When I embarked on my career as a photographer, I began with the basics - pond wildfowl. This is one of the most accessible forms of wildlife photography. Many city parks hold a small population of captive or habituated wildfowl; consequently there can be great opportunities right on your doorstep.

URBAN JUNGLE: WINTER WILDFOWL

Photography information written by Elliott Neep
Copyright © Elliott Neep Wildlife Photography (ENWP)

Winter sunlight is stunning especially at dawn. A cocktail of golden light and rising mists produces exceptional and evocative photographs. This is a great time for bird photography as our resident population is swollen by millions of migrants. These ‘truly wild’ birds can be hard to approach without field skills, a hide, and a huge lens - so as much as I would have loved to photograph these species I knew they were beyond my meagre expertise. Instead, I found it far more productive to learn my craft on accessible subjects such as urban wildfowl, where you can quickly learn techniques that may otherwise take a long time to master.

Preparation is vital to successful wildlife photography. My brother regularly quotes a great acronym that rings around my head: The 5Ps. “Poor Preparation Produces Poor Performance”. Pack your bag the night before so you have film or cards formatted and ready to use. Ensure your batteries are fully charged as the cold will quickly deplete them. If you have a tripod with quick release plates, make sure they are attached to your lenses and camera. Get a good breakfast inside you as this will fight off the cold and sustain your energy.

Finding a workable location also requires preparation. It is worth visiting in advance just to make a few observations. What species are present? Where do the birds congregate? Where are they fed? From which direction does the sun rise and set? Is there anywhere to get close to water level? With this local knowledge, you can make the most of your limited time.

For most wildlife, an SLR camera works best as they are superior at focussing on moving objects with no obvious delay in the shutter release. During my workshops, one of the biggest frustrations, for those with digital point-and-shoot cameras, is that by the time they have pressed the button and the picture is taken, the subject has already left the frame.

I’ve used every focal length from 16mm to 840mm, but the majority of my images have been captured with a focal length of between 200mm-600mm. Size does matter, but it is not essential, and can even be a hindrance. The longer the lens, the further its ‘minimum focus’ distance. Habituated wildfowl can approach so close that I have missed opportunities by using a prime 500mm or 600mm lens. A 100-400mm range is ideal and a zoom lens will give you the versatility to recompose when they are very close.

In low-light conditions, support becomes an essential factor. Invest in a quality tripod, preferably one that opens wide for low-level work. A beanbag is a great alternative. “Wildlife Watching Supplies” stocks a double beanbag which is excellent for groundwork, car doors, and wooden bird hides. It is big enough to cope with the largest of lenses.

Try to arrive early. This way you can enjoy the best light, without the crowds, when the birds are hungry after a cold night. On arrival, assess the situation. Find a spot where you can get low down to the edge of the water, with a clear view, and the sun coming over your shoulder. Use scissors or secateurs to trim away intruding vegetation. If the wildfowl start to move away, throw in some food to grab their interest.

Ideally, your camera should be positioned a few of centimetres above the water level, but the effect is still pronounced at 20-50cm. Low-level photography has several distinct advantages: Being at eye-level with the subject produces more intimate views; with the subject closer to you, the background falls away into an attractive diffusion, isolating the subject; a diffused background generates fewer highlights from water’s surface that can be either distracting or fool your camera’s metering system.

Although frequently overlooked, the background can have a major impact on the image, depending on what is there and how it is illuminated. Low-level photography will help diffuse backgrounds, but you have more scope for creativity. During the golden hour, the colour cast of the light is very warm with hues of orange and red. When this falls on overhanging trees at the water’s edge, the water positively glows in their reflection producing striking images.

When you throw in the bread, there is normally a frenzy where the birds splash and tussle for the food. This provides a perfect opportunity for good behaviour and interaction shots. To freeze-frame the action, you will need a shutter speed of around 1/1000th. If this is not achievable, then increase your ISO to 400 or 800. Many photographers are inclined to preserve a low ISO because of image noise. But the truth is that most cameras have excellent internal noise reduction. In many cases, a ‘noisy’ digital image is still cleaner than a scanned slide. So, is it better to have a clean shot that is blurred or a sharp action shot with a little noise?

Modern camera metering systems should be able to cope with most situations. However, they can be fooled by a large area of one colour (especially a primary colour such as red, blue or green), very bright, or very dark subjects. All these situations will require Manual Exposure Compensation (MEC). Every camera’s metering system will evaluate the scene and calculates the exposure setting to create a midtone image. For example, with Aperture Priority (Av), if the subject is very bright like a swan, the metering will set a faster exposure to darken the scene to a midtone. If the subject is very dark like a coot, the metering system will set a slower exposure to brighten the scene.

Focussing on a moving object, with wings flapping and water splashing, can be a hard task to master. Try to focus on the head and eye by selecting a specific focus point. If the eye is sharp it gives the impression of a sharp image throughout, even if the rest of the bird is out of focus. Selecting the right focus point quickly can be difficult but persevere. If you are restricted by the number of focus points you can select, use the centre point and wait until the bird is side on and parallel to you. This will provide the best chance of rendering the entire bird in focus. If you are shooting still portraits, stop down the aperture to F8 for a greater depth of field.

Once the food has been consumed, the wildfowl will begin to drift away. After a tussle, birds will often preen to realign their feathers. Now is your opportunity for profile portraits with reflections. Try and isolate a single bird in the frame. To capture more action, take along somebody that can feed the birds, while you concentrate on the photos.

When you have your head down concentrating on what is in front of you, be aware of potentially fantastic action sequences as birds fly into your location. An SLR should be able to get a good fix on the larger subjects such as swans and geese. In aperture priority mode (AV), set the lowest f/number to attain the fastest shutter speed available. Give your camera as much time as you can by tracking the bird from as far away as possible. Considering these birds travel at 30-40mph, you may need five seconds or more of uninterrupted tracking. Birds are travelling at their slowest just before they hit the water. If you have kept the bird in the centre of the frame, your camera should have a good lock as the birds are touching down with a photogenic splash.

If you can’t get close enough for a full-frame portrait, use the ‘rule of thirds’ to position the bird in the frame. Ensure you compose the shot with the bird heading into or looking into space. The subject will have movement and purpose rather than just floating idly on the water. If you are shooting at water level, any reflections will be reduced to a blur. If you want clear reflections, increase your shooting height and shoot down onto the subject. Remember to leave enough space at the bottom of the frame for the reflection. Pond wildfowl will typically come so close that you will be able to create abstracts and isolations of the heads, faces, wings, and feather patterns. Again, if you are close enough to photograph the face, then align it to one side so the bird looks into space.

Learn to perfect your photographs in-camera rather than recovering them on the PC. Identify when to manually compensate your exposure, increasing for bright subjects and reducing for dark subjects. Avoid photographing monochrome birds in bright sunlight. Wait for a slightly overcast day or the first and last hours of sunlight. This will help avoid burning out details and high contrast images.