Dive practice

 

Today I deliberately went to the kingfishers when I knew the tide would be still in. The sun was supposed to be shining and I wanted to concentrate of capturing them diving for crabs in the shallow water. Well two out of three isn't bad but it doesn't make good images. The sun let me down so all I got to do was practice my timing and focusing.

This set of images is grainy and not what I would normally post but I am doing so to show what goes behind a great image. Lots and lots of practice to get to the point of being able to focus fast enough to capture the bird as it leaves the water. The kingfishers are perched in a tree over the water and when they dive they do so with the intention of catching a crab they have spotted, and they do so at great speed.

The trick is to get the camera to focus on the bird as it dives into the water so that you can capture it as it leaves the water, bearing in mind that this is pretty much a split second situation so you have to be on your game. I found myself keeping both eyes open, one on the viewfinder and one watching where the bird was going, this allowed me to point the camera in the right direction for focusing.

In the past I have fluked a few really cool shots of the kingfishers diving but I haven't actually sought it out as the primary subject before. I can see it taking a good long while before I am satisfied with the results from this exercise.

Up with the birds...

This morning we were up with the birds (literally!) and out the door to get to the inlet at first light. I thought it would be nice to get some kingfishers with the early morning sun on them.  I forgot to send the memo to the kingfishers!

Don't get me wrong there were heaps of kingfishers out and about but the few times that they came close enough to me were mostly when the sun was hiding behind the clouds!  I managed to get one cute little guy when he stopped on the log but he was casting and that isn't always a good look for a photograph!

There had been a very high tide overnight and the ground where I set up was particularly soft. More so than normal. I was extremely happy that none of the other photographers were about to see me and my camera fall off my chair!  One of the chair legs had sunk straight down into the mud turfing me out in the process.  Thankfully my son was nearby and was able to help me up.

Not one of my better days at the inlet but I have a respectable amount of images that I am happy with so I can't complain, and there's always another day...

Changing my workflow

One area where I know I am lacking is my post processing. I know I can take good photos but I don't always display them at their best. Post processing has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I do what I know how to do and tend to bury my head in the sand about the possibility of being able to do more!  Well that is not going to happen any more.

I have been actively looking for easy tutorials that will show me exactly what I need to do to bring out the best in my bird photographs. I want the colours more vibrant, the details clearer and the amount of noise reduced. Today I found a couple of videos that seem to be a bit easier to understand than most so I am giving them a try.

It is going to be a bit of a learning curve as it involves processing my raw images in a different software package to what I am used to, and takes me out of my comfort zone in a big way. I am prepared to make mistakes and to get as frustrated as all hell but I also expect to learn in the process. By showing the images here I am inviting you to join me on my learning curve.

I must be mad!

The sun was hiding behind the clouds, the wind was whipping at my feet and the other photographers had given up and gone home. Still I was sitting in my chair, camera in hand. As is usually the way, when the noise disappears, people go and things become very quiet, the kingfishers come out to play.

And play they did today. They struggled a bit with the wind, even getting blown off their perches a time or two. But wind or no wind they still have to eat so were busy getting their share of the crabs for dinner.

I left just as the rain started. I might be mad enough to sit in the wind and the cold but rain will chase me away every time.

Back to the Kingfishers!

It's been a couple of weeks but finally I got back to the Kingfishers at Pauatahanui.  I wasn't alone, there was already one die-hard photographer set up when I got there. He told me he had spent the entire day there the day before as well.  Alas I had to work so couldn't take advantage of the fantastic weather we had on Friday.

But I did make the most of yesterday and intend to head back out there shortly so be warned, there's more Kingfishers to come!  There were so many out there yesterday and for the most part they stayed just out of reach of the camera, but every now and then we were treated to a show off or two.

I always thought that all Kingfishers looked the same but it is starting to show that indeed they don't. Each one is slightly different in it's own way. Some of them are easily recognisable now and it's good to see them returning time and time again.

There were other birds at the inlet yesterday, a flock of Royal Spoonbills, a bunch of gulls etc. At one point a flock of something flew overhead. I didn't get to see what they were hidden away as I was but the Kingfisher made sure to have a good look at what was going on overhead.

Reflections and flight

Not having any time to get out the camera today I decided to have a quick look back at some previous shoots.  Often I will get so excited about the close ups that I will forget to process anything else. These images were taken on the 4th of May and were initially overlooked.

I love the reflections in the water when it is not so windy. I probably should look back over more of the older files, I suspect I have some really good stuff sitting on my drive that has never even been up on the screen.

Skulls, swans and kingfishers

I went down to Petone today to see if George (the white heron) was about. I have seen some lovely images by a fellow photographer just recently showing him in residence but alas he was no where to be seen. I spent some time there chatting to the locals and seeing what was about. This collection of images is the result.

As soon as this swan saw me, it started swimming directly towards me. I am assuming it was expecting to be fed, maybe it had read my car's number plate, but as soon as it realised there was nothing to be had it lost interest and swam away.

There were kingfishers about but they are very skittish here and it is very hard to get close enough to them to get a decent shot. The tide wasn't out far enough to get out the hide. I did manage a few images though.

There were a good number of shags there today and this last image is of one trying to dry itself. I think someone forgot to mention to it that there was no sunshine today - hardly even a breeze!

A mixed bag of goodies

I changed the format and layout of my blog this morning and when I tried to write this post it was nigh impossible to get in!  Eventually I managed it as you can see but it is going to take some getting used to. 

This afternoon's post is a bit of a mixed bag bird wise. I started the day with the Tui posing for me. He was merrily singing away giving his best angry bird face as he was doing it. He follows a routine when he comes to the feeder, so is very predictable in his movements which makes it much easier to photograph him.

After that the waxeyes were playing about but as soon as I got the camera out they had flitted off. I waited a while but didn't manage to get any of them in flight. This one posed for the camera and then was gone.

The sun popped out for a bit so we went for a drive to see what was happening at the inlet. We counted six Kingfishers out and about but of course as soon as I got out of the car they started to disperse. It was too cold and nasty out there to wait for them to come back. I did manage to get this fellow in the tree.

What to do...

I find it funny that when I look back on all my kingfisher photos, I am only ever really happy with the last few days worth. I know I am getting closer to the birds now and it is making a huge difference to the resulting images but even so, my favourites are always from the current shoots.

I store all my images by date and venue rather than by bird species, so I never really look at all of the kingfisher images in one go. I could use Lightroom to view them but I just haven't really seen the point. Looking at how many I now have, perhaps the point would be to cull some of them to make more room on the hard drive.

People often ask what I do with my images other than posting them on this blog. At the moment pretty much nothing! I enter the odd one or two into competitions but the rest sit safely on several hard drives waiting to have a purpose. I wonder if I have enough of a sufficient quality to produce a book about Kingfishers. Now that would be a fun project!

 

Sitting out at the Inlet for hours on end just watching the birds, I learn a lot about their behaviour and that of the other birds that live within their environment. I have even watched the crabs move about in short bursts of movement together in an effort to avoid being singled out as a meal. I would love to know how they co-ordinate their movements so well.

While the co-ordination of the crabs is fascinating to watch, it doesn't save them. The kingfishers can spot them from a great distance and are so fast the crabs just don't stand a chance. Lucky for them their population numbers are so high otherwise an entire food chain might collapse.

Many cooks...

 

I don't know if it was because there were so many of us photographers out there or if the kingfishers were just not in the mood to play but there were not a lot of them out there today. Not long after I arrived I managed to get these images and then it went really quiet. So quiet that I decided to go home for lunch.

It was when I came out of my wee hide that I realised that there were so many of us there. I did hear one other photographer arrive but there were two others when I  left for lunch and they were still there when I came back an hour later.

The tide was doing strange things too, it never really went out fully and was going up and down for quite a while. The birds never got their usual mud flats to feed from, they remained under water. This may have also contributed to the lack of kingfishers about.

As is usual, just after I left my spot, I looked back to the single photographer that was left and there in front of him was a kingfisher. He must have been happy after sitting there for so long that he even fell asleep at one point and that being the first kingfisher for him for the day.