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| Blue Tit - Photo by Mark Appleton |
A lot of time has been spent in my sisters garden during lock down as the weather has been nice. For daily exercise, I have taken a walk to the local woods. Not everyone is as fortunate to have access to a garden during lockdown, so I am trying to bring a bit of nature to you. I thought I'd share some pictures taken in my garden over the last few years and some tips for getting photos of the birds in the garden. Let me just say there are some fantastic photographers out there and I just take photos for pleasure.
Camera
Most people these days have a camera of sorts, whether it be a phone camera, bridge camera (portable camera with fixed lens and powerful zoom), or digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses. The digital SLR cameras have bigger sensors than the bridge cameras so the photos have better image quality, but they are a lot bulkier and more expensive. I started out with a bridge camera for my bird photography and I still use it sometimes as it is very portable and has a big built in zoom. The camera I have is a Panasonic FZ200. The mobile phones have great cameras on them and it is amazing what you can also do with a phone camera. Together with editing software that comes with your phone or on your computer, pictures can be enhanced or cropped to zoom into the subject to provide more impact.
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| Great Tit in the garden - Photo by Mark Appleton |
Attract the birds
To take pictures of the birds in your garden, you first need to attract them. With a little thought, you can turn your garden into a bird photographic studio. The easiest way to attract birds to your garden and have a subject for your bird photography, is to put out feeders. Popular foods include mixed seeds, mealworms, fat balls, sunflower seeds and niger seeds. It could be as simple as placing a stick on bird feeder to your window, be it kitchen, bedroom or conservatory.
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| Nuthatch attracted to garden with mixed bird seed - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Siskin on bird Feeder - Photo by Mark Appleton |
Spring Time
It is a bonus if you have a bird box in your garden as it can attract lots of action.
The end of April and beginning of May is a great time for taking photo's either in your garden or local green spaces.
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| Blue Tit feeding young - Photo by Mark Appleton |
Many birds are busy nest building, feeding their young and some of the young are beginning to fledge. A couple of years ago I had blue tits nesting in a bird box in my garden. I regularly sat outside with a coffee and always took my camera. I was fascinated watching the adults feeding their young.
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| Blue Tit with grub in garden - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Blue Tits, Mum and Dad feeding young - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Blue Tit with grub -Photo by Mark Appleton |
Young starling being fed on the garden fence:-
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| Starling feeding young - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Blackbird looking for worms in garden - Photo by Mark Appleton |
Fledglings
Having sat outside the bird box most days, I was very lucky to capture the baby Blue Tits fledging and taking their leap into the unknown:-
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| Ill just take a peek - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Baby Blue Tit in bird box - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Baby Blue tit - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| I'm nearly ready to go Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Blue Tit, time to fledge Photo by Mark Appleton |
One of the fledglings flew straight on to the patio until its parents coaxed it into a garden tree:-
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| Blue Tit just fledged - Photo by Mark Appleton |
The bonus with young birds is a lot of them have not yet learnt to be frightened of humans and you can get some good pictures without them flying away:-
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| Young Starlings waiting to be fed |
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| Young Starling waiting to be fed Phot by Mark Appleton |
Time of Day
Think about what time of day you will be taking your photographs. Most birds are active early morning or early evening and also the light is more agreeable then. Shooting midday can cause your pictures to be over exposed or bleached out. Also think about where the sun will be, especially if you are waiting for a bird to land on a specific prop as you don't want to be shooting into the sun.
Prop
As mentioned earlier, you can set up your garden like a photographic studio with some very well positioned props. These can look more natural than birdfeeders. For example, add a log, rock or stick in the garden. To tempt the birds, wedge nuts in the log or smear some peanut butter on the prop, but out of site for your photo. Here is a stick planted in the garden that I was lucky enough to have a Dunnock land on:-
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| Dunnock on prop - Photo by Mark Appleton |
Background
When setting up your props, take notice of what is behind them. You could get some unwanted objects in your photos, such as a bike, rather than a nice green bush or blue sky. One way around this is to blur the background by choosing a low aperture number, This will give you a shallow depth of field, so make sure your focus on the bird is good.
The sky has been chosen in the following picture as a background to hilight the Starling:-
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| Shooting upwards to capture blue sky background - Photo by Mark Appleton |
While the next 3 pictures have blurred a cluttered background:-
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| Male Blackbird, cluttered background blurred - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Baby starling being fed - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Baby Robin, house blurred in background - Photo by Mark Appleton |
Water
If you have a garden try adding water features, whether it be a bird bath, large flowerpot dish or plate of water, especially during the hot weather and you will see a lot more birds. You may be lucky enough to capture a bird drinking. I placed an empty bird bath in the middle of my sisters lawn and filled it up and saw Robin, Wren, Blackbird, all drinking that day. You may also see a little bit of magic that will brighten up your day, a bird having a bath. This picture was taken a couple of years ago of a young Blackbird in the garden:-
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| Young blackbird on bird bath - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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| Young Blackbird having a bath - Photo by Mark Appleton |
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