the meercats who obligingly stood stock still bless them


Penguins are also pretty good at standing still, and again no wire to contend with.


Of course all these animals and birds have to be fed which means that wild birds too turn up hoping for a free meal. This wild heron was watching the pelican pen as I went by.


This girl with the cute hat was obviously going to a wedding, so I took this one for Monica.


A nice muddy beak, again the focus is on the eye.


There were lots of swans about, but they defied me getting a good shot. However I was determined to get a photo for my friend Wiggler.


This poor girl looked frozen to the ice.


This duck was cruising the pond incessantly making strange slurping noises clearly filtering something from the water.


By now the sun had briefly emerged so I went for a better owl shot.


And who could refuse the meercats basking in the last rays of the sun?


This girl had a lovely pink coat..



Finally two lovely black swans…

With the light gone I headed home to thaw out.