Little birds

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Little birds

February 28, 2013 by Mike Powell

Borrowing a longer telephoto lens earlier this week, I was able to get some shots of the tiny birds that I often see, but rarely am able to photograph.

On Monday, my photography mentor, Cindy Dyer, lent me a Nikon D300 with a Nikon 80-400mm lens. It was a lot of fun to experiment with a much longer telephoto than I am accustomed to using. We spent only a limited time at a local nature center, so I did not have a chance to photograph anything too exotic, but I did get some shots of a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), a Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), and a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor).

The background in the first image really grabbed my attention when I pulled up the image on the computer—the tree branches look an awful lot like a suspension bridge.

I included the blurry final image of the chickadee flying away just for fun. I get this kind of image on a regular basis, although usually the bird is out of the frame. The Nikon I was using has a much higher frame rate (up to 7 images a second) than my Canon (a more modest three frames a second), so the chickadee is still in the frame.

I am pretty sure that I will stick with Canon and not switch to Nikon, but, as fellow blogger Lyle Krahn predicted, I am starting to hear the siren call of a longer lens.

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Baeolophus bicolor, Black-capped Chickadee, chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Hidden Pond Nature Center, Nikon 80-400mm lens, Nikon D300, Picoides pubescens, Poecile atricapillus, Springfield VA, Tufted Titmouse | 10 Comments

10 Responses

on February 28, 2013 at 7:16 am | Reply Ed

Great shots, I love my Sigma 175-500mm long lens but its getting old and I really need a tripod to stabilize the glass..:-))
- on February 28, 2013 at 7:30 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Ed. I hate to admit that I need to use a tripod with a lens like that, but I’ve seen some photos from other bloggers that showed it makes a big difference. A lens that goes to 500mm–sounds nice though.
on February 28, 2013 at 10:21 am | Reply Sue

Those are terrific close-ups. I’ve tried shooting bird photos from the tripod and am totally frustrated by inability to get the camera moved to the appropriate spot in time to capture the desired target. Any suggestions?
- on February 28, 2013 at 7:04 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Sue. I must confess that I rarely try to take bird photos with a tripod. Most of the time I need to get close to a bird to get a good shot and I have to be ready to shoot quickly and a tripod limits mobility. The guys with the big lenses tend to use a Wimberly mount that lets them swing the lens freely. If you have a big enough lens, I suppose, you can compose carefully without fear of scaring off the bird.
on February 28, 2013 at 10:27 am | Reply lylekrahn

I sense the call is getting louder with these shots!!!
on February 28, 2013 at 2:51 pm | Reply caleephotography

Great, sharp bird pictures!! I’ve never used a lens like that, but I imagine it must be lots of fun 🙂
- on February 28, 2013 at 7:00 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. Maybe you haven’t used a big, heavy lens, but your SX50 can reach ever farther. I’m beginning to see, though, that your heart is more with the close-up photos than with the distance ones.
  - on March 1, 2013 at 12:44 pm caleephotography
    
    You’re right! 😀 Close-ups are my favourites! But I’d love to take pictures like your bird shots.. So beautiful!
on February 28, 2013 at 3:31 pm | Reply hrosez

Wow, cool! Such cute birds!
- on February 28, 2013 at 6:59 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. Usually the bigger birds get all the attention. The little ones need love too.