A New Season

Another new season is upon us and the wildlife around the house is finally starting to come alive again.

For the most part, our neighborhood has been devoid of song birds for the past few years. We see the occasional sparrow or robin during periods of migration (like now... it is the season for migrating birds) and we can hear some songbirds (although, not a lot) chirping away as the sun comes up but we really don't have the numbers we should have here around our house. 

I know we have a couple of monstrous crows living in a nearby tree. Since these particular crows are quite aggressive, songbirds can consider that enough of a threat to find trees elsewhere. We also have a lot of cats in the area and those are clearly dangerous predators. Additionally, I sometimes see a Red Tailed Hawk in our area. These factors definitely limit the number of songbirds that settle down in our neighborhood so it comes as no surprise to me that seeing them is a bit of a rarity.

This morning, while I was in our kitchen, I noticed we had a few small songbirds visiting outside our kitchen window so I thought it would be a good time to do a little practicing with some new (new for me) photography gear. If I can effectively capture photographs of these skittish, fast moving, little birds then I should have no problems at the lake house since the birds tend to be a bit larger there.

When I went to retrieve some of my photography gear to choose a lens and camera body combination to try, I chose my longest lens... a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens... and my fastest body... my Sony a6000. I have a better Sony body with a larger sensor but I decided to try this combo for the speed the a6000 provides and the little extra reach I get because of the 1.5x crop sensor. This 400mm lens would give me an equivalent view of a 600mm lens on a full frame sensor.  

Since this is my smallest camera body, I wanted to see how difficult it is to use a tiny body with a very large lens... a sort of lopsided combination. The only way to know is to try to shoot with this combo.

This lopsided combination worked very well while sitting in our kitchen holding the camera and lens in my hand and shooting out the open window! When I am seated in a bobbing and rocking kayak, I'm sure I'll encounter some difficulties but I have to say that I'm optimistic. I really had no problems consistently capturing crisp photos of these quick, little birds.

It is a new season and that means it is time for me to attempt to hone my wildlife photography skills before the summer season arrives and we find ourselves at the lake house. There is no doubt in my mind that these photos are my best photos of little songbirds to date. I shot every shot handheld with no tripod... I was able to compose and shoot quickly... the image quality is my best to date... and everything worked as it should so I'm quite impressed. 

Post Edit:  A day has passed and I had time to compare these few photos (above) to some photos I shot last year with my significantly older gear... These images I shot yesterday (above) are significantly better... noticeably better... crisper... more detail... and developing these photos in post-processing was a fast and easy process. In the past, with my older gear, I always struggled to get crisp images. 

I had suspected that it was the quality of the gear that was severely limiting my photography skills. I had spent years trying to educate myself and improve my skills with that older gear in the hope of capturing better photos. On the positive side, I learned a lot... on the down side, I feel as though I wasted a lot of time and energy with that older gear. (And, truth be told, there is one brand of camera that I used to shoot 100% of the time which I will never buy again!) This Sony gear is far superior to any other brand I've used.

I'm really looking forward to getting to the lake house and shooting wildlife photos this summer!