Sorry for not posting for such a long time, I’ll do my best to keep posting more frequently. I wanted to share with you all some photos that I took today at Pantanos de Villa, a protected area for birds to the south of Lima, Peru. I recently bought a Canon 50D camera and a 400mm f/5.6 lens to take with me on my birding trips. Last week I went to Pantanos de Villa to try out the camera for the first time with some disappointing results. I had some problems with the autofocus as well as the exposition of the photos. However, after taking photos of unsuspecting pigeons outside my window, I think I have figured out some of the issues. While I still have a great deal to learn and improve in my photography I wanted to show you all some of the shots that I took today.
American Oystercatcher | © Jean Paul Perret
Plumbeous Rail | © Jean Paul Perret
Pied-billed Grebe | © Jean Paul Perret
Common Moorhen | © Jean Paul Perret
Gray-hooded Gull | © Jean Paul Perret
Belcher’s Gull with trash hanging on its wing | © Jean Paul Perret
Me | © Christine Bare
Can you explain how you resolved some of the issues? I’m a beginning bird-photographer with a 40D and 100-400 zoom lens, both Canon. I could use some tips!
Hi Deborah,
I think that the 40D is very similar to the 50D, so I will let you know the steps that I took in hopes that this will help with your situation. In my case I had trouble with the autofocus points getting confused with the background. To fix this I set the central point as the only autofocus point. Also, in the autofocus mode I use One Shot for still birds and AI Servo for birds in flight.
I also found very useful information on these web sites:
http://www.ophrysphotography.co.uk/pages/tipsandtutorials.htm
http://birdsasart.com/bn268.htm (Settings for bird photography specifically for the 40D)
I hope this helps!