Better winter bird shots

1. Buy, borrow or hire a telephoto lens

For ‘serious’ bird photography, you need all the reach you can get. With film cameras, this would usually mean lugging around a hefty 400-500mm lens plus teleconvertors. Digital’s changed all that however, and these days, a lightweight 300mm lens fitted to a digital SLR which has a sensor that’s smaller than full frame (that’s most cameras, then…) will give you an equivalent focal length of 450-480mm. This is a great starting point.

Telephoto lens buying advice for bird photography: when choosing a telephoto lens – or any lens, for that matter – one of the prime considerations is the lens ‘speed’. We’re not talking focus speed here, but how much light they’re capable of capturing in relation to their focal length. 

‘Fast’ telephoto lenses are lenses that have wide maximum apertures – around f/2.8 for 300mm and 400mm lenses and f/4.5 for 500mm lenses. They can capture more available light, so they offer a brighter viewfinder image and enable you to use faster shutter speeds in low light without having to increase the ISO setting on the camera. They also offer faster focusing, enable you to use a very shallow depth of field (think beautifully blurred backgrounds) and generally have better optics (so sharper pictures). The problems with fast telephoto lenses are that they’re ludicrously expensive, relatively heavy, and their large front elements don’t always fit through the narrow window openings in public hides. 

‘Slow’ telephoto lenses have comparatively smaller maximum apertures – around f/5.6 for 300mm and 400mm lenses and f/6.3 for 500mm lenses. They don’t allow as much light to pass to the camera sensor as fast lenses do, so to be able to achieve action-stopping shutter speeds you may have to increase the ISO. Thankfully, higher ISO settings in the latest digital SLRs give far superior results compared to high ISO film. Slower telephoto lenses are lighter than fast ones though, which can make them easier to hand-hold for flight shots.

Zoom lenses obviously give you more framing options when shooting opportunities present themselves. Very often, these opportunities happen in concentrated bursts, and being able to react quickly is essential. Something in the 100-400mm range is perfect (which is why Canon makes a 100-400mm and Nikon an 80-400mm). Zoom lenses are superb for flight shots as well, as you’ll be able to move from tight, single-bird shots to group shots and back again.

If you raise the centre column when shooting with a super-telephoto lens, you're essentially turning your tripod into a monopod. It's a good job image stabilisation is so effective these days...

2. Use a sturdy tripod

Look for a tripod that extends to head height without you having to raise the centre column

It’s become a cliché to say it, but a sturdy tripod will improve the quality of your photographs. Not only can it lead to sharper shots, but it will slow you down and encourage you to give the framing of a scene more consideration. You don’t have to buy an expensive carbon fibre model – an aluminium one with foam padding around the legs to protect your fingers in cold weather is affordable and effective. A carbon fibre model will be considerably lighter though, and arguably provides more of a ‘damping’ effect for vibrations.

Tripod buying advice for bird photography: When choosing a tripod, look for one that extends to head height without you having to raise the centre column. If you don’t and have to wind up the centre column every time you want to shoot from a comfortable height, you’re effectively turning your tripod into a monopod. This just isn’t as stable. Try one with as few leg sections as possible – 3, rather than 4 – as this will also improve stability when the legs are fully extended. 

To get eye-level shots of swans, ducks and geese, you’re likely to want to get down close to the water. Choose a tripod that allows you to quickly spread the legs flat and adjust or remove the centre column to allow you to do this. Alternatively, keep it simple and choose a tripod without a centre column at all.

Use a ball-head rather than a three-way head to support your camera on the tripod legs. Ball-heads offer flexibility when it comes to tracking birds in flight, particularly if they’ve got a panning base. More expensive ball-heads will enable you to adjust the sensitivity of the ball movement, to compensate when you change from a light lens to a heavy lens. Do check that the ball locks into a rock-solid position when tightened and doesn’t allow the lens to ‘creep’ away from the focal point.

Finally, consider a quick-release mounting system for the ball-head. Some come with this as standard, while others can be retro-fitted to an existing head. Quick release systems means you don’t have to spend time unscrewing a lens from the ball-head, then screwing another back in – and missing the shot in the meantime.

There are two popular forms of QR system. The first is the lever-clamp style, similar to the one favoured by Manfrotto, where plates fitted to a camera or lens lock into an aperture on the head. A flick of the lever allows them to be removed. The second type, popular with bird photographers, is the vice-style clamp. This system, favoured by the likes of Arca Swiss, enables heavier lenses to be moved backwards and forwards within the clamp, helping to balance the weight. For seriously heavy lenses, a gimbal-style mount offers is a particularly good option. It enables you to move the lens around its centre of gravity, and so makes tracking action much easier. You can buy these mounts in accessory form, to attach to an existing ballhead, or as a standalone.

A beanbag provides excellent camera support when you're working in a small public hide. Rotate the tripod collar of the lens so that the beanbag can cushion the lens more effectively.

3. Don’t forget the extras:

Photographing birds in flight, particularly with the numbers and proximity of those at WWT centres, means being prepared for bird splatter

Beanbag
Although we love a solid, sturdy, well-built tripod, sometimes it just gets in the way.  A beanbag will cushion the lens and provide more stable support in circumstances where using a tripod is impractical. It’ll certainly make life easier when shooting from a purpose-built hide window, where setting up a tripod next to the opening can be difficult. It can also be used to rest over a tripod-mounted lens to dampen vibrations. If you can find one, a beanbag with a strap will be less of a burden when you’re trying to juggle lenses, tripods, bags and other kit.

Gel hand warmers
Photographing wintering wildfowl generally entails a lot of hanging around in exposed, wind-swept locations. Staying warm soon becomes a top priority! Hand-warmers can help thaw frozen fingers. Pop a couple of the reusable gel ones available from outdoor and camping stores in your pockets – you can also use them to keep spare batteries primed.

Scope
More of an additional lens than an accessory, a scope can get you shots that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to without investing in considerably more expensive lenses. You’ll still have to part with a large amount of cash for a decent scope though. By attaching a converter between the scope and a digital SLR body, you can transform the scope into a super-telephoto lens. Nikon, for instance, has an FSA-L1 DSLR attachment that transforms a Fieldscope into a 1200mm (60mm Fieldscope) or 1500mm (82mm Fieldscope) lens for Nikon DSLRs. The lack of autofocus on scopes cam make life hard so be prepared to practise an awful lot for action shots. And don’t forget your sturdy tripod – at such extreme magnification, vibrations are a real problem and it’s easy to end up with blurred shots. Try setting up in a public hide, out of the wind. 

Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust membership
Become a member of the WWT and you can have free entry to their centres around the UK, and get comfortable access to both wild and captive wildfowl. The numbers of birds they attract throughout the winter make the centres superb places to hone your focus-tracking skills. Forget forking out for a new camera body or super-telephoto lens – visiting a WWT centre regularly is probably the best way to improve your bird photography! Remember that as well as taking pictures, you’ll also be helping to give something back.

Camera protection from low-flying birds…
Photographing birds in flight, particularly with the numbers and proximity of those at WWT centres, means being prepared for bird splatter! Make sure your camera bag is zipped up and that you’ve got an old T-shirt or cloth handy to de-gunk your kit. Use a lens hood to protectt the front element and consider fitting a skylight or UV filter if you're taking shots of birds flying directly overhead...