Trogon Photo Tours

April 2014 Newsletter - This month's newsletter includes information on default camera settings for bird photography as well as info about some of my favorite photography locations in the Houston area.

Least Tern photographed July 2012 at the Texas City Dike, Texas City, TX.  Canon 7D 500F4 1/1600 F5.6, iso 500, manual exposure.  When I first started doing a lot of bird photography about 10 years ago I quickly figured out that I needed to be ready to take a variety of shots depending on what opportunities arose.  I needed to have default camera settings that I would go back to that would work in most bird photography situations.  What I ended up doing was generally setting my aperture to about 1 stop down from wide open and using the highest iso that would allow for little or no noise in the image.  Back then I was using aperture priority all the time, although now I am sometimes in manual mode as in this image.  For example with this shot wide open would be at F4, so one full stop down from wide open is F5.6.  I found the 7D had reasonably good iso performance up to iso 500, so my default iso when I was using the 7D was either 400 or 500 depending on the lighting.  The Texas City Dike is an excellent location to photograph a variety of waders, terns and Black Skimmers.  Terns and Skimmers both nest there in the summer.  There is a $5 entrance fee and usually a lot of fisherman around.   

Brown Thrasher - April 2014, Lafitte's Cove, Galveston, TX.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/125 F7.1, iso 1600, 580ex fill flash at -1.7.  With my 5D Mark III the default iso settings I use are higher than they are for the 7D as the iso performance is so much better.  When I am photographing in shade or low light, I start out at iso 1600, while when I am photographing in brighter light my default iso is 800.  This image was taken at a dark, shady water drip at Lafitte's Cove so I used some fill flash as well as the higher iso.  Lafitte's Cove is a good place to see and photograph a variety of migrating songbirds.  The drips aren't ideal for photography though with one being a bit far away and the other being in a very dark area.  This crop is unconventional, there is a large out of focus tree trunk on the right that obscured the rest of the bird's wings.  The thrasher was raising it's wings hunting for insects on the forest floor.  I did like the up close view of the head though.  

Royal Tern photographed April 2014, San Luis Pass, TX.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/2000 F8, iso 800, aperture priority evaluative metering at 0.  Because there was still plenty of light I used my default settings of 1 stop down from wide open and iso 800 (for the 5D3) on this image.   For both this image and the next image I was lying on my stomach next to a large tidal pool on the beach. This gives me a better angle and also birds are more likely to approach closely if I am down low.  San Luis Pass is an excellent place to photograph wading and shorebirds, I have even had Caracaras come into these pools.  In the morning the Northwest corner of the pass (Galveston side) is best while in the afternoon the Southwest corner (Surfside side) is best for lighting and photo opportunities.

American Avocets photographed April 2014 at San Luis Pass, Texas.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/2000 at F8, iso 1000, aperture priority, evaluative metering at 0.  This was taken about 15 minutes after the Royal Tern shot, the light was starting to fade so I bumped the iso up a little bit.  Here I'm working at just about last light in the later afternoon, if it had been a bit brighter I would have dialed in a bit of minus exposure compensation to preserve the details in the whites but as it was 0 compensation was perfect.  Another default setting is that I generally work with the center autofocus point and shoot in AI Servo (AF-C for Nikon).  Whereas with the 7D I would just have the center point activated or the center point with 4 assist points activated, with the 5D3 I most often use the zone autofocus mode (generally the center zone) as I find with just 1 point activated the 5D3 gets off the subject too quickly and easily. 

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - March 2014, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/500 F8, iso 800, aperture priority, evaluative metering +0.7.  For this shot I was at my default depth of field.  This image shows how 1 stop down from wide open is often a good trade off for bird photography.  The head, both legs and most of the body are pretty sharp, while I lose the depth of field on the tail which doesn't bother me as the tail is facing away from me.  It's a busy setting so if I had stopped down to F11 the background would have been more distracting and I would have lost valuable shutter speed.  I had added some light here to compensate for overcast conditions and a brightish background.  I am lucky to have Brazos Bend State Park only about 40 minutes drive from my house.  It's a large, wild area of freshwater swamps and lakes with big stands of cypress trees.  The bird photography conditions tend to be a bit busy there but the wildness of the park being so close to the metropolis of Houston is very refreshing and I spend a lot of time there, not only doing bird photography but fishing as well. 

Green Heron fishing - photographed April 2014, Brazos Bend State Park, TX.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/1000 F7.1, aperture priority, evaluative metering -0.3.  This image was taken in mid afternoon bright light so I reduced my exposure compensation a little bit to account for that.  Also I was a little bit less than 1 stop down from wide open to keep my shutter speed up at that iso to stop the action.  Brazos Bend is a very good spot to photograph a variety of herons, American Bittern, Purple Gallinule and other freshwater lake and swamp species.  As I said the environment tends to be busy but that is where these birds live.  It's difficult to get low because you are photographing from dikes and there are a lot of large alligators around to discourage you from doing so.  I am available for full day or half day private bird photography instruction at these areas, contact me for details.