How I Photograph Birds - Part 2

July 21 2010. Remember ?? I posted here a short video footage of "How I Photograph Birds" few weeks ago. Now, here is the part 2 of the same topic :



Thanks for viewing.

Chestnut-naped Forktail

July 16 2010. Over the past few days, I was trying very hard to photograph the Chestnut-naped Fork-tail at Ulu Paip lowland forest. I was lucky and successful in getting the Blue-banded Kingfisher but it was non-success for the Fork-tail. 

I realized that the Chestnut-naped Fork-tail is a very shy and smart bird. It always sensitives to human present. During a few instances, I was wearing a camouflage netting and hid under a tree.  The Fork-tail some-how knew about my present there. It diverted away from me when it approached my hiding location although I was along the flight path. I only managed to get 2 blur pictures of the Fork-tail so far. I am still looking for ways to get near to it. Hopefully my hard work will bring success soon. Here are the 2 blur photos :

Photographed on July 15 

Photographed on July 16

Thank for viewing.

A Closer Encounter With the Blue-Banded Kingfisher

July 15 2010, I decided to take a half day off from work. I spent the entire morning at the Ulu Paip lowland forest searching for the Blue-banded Kingfisher. At 10 am, I found the subject at a small pond near the waterfall. The male Blue-banded Kingfisher perched at a rock under a tree. He was very kind to let me photograph him for 5 minutes. Due to the poor lighting condition, I had to use an ISO of 1600 to 2500. Even with this ISO range, the shutter speed was between 1/20 to 1/40, most of my shot ended up with motion blur. Here are some better one, out of the 60 shots :

This morning he allowed me to get nearer, compared to my first encounter last week.

1 D mkIV EF800 IS + TC, Center point focus, 1/20 F8 ISO 2000

Thanks for viewing.

Blue Banded Kingfisher

July 11 2010, My efforts of searching for the Blue-banded Kingfisher at Ulu Paip came into success. This morning, I managed to get my photo lifer of the Blue-banded Kingfisher.  It was a male species that I successfully photographed. It was three and a half hours of waiting at the riverbank. During the wait, I saw the Blue-banded Kingfisher and the Chestnut-naped Forktail flew upstream and downstream. It was so frustrating to see the subjects flew past without stopping and perching at the rocks nearby.

I had some coffee and sweet potatoes to keep me awake and occupied. There were a lot of mosquitoes bugging me, that I had to put on my insect repellant.

A Lizard on a mossy rock

At 11.15 am, I saw the Blue-banded Kingfisher flew upstream. Out of sudden, it landed on a river rock in front of me. Bingo, I quickly pressed the shutter of mk IV and triggered a series of long burst.

1 D MK IV EF 800 IS

1/60 F5.6 ISO 2000

After a series of shots, I had a quick check on the images on the LCD. The subject looked small on the the LCD, I decided to put on the 1.4 TC in order to get more reach to the Blue-banded Kingfisher. Unfortunately, my sudden movement of mounting the TC must have alerted the Kingfisher. It flew away while I was trying to gain focus on it after mounting the TC. 

It started to rain heavily 10 minutes after the Kingfisher left. I decided to pack and head home. It was a very satisfied outing. Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.