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nature photography tips and tutorials

Wildlife

How to Make Your Camera Shoot Faster

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Shooting photos quickly is one of the keys to success for some types of nature photography, like photographing birds in flight, or any kind of wildlife photography.

As my dad illustrated in one of his articles, shooting just a few more frames per second can really make a difference in your success rate.

If you’re not maximizing the burst rate of your camera when you’re photographing a high-speed action, then you risk missing the shot where your subject is in the perfect pose.

So, here are a few ways to ensure your camera is shooting photos as quickly as possible: [Read more…] about How to Make Your Camera Shoot Faster

9 Tips For Photographing Perched Birds

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Black-throated Sparrow / Photo by Steve Berardi
Black-throated Sparrow / Photo by Steve Berardi
We’ve talked about bird photography fairly often here on PhotoNaturalist, including posts on how to photograph birds in flight and how to photograph hummingbirds in the wild. Well, today’s topic is photographing perched birds, like in the photo above of a black-throated sparrow.

Bird photography can be frustrating at times, and it may seem like you always need a longer lens, but with a little patience and a few little tricks, you’ll be coming home with good bird photos in no time. So, here are a few tips to get you started: [Read more…] about 9 Tips For Photographing Perched Birds

Keys to Getting Sharp Photos of Birds in Flight

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Photo by Steve Berardi
Photo by Steve Berardi
Last year, my dad wrote a great post about how to get sharp photos of birds in flight. Since then, I’ve occasionally tried to photograph a hawk in flight, but never really dedicated a whole lot of time to it, so I was never able to get a sharp photo.

Well, a few weeks ago I went out to photograph bald eagles with my dad, and I came back with my first acceptably sharp photo of a bird in flight, yay! 🙂

So, I’d like to share what I think are the two biggest reasons I finally got a decent shot: [Read more…] about Keys to Getting Sharp Photos of Birds in Flight

Quick Tip for Getting a Faster Autofocus

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Sometimes autofocus can be really annoying: it’ll search and search for an object to focus on, and either never find it, or go through multiple cycles until it finally finds the right object to focus on. And by that time, you may have already missed the shot–especially if you’re photographing a quick moving subject like birds.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about a few ways you can get better control of your autofocus. But, there’s also a little switch on your lens that can help it focus faster. [Read more…] about Quick Tip for Getting a Faster Autofocus

What a TV Show Can Teach You About Photography

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TV
Photo by Michael Pereckas / Used under the CC-Attr license
A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have one of my favorite TV shows (Dexter) filmed right outside my apartment building. They filmed a scene in the alley of my building, and I was able to watch the whole thing from my porch! If you’re a fan of the show, pay close attention to that scene in the alley of Episode 4 in Season 5–that’s my alley!

Anyway, I watched them film the scene for a few hours and actually learned a couple of things about photography: [Read more…] about What a TV Show Can Teach You About Photography

Quick Tip for Getting Sharper Closeup Photos

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Variegated Meadowhawk (female) / Photo by Steve Berardi
Variegated Meadowhawk (female) / Photo by Steve Berardi
In a previous post, I explained a quick way you can get sharper photos by adjusting the “picture style” on your DSLR (if you’re shooting in JPEG). Well, another small way you can make your closeup photos appear sharper is by photographing your subject in front of a contrasting background.

The photo above is a good example. The dragonfly is pretty bright, but the background is much darker. This strong contrast of brightness helps emphasize the edges, making the outline of the dragonfly appear much sharper.

This is actually how most sharpening algorithms work in post-processing software: by increasing the contrast of brightness between edges it makes those edges stand out more and appear sharper. That’s why oversharpened images have those ugly halos. [Read more…] about Quick Tip for Getting Sharper Closeup Photos