Yes !! You can take an awesome bird photo anywhere

Most of us start bird photography with passion & lots of energy. With our first photograph, we venture out to capture more & more birds. We do not exactly care about the quality of the photographs we take. We enjoy the closeup photographs, which were earlier not possible with the kit lens 18-55mm or 18-135 mm and we feel proud to show them to our loved ones. However soon we start to run out of new birds to capture in our frames and frustration slowly begins to build. Eventually, we start to think that our locality is not suited for the photography genre we have chosen. We look at photos on social media from other locations and other photographers and slowly we start comparing the photos with our photos and it further adds to the frustration because we do not have those species (from social media) in our locality and our photos don't look good enough. What do we do then, we take a pause, switch genres or even quit.

Well hello again !! If the above paragraph describes your photography journey "till now" then you are at the right place.

I have experienced it and I can confidently say that it happened with most of us and even a few folks are riding on it as we continue to read. We are going to discuss the issue here in the few paragraphs below and hopefully, at the end of it, we may have some guidance to overcome this downside of bird photography.

With long-lens photography the world seems different, we get dragged towards the details we get even in the most lame or casual technique of photographing a bird. Our subjects suddenly start to look different and amazing with all the details and soon we drench ourselves in trying out every bird we know of and look at it through our newly acquired long lens. At this stage, Species count is the only trophy for a bird photographer. But eventually, we run out of bird species and our trophy count decelerates. If we do not find any lead from here we lose our interest and a few of us even quit.

Now for #Tip 1

Merely capturing the species seems exciting at first but you should know getting close to them and capturing the finest details are even more so. As beginner photographers, we feel amazed at the detailed photos of any random photographer, posting on social media. We often get frustrated with not having enough details in our photos. So how do they do it, they get close to them either by using camouflage or targeting any tame bird ( which doesn't fly away easily). The results of the close approach are far far better than any technique used at a relatively larger distance. The example is illustrated in the two photographs of common kingfishers in the same location.

The photo was taken at a distance of approximately 15m. Have a look at another photo taken at a distance of 5m.

Amazed by the details? The distance made all the difference and it was one of the first field lessons I acquired by accident. From this moment onwards I started to look for opportunities to get closer to any bird and so the second round of birding began for me by photographing the same birds but at a closer distance. This moment opened up new ideas for me because I had just clicked an awesome photograph. Now I had two objectives #1 To photograph new species & also to get a better photo of a bird that I had already photographed.

Here comes #Tip 2

Nudge the idea that bird photography is about finding and photographing new species. There is more to bird photography for beginners than meets the eye. Getting up close to new species is always exciting and I am not suggesting in any way that photographing any new species should be out of the wish list of new photographers but it should not be the only thing in your approach. The tip is that you should aim at photographing birds in every possible situation or location which may yield different or even a better photograph of the same species. Often new photographers lack techniques that most advanced or pro photographers use and hence the idea of photographing the same species with different techniques does not immediately strike but it is great to learn here that you should along with your journey learn a few of the techniques to have maximum benefit. For example, consider the photo of my first sighting of Eurasian Hoopoe.

The bird was high above the tree line and I was at a distance of approximately 30-35 meters on the ground. The photo session was exciting as I had captured it for the first time. But when I got the second chance I did not feel the same. However, when I learned to capture birds in flight, I never knew that the same bird would look amazingly beautiful. I managed to have a bird-in-flight shot of the bird and it looked amazing. I am sharing the photograph below.

This is a perfect example of how the same species can be photographed in different situations with different or maybe be same technique and the results are surprisingly better than the previous photo. This experience again changed my approach and I began to look for better opportunities for photographing local birds even though I have photographed them before.

Another #Tip 3

Learn the basics of post-processing and I am not talking about some fancy colour and contrasty edits, learn serious post-processing techniques. You will be surprised by what post-processing does to photographs and how advanced & professional photographers use them. Even the simplest photographs turn blazing amazing with creative post-processing techniques. What this knowledge does to you is that you begin to visualize the possible results while you are photographing the bird, and how the photo should look when you are done with the edits. You will not be able to do that unless you have the skill and experience of post-processing. Once you get hold of "some" post-processing methods you will try to capture the same bird with different lights, background, foreground, habitat etc. to do some magic while post-processing.

You can see the obvious difference that post-processing has made to the same photo and to tell you the background story, The Owl was high in the shades of the tree and I was not ok with taking photos in high ISO (Due to the darker environment) but I experimented this photo for this kind of edit only with low ISO and certainly low exposure overall. I was not particularly sure of how the photo might look but, the result has amazed everyone.

Last and final #Tip 4

Keep your distance from social media. The reason why I say this is that wildlife or bird photos are just like any random post on social media for an average user but as you onboard yourself in bird photography, you will be highly intimidated by these photographs. Social media influences a lot because of its flashy nature. Every photo looks spicy and we dream of achieving it. We start to follow the photographers and like their posts and our world starts to look darker with every post we like on social media. What do we do next we begin to curse our gear, and our location, next we plan on buying new gear but why? The captions speak louder than anyone else that the photograph was taken with some expensive lens or camera which I should plan because I cannot relocate to an awesome birding location etc etc etc. Do not get swayed away by social media posts. They are meant to look spicy and juicy continue your journey with whatever resources you have learn new field techniques, and new post-processing techniques and more importantly learn to grow your style of photography instead of copying someone else.

In a nutshell, we can say the evil factors affecting our "LOCAL" bird photography approach are

#1 Comparing ourselves with social media- Develop your taste and style & try to accomplish that which feels more rewarding and satisfying.

#2 Not having enough knowledge of bird photography thereby not being aware of the opportunities available near us- Learn new techniques for the field and post-processing, follow some pro photographers to have a glimpse of their world (not to copy them).

#3 Always venturing out for new species- Do not chase new birds every time you go out, learn to enjoy your trips, and develop habits to scout for more locations near you that offer you better angle or distance opportunities.

#4 Whatever we do, we seek out trophies - Learn to enjoy bird photography as a whole, trophies are part of it and so are the failures (Fewer birds, Lost opportunities, missed photographs, Others having better photographs etc. )