1. lightning fast autofocus for birds in motion
2. a greater usable ISO range
3. more megapixels
4. okay I’ll add a forth. Movie mode is a nice add-on.

Let me address each item on our wish list and give my impressions on how the Mk IV delivers

1. Not only does it autofocus with lightning fast precision, but after shooting nearly 10,000 frames and looking at my autofocus point selection, I have noticed that even many shots where I (the photographer) messed up and the bird drifted outside of my activated autofocus point, the camera’s sophisticated algorithms was able to predict where to focus next, and STILL nailed the shot. And the real test for autofocus . . . this camera nails birds flying directly at the camera. Yeah, it’s a dream machine. Not once have I ever had my focal point not lock on to a bird. I shoot in AI Servo mode, with the central autofocus sensor activated plus one point sensor expansion activated in the camera’s custom functions. The one point expansion dives just enough margin for photographer error in my opinion.
2. I’m real picky about ISO noise. With the MK IV I feel ISO 400 is creamy smooth. ISO 800 is good but takes some minor cleaning. ISO 1600 is decent and takes real cleaning. ISOs 1600 to 3200 are decent but a little noisy for my taste and I rarely use them. So the fact that I feel comfortable shooting ISO 800 is great. On my Canon 50D I hesitated to even use ISO 400.
3. 16 megapixels is enough that I can crop out 50% of my image and still have a shot usable for a magazine cover. Nice.
4. The movie mode . . . well the movies this thing produces are out of this world beautiful. The only problem is that you pretty much have to manual focus because the live view focus (your only other option) searches back and forth until it locks on so is impractical to use during recording. I didn’t buy the camera for its movie making abilities, but it certainly will be a blast to use from time to time.

Central Florida Workshop Report

Cruising over a calm Florida lake in 70 degree sunny weather sure is a wonderful respite from a cold Ohio winter.  Our trip’s goal was to highlight some of the unique birds of Florida, and what a better way to start than by photographing Florida’s only endemic species, the Florida Scrub Jay. As soon as we started walking down a trail through prime scrub habitat, the Jays started landing on our heads!

Florida Scrub Jays
Brevard County, FL | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

 
Scott Vincent with Scrub Jay
Brevard County, FL | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 50mm f1.4

 The afternoon was spent driving the roads around Vierra Wetlands for Limpkin, American Bittern, Loggerhead Shrike, and we were able to photograph all three along with some other waterfowl and wading birds including the seldom photographed Mottled Duck.

 Day two we hired someone from the Toho Boating Club to take us out on lake Toho to photograph the endangered Snail Kite. We were able to get within minimum focusing distance to several birds and had many photo opps at both birds in flight and perched.

Snail Kite
Osceola County, FL | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

 The real surprise and jewel of the day came when Judd Patterson found a Great Horned Owl Roost in the backyard of our boat captain during lunch break. Thanks a million Judd!

 
Great Horned Owl
Osceola County, FL | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

 Day 3 started extremely foggy so our airboat captain (Captain Rob with Kissimmee Swamp Tours) let us reschedule our ride for later in the day. We spent the morning photographing a beautiful scene of Sandhill Cranes in the fog and then later found some Red-cockaded Woodpeckers which posed briefly for the group. When it was finally time to hit Lake Kissimmee with the airboat, conditions were perfect – nice warm light, calm wind, and cooperative Snail Kites eating snails in front of us.

 
Snail Kite with Snail
Osceola County, FL | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

hand held from airboat – cropped from horz capture

 Day 4 we spent back on the airboat and photographing Loggerhead Shrike on a little setup we put together. This day Scott Vincent and I did a camera trade so we could get a feel for how the Canon Mk IV worked for flight shots vs the Nikon D300 and D2S. After the day’s shooting we concluded the Nikon bodies were great but were no match for the Canon MK IV. The MK IV is really a bird photographer’s dream camera, especially for birds in flight.

American Coot Running for Takeoff
Osceola County, FL | January | Nikon D2X | Nikon 600mm f4

 
Loggerhead Shrike
Osceola County, FL | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

All in all, it was a great trip with very productive photo opportunities with a really nice group of photographers.

 Snowy Owl Workshop Report.

I did a somewhat last minute set of Snowy Owl Workshops for a few groups of photographers this winter. Snowy Owls are such magnificent birds but are very difficult to find and even when you find them, many are easily frightened. Even if you find an approachable bird they are often on private property with uncooperative land owners. The owls themselves also move around through the winter at times so it took me much research and networking to pull it off, but we had Snowy Owls pose for us all three weekends. We were also able to nourish them to help them survive the winter, and that in turn made for some fun flight photography each weekend. Despite the hard work and cold weather, being around these amazing creatures is very rewarding and I hope to continue shooting these birds in future years as well.

Ontario, Canada | December | Canon 50D | Canon 600mm f4 IS | 2x

 
Québec, Canada | January | Canon 1D4 | Canon 600mm f4 IS |

 
Ontario, Canada | February | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

Ontario, Canada | February | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

 
Québec, Canada | January | Canon 1D4 | Canon 600mm f4 IS |

And on the first weekend we also had this unexpected treat: an extremely cooperative Northern Shrike

Ontario, Canada | January | Canon Mk IV | Canon 600mm f4 IS

Matthew Studebaker

www.studebakerbirds.com

matthewstudebaker@gmail.com

 Announcing the Central Florida Instructional Photo Tour

Dates: January 17, 18, 19, 20, 2010 (Sunday through Wednesday)

Limit: 3 photographers

Price: 1400/photographer

Deposit: 350

Includes: Rather large fees for boat and airboat use, licensed boat captains, slideshows and photoshop demonstrations, four full days of shooting in the field.

 
Snail Kite photographed from Air Boat using a tripod.

After going to Florida every winter for bird photography for many years, it’s finally time for me to show people some of the amazing places I have found. Our focus will be on central Florida raptors such as Snail Kite, Crested Caracara, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Barred Owl. We will also make it a point to get such Florida Specialties as the Florida Scrub Jay, Wood Stork, Reddish Egret, Tri-colored Heron, Little blue Heron, Anhinga, Whooping Crane, and many more. Instruction will include how to do successful flight photography using a tripod rather than hand-holding the lens. We’ll be going places in Florida that no other workshop has offered. One of the fun things about Florida is that there is just so many tame birds, you never walk away empty handed. Send me an e-mail to sign up and I’ll pencil your name in until I receive the deposit. matthewstudebaker@gmail.com We’ll do everything from air boat rides, driving tours, to perch set-ups to get the shot for this workshop. It should be tons of fun and I can’t wait.

 
Red-shouldered Hawk coming in for a landing

A Word on Focus

 While equipment shake may the number one culprit for soft or blurry images, inaccurate focus probably comes in as a close second. I know of no serious bird photographer who, at the time of this writing, still uses manual focus lenses on a consistent basis. Birds rarely stand still, and auto focus greatly increases the number of accurately focused images. Personally, when I manually focus, I only get about 3 in 10 photos with razor sharp focus, while auto focus often nails 9 out of 10. Auto focus technology is simply too advanced and readily available to seriously consider a manual focus lens for everyday use.  

Tips for Acquiring Accurate Focus:

First, while most modern auto focus lenses are very fast at locking on to a bird when the bird is almost in focus already, most lenses are not very good at searching great distances to find the subject. If your lens is pre-focused at 4 meters and then a falcon flies by 20 meters away, you’ll never find it in the viewfinder in time unless you manually focus to  about 20 meters and then the auto focus lock on and do the fine tuning. The first rule for using auto focus is to make major focus changes by hand, but let autofocus do the micro adjustments and lock on. This principal applies no matter what camera you are using. In fact many of my most successful flight shots were made using a Canon Rebel XT. The higher end camera bodies make life easier, but the same principal applies.

Limiting Focal Range

Many modern auto-focus lenses allow the photographer to limit the range of focus. For example, when photographing large birds far away, one could theoretically switch the lens to only focus 20 meters to infinity rather than include the closer ranges. Because auto-focus isn’t very good at quickly searching the entire focal range for the subject, some bird photography teachers advise their pupils to use the range limitation feature on the lens to limit the range of focus in situations like this. The theory is that the lens will only have to search a more limited range to find the subject. The problem with this theory is two fold.

First, these teachers assume that they won’t have a surprise encounter with another bird species. For example if you were photographing a distant heron nesting colony and set your lens range to distant subjects, what happens when a small warbler lands right next to you with no warning? You try to focus but your range is limited to only distant objects. You fumble to switch your range to close subjects but by then the warbler is gone. Or what happens when an osprey starts flying directly towards you, starting in your distant range, but in a matter of seconds moves into your close range? The camera will lock the focus and you’ll miss your shot.

Second, limiting your focal range assumes that the best way to focus is to let the lens find the bird. As we already discussed, we don’t want the lens to do the range searching – that’s not what auto focus is good at. It’s only good at small micro adjustments for locking on to the subject. So if we are doing 95% of the range searching manually anyway, there’s no need to limit the auto focusing range.  Keep the range unlimited. Do the major focusing adjustments by hand. Depress the shutter half way and only let your auto focus take over and lock on at the last second.

Crested Caracara in flight in central Florida

Focus Confirmation

There are two types of focus confirmation commonly available in today’s cameras. The first is a small beeping noise which sounds when focus has been acquired. This noise is soft enough that it would only bother the most shy of birds. In fact, many birds, if they hear it, are curious and give the perfect head turn towards the camera just as you acquire focus. Sometimes it’s great. Sometimes it’s annoying. Once in a while it scares the bird. I usually leave my confirmation beep turned off because I find the noise annoying.

The feature I do appreciate in modern cameras is the focus sensor light. In my sensor array, the sensor(s) which has locked focus turn red for about a half of a second. This lets me know more specifically what exactly the camera is locking on to, and is much less annoying that the beep confirmation.

Shutter Speed

Another critical factor in producing sharp images is using sufficient shutter speed to stop both the motion of the bird and the movement of the lens. IS and VR (Image Stabilization or Nikon’s Vibration Reduction) helps cut down on the negative vibrations on the photographer’s end, but by no means eliminates lens vibrations. Using the right shutter speed is somewhat of an arbitrary judgment call learned with practice, as every lighting situation, bird movement, and photographer is different. There are, however, some basic guiding principals which are universal.

First, lens length and required shutter speed are directly related. In other words, as lens length increases, shutter speed needs to increase in order to compensate for the “magnified vibrations”. Your own experience will verify this. If you look through a wide angle lens, the image in the viewfinder will appear fairly stable.  If you are looking at the same scene through a telephoto lens the image in the viewfinder will appear as if you are violently shaking by comparison – the image is magnified but so are the vibrations. To compensate for these vibrations an increase in shutter speed (i.e. decrease in exposure time) is needed so that the vibrations don’t end up effecting the image sharpness, blurring the image.

Second, amount of subject movement and the required shutter speed to freeze that movement are also directly related. The faster your subject is swimming, flapping, running, or flying, the faster the shutter speed will need to be. I find that most normal bird behavior is frozen at 1/500 second or faster. Most flight shots and wing flaps are frozen at 1/1000 or greater. Hummingbird wings can be mostly frozen anywhere between 1/1500 and 1/16000 of a second, depending on where their wings are in their figure 8 motion and the size of the bird. Hummingbird wings slow down at the full upward and full downward wing positions, but are incredibly fast in between.

Wood Duck Workshop Report

 
Wood Duck drake on old stump

This year we had enough demand for the wood duck workshop to run three weekends, and all three were fabulous. We had to dodge some raindrops on all three but were also rewarded with golden sunlight for at least part of each workshop as well which gave us a nice variety of shooting conditions. The drakes were in tip top plumage and as tame as ever, and put on quite a show.

  
Photographing Wood Ducks at point blank range

Even though I have photographed at the wood duck ponds for years now, even I came away with photos of behaviors and situations that were new to me such as this female wood duck preening her mate in early morning light.

 This year I taught the ducks a new trick and we had opportunities to photograph them landing on some natural logs around the pond’s edge.While Wood Ducks steal the show, we also had a few opportunities at other species like this little guy:

Pied-billed Grebe swimming through orange reflections at last light

2010

Most of my 2010 workshops are sold out but aside from the new Florida Workshop, we still do have one space on the Lake Hope Warblers and Michigan Warblers workshops, along with some openings on the Northern Ohio Warblers workshop. I feel bad for some folks who wanted to go but didn’t realize the workshops would sell out so early. I do intend to expand my offerings in years to come but may not be able to until 2012 or later. Visit my website to see the most recent availability www.studebakerbirds.com/tours.html

Northern Ohio Songbird Workshop 2009 Report

Grasshopper Sparrow Singing on Willow Perch

The workshop started with difficult light but great birds. In the first few hours we had a Cerulean Warbler and a Warbling Vireo on our setups. Later we found the one of the most cooperative Indigo Bunting I have ever seen pose for a nice while often only a few feet away.

 
 Indigo Bunting

A great find and a first for me was this Yellow-throated Vireo. This treetop species can be very very difficult to get out of the treetops and in the open and it was one of the few species that breed in Ohio that I had not yet had decent photo opps with up to this time. This individual, full of personality, gave multiple low passes on perches of his own choosing.

Yellow-throated Vireo

On the last day we headed out to Tri-valley and surrounding area to get some of the grassland species. We quickly crossed Grasshopper and Henslow’s Sparrow off the list and found a very nice Blue-winged Warbler. Prarie Warblers eluded us for several hours until we found two cooperative individuals near last light. All in all, it proved to be a very successful trip.

Henslow’s Sparrow

 Michigan Loons and Warblers 2009 Report

Strange incidents on Lake Nettie caused both pairs of loons to fail their initial nesting attempts this year. One male loon had become entangled in fishing line. The other nest may have been predated. Regardless, everyone walked away with many gigabytes of loons hunting, preening, calling, flapping, yawning, napping, and every other imaginable behavior right next to our boat, sometimes within minimum focusing distance!

 
 Common Loon wing flap

Many photographers have been able to do well with the Loons at Lake Nettie, but my research trips in 08 turned up a host of interesting songbird species in the area as well, and during the workshop we were able to photograph some true gems of the forest. One of the highlights was this Pine Warbler who had fallen out of the nest and was being fed by an aggressive mother.

 
Pine Warbler Female Feeding Baby on White Cedar

 Chris Hominuk left in order for us to be able to get some sweet shots of a Golden-winged Warbler. (inside joke – he often leaves an hour early, and we always seem to nab some great shots as soon as he leaves).

 
Golden-winged Warbler on Tamarak

 
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on Sap Wells in Birch

The Perch – Notes on Using Perches in Bird Photography

Nearly all bird species sit on branches from time to time. In fact about 60% o0f all north American bird species fit into the category “passerines”, meaning “perching birds”. True to their name, most passerines spend their lives in trees. It is no surprise then, that the plants birds perch on end up being an integral element in many bird photos.

The perch a bird chooses can make or break a photo. A lot of times, photographing a bird on a beautiful perch is simply a matter of luck and persistence. During the may of 2006 I found several Indigo Bunting males establishing territories in one of my local parks. Like many male birds setting up territories, the buntings chose to sing from the most conspicuous perches around. In this case, early in the spring they chose tall pine trees and ugly, thick dead or bare branches. The few photos I managed to take of these males were less than desirable. I kept track of the males as the spring progressed with out much improvement. Then to my surprise, late that July, I found that one of the main bunting territories had sprouted up hundreds of native sunflowers. These tall beautiful plants proved to be perfect conspicuous perches for the males to sing from, and the blossoms attracted insects for the buntings to eat. The yellow flowers were the perfect complimentary color for the deep indigo of the males. The sunflower field had a small gravel pull off from the main road which allowed me to simply use my car as a blind and wait for the male buntings to use one of the nearby sunflowers for their perch. Luck and persistence paid off.

There are times when luck just doesn’t cut it. For the last 15 years I have made an annual spring visit to Magee Marsh, Ohio’s famous migrant trap. Thousands of Warblers, Orioles, Vireos, Hummingbirds, Kinglets, and Thrushes stop by this area at the tip of Crane Creek State Park each spring before crossing Lake Erie on their way up to their Canadian breeding grounds. While subjects are plentiful, perches and backgrounds are less than ideal. Photographing migrants basically entails following the bird as they flit along from tree to tree hoping that eventually the bird will chose a photogenic perch with a clean background. Seeing so many interesting species at close range is very exciting but good photo opportunities are often days apart. If I get one good image per weekend at a migrant trap like Magee Marsh I consider myself fortunate.

The Set Up

As my photography skills developed, I found myself spending less and less time at  migrant traps, and more time finding situations where I could photograph the birds on my own terms, control the perches and background to some degree, and net a higher percentage of “keeper” photographs per day. The thinking photographer can, at times, effect what the bird will land on and get a “shot of a lifetime” with great frequency and precision. Exercising this sort of control over the image is usually referred to as a “set up”.

 
This Wood Duck was attracted in to an area of the pond where we set out branches to match his colors and add to the composition. This is one of the more basic forms of a set up.

 The most basic form of control involves doing things like walking towards a tame Scrub Jay, coaxing it off a parking lot and into a beautiful field. The next level would be to put peanuts in that field to entice the jay on over. Then the photographer could put the nuts on a rustic, mossy branch in the middle of the beautiful field to try to get the bird to land on the branch. Finally, it they are allowed, the photographer could reposition the branch so that it is lined up with the sun and a beautiful background.

 Every photographer exercises some level of control over their images, by acknowledging that some images look good, and others should be discarded or never taken to begin with. There is a constant debate, however, as to how much control should be used beyond careful editing. One photographer may brag that they use some avian attractants and not others, or that they coax birds onto branches but never alter the branch positions, etcetera. In my mind, this sort of bragging is futile, although I hear it a lot both in the field and in online critique forums. Each photographer should exercise exactly the level of control he or she feels comfortable with and not badger or lecture others about it.

 Selecting a perch

If a photographer chooses to attempt to get birds to land on set-up perches, there are a number of guidelines for perch selection that can help make the image more successful.

 If you do want to create a setup you’ll probably end up having to bring a perch from home or private property with permission. To keep the perch from wilting, pick it as close to the photo session as possible. Always keep the perch in water and if you need to store it overnight, keep it refrigerated.

 Most photographers agree that hand picked perches should look as natural as possible. An ideal perch would be a native plant normally found in the bird’s habitat and should not show signs of clipping or modification. I always consider it a huge bonus if I can use a perch which also tells something about the species’ natural history or environment. For example, crossbills and many other northern finch species’ lifecycles are tied to cone bearing pines, so an image with a crossbill on a pine branch complete with pine cones can make for an incredible image.

 
Red Crossbill on Pine (attracted to water drip)
Deschutes National Forest, OR | July
Canon Rebel XTi | Canon 500mm f4 IS | 1.4xTC |

 If you hang around the major bird photography forums online you’ll run across the acronym BOAS meaning “Bird on a Stick”. Heated discussion often takes place as there are some photographers who exclusively use bare sticks for perches their entire careers. Many photographers feel that, while once in a while a simple stick may be the best visual solution, it can get boring. Live branches with leaves, buds, or interesting bark allow the photographer to make a more complex composition with greater color diversity. Also keep in mind your background and bird colors so that your perch colors compliment both.

 When using perches with leaves or blossoms, I find it best to make sure they are less than half the length of the bird. Giant flowers or leaves visually overwhelm the bird and disrupt the hierarchy of the image.

 Another good rule of thumb is to only use branches that are less than half the width of the bird. Using any larger perch will usually result in the perch appearing to have too much visual weight in the image and will distract from the bird. Usually the smaller the branch width, the more elegant the image will appear.

Setting Up the Perch

Once you have selected the perfect perch you need to decide how to position it. I usually carry a number of tension clamps in various sizes along with a few zip ties and bungee cords in my camera bag. Most of the time I set up an old or cheap tripod and simply clamp the perch securely to one of the tripod legs or tension knobs. When possible, I place the tripod in an open area with a clean background behind it. If I have to set up in an area where there are other perches nearby that the bird would likely land on, I place grass or leaves on the competing perches to make them less stable and desirable.  I also place loose vegetation over my tripod handle so that the bird doesn’t land on it. My wife even sewed a sort of cloth “skirt” which fits over my tripod legs and discourages birds from landing on the legs. During very windy situations it may be necessary to tie a weight or anchor the tripod down so that it doesn’t blow over and frighten away your subject.

 When fastening the perch to the tripod, I try to tilt the leaf surfaces towards the camera to better see the leaves.  I also try to place branches at a slight diagonal angle. When branches are exactly parallel or perpendicular (at 90 or 180 degree angles)  with the edges of your image frame, the image tends to look somewhat static and lack movement.

Getting a Bird to Land on a Perch

Selecting a beautiful perch and setting it is relatively easy compared to actually getting a bird to land on it. One of the most effective methods involves placing your perch next to a bird feeding station. Even better yet, attach your perch directly to the bird feeder. This gives the birds a sort of landing zone before proceeding to feed. Placing a perch over a bird bath or water drip can be especially effective in areas where fresh water may not be readily available for miles. In the eastern US and Canada such areas are few and far between, but nearly the whole southwestern US qualifies. A bird photographer can also use other attractants near the perch like mealworms or song recordings. Getting a bird to land just where you want it takes a lot of practice and patience, but the rewards are sweet. The learning process can be a long one. It took me years to consistently get the results I wanted. Seeing an experienced photographer go through the setup process and then successfully attract a bird can cut down on the learning time, which is why my workshops which deal with setups (especially my warbler workshops) are my most popular instructional photo tours.

 
Cerulean Warbler on Grapevine (attracted to warbler call)
St. Claire County, Michigan | May | Canon 40D | Canon 600mm f4 IS |