Making do with the "wrong" lens...
One day I was walking around with only my crop sensor Nikon DSLR and a 50mm prime lens. In my opinion, this is a bit tight as a general walk-around lens on a crop sensor camera, being the equivalent of a 75mm, and it's certainly not the ideal gear for capturing birds in flight... but there I was in the park and people were feeding the birds, drawing in swarms of ducks and geese. I had to at least try for some shots!
You can get pretty close to the birds in the park because they're about half tame. I wanted some in flight shots so I set the shutter speed to 1/1250 seconds. (A little faster like 1/1600 or 1/2000 would freeze the bird's wings completely but let in less light, and I don't mind a bit of motion in the wing tips in any case.)
It wasn't all that bright out, so I opened the aperture all the way to f/1.8. This creates a shallow depth of field, and the background softens or blurs a bit.
The last thing to consider was the ISO, and I decided to use auto ISO with a maximium of 1000. I'm not comfortable going much higher on this camera.
In post processing I have cropped these shots quite a bit... too much to make good prints larger than 8" x 10", but good enough for use on the web. As I've said, this is the wrong gear and the wrong way to do it, but here is an even more ridiculous example...
This last shot was captured with the same Nikon D7100, but this time I had only a 24mm prime lens with me. So why am I telling you all this? Perhaps it's just a reminder to remember your long lens, but if you don't have it, don't be afraid to push a little with the "wrong" equipment when the need arises. Thoughts or questions? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!
Thank you for a detail narration. Really helped me understand a lot :) I have 2 zoom in lenses and hoping to get a prime lens and a wide angle lens soon hahaha
Wow, fantastic shots and editing!
Thanks very much!
Wow these shots look amazing and so dynamic!!!! I wish I could catch some animals in action some time ....
GREAT JOB anyways :D
Thanks so much for the nice comment! The way to get better is just practice. When I take photos of birds at least 95% will be deleted immediately.
Ok so the main thing is to make a loooot of photos and afterwards decide the best one? Thank you :D
Posting a "follow me" ad as a comment and then upvoting your own comment... very spammy behaviour
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Amazing photograpy.
I appreciate your content..great shots.. very beautiful.. thanks for sharing this post
Thank you!
If you didn't say you carried wrong gear, I wouldn't know :-) These photos are just great to me! But I totally understand about bringing wrong gear, it happens!
Thank you! I guess the reason I sometimes walk around with a single prime lens is to force myself to think creatively... so maybe it's not the "wrong" gear, although a good zoom lens is going to work better.
Wonderful Keith ! 😊 resteemed
Thanks a lot Josh!
these are great photos for here and I like your explanation
they look like paintings great job
Thank you, I'm happy you like the photos! :)
Those look amazing. Great shots. Not a photographer myself but definitely can appreciate the skill and complexity level.
Thank you, I appreciate your kind remarks!
the color on the duck are very nice. and like the "long" closes time with
special focus on the wings.
you say wrong gear the rest of us is quite envious of what you did with "wrong" Equipment
Thank you very much!
Thanks for your advices @keithboone, yesterday I tried to take shots of doves at flight, when my acquaintanсe let them to fly after long break during winter time, so I understood that I need to try another lens which I forgot at home. I hope, after reading your post, next time I'll take good shots of flying doves and then I'll can share them with you!
Thank you, I'd like to see those shots when you make them!
Ok, I'll keep it in my mind and let you know, when I'll catch them in my lens!
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P.s. I myself dont use the correct equipment for most of my shots...but I learn and make do with what I have...I agree with what you say and this post keith was very educational for me. But like I said .. ive been able to take incredible shots with equipment thats not even meant for the job .... I firmly believe its 70% the photographer and 30% the equipment
I agree completely, and that's really what this post was about. I had an idea what I wanted to see and worked out how to do it, despite not having the right lens with me.
I like photos
Thank you.
I like it
Thank you.
Stunning photography and some very useful tips.
Your post got my 100% Upvote, and I have included a link to it in this post.
Thanks very much for the vote and shot out in your post!
This is @dmcamera here, in my other sign-in. I have Resteemed this to my Photography-101 account. Your post got me thinking that I should be Resteeming posts with photography tips and tutorials, and yours is the first! Thanks for the inspiration, and well done on this post!
Thank you! I'm not sure how much use this is as a tutorial... any bird photographer is probably going to bring their long lens and get much better shots :)
I aim to educate mainly those who are just starting out in photography. (That's why it is Photography-101.) There is always plenty of information for the advanced photographer, but not much for the beginner. The beginners tend to get a bit intimidated by equipment and technical talk! I started Photography-101 to help those who want to shoot their own images for Steemit, but are not sure about how to go about it. Sure, a bird photographer will get great shots that could be printed as wall art. But the aim on here is to get images that are good enough for the web at 72dpi, and it doesn't need expensive equipment to do that. Your post is just at the right level for that. Thanks! ;-)
Glad to hear it, thank you. What I should have talked about is the reason for walking around with a single lens in the first place. It's kind of an exercise that forces you to work a lot harder for your shots, but may pay off in more creative thinking.
With a zoom lens, you may tend to zoom in and out, frame the shot, go 'click' and move on. With a prime lens, nothing is that easy. You have to zoom with your feet and that leads to trying different angles... from the left, what about from over here? I feel it enforces creative thinking and problem-solving.
I agree. I can't hold my camera very steady without a tripod these days, and to be honest, I have always hated tripods except for certain things like long exposures etc. So, I often get camera shake with my larger lenses (not enough to notice on Steemit, but enough to rule out an image being used as stock.) I tend to grab my camera with my 1.4 50mm prime lens, and zoom with my feet! I have gone on overseas trips where it has been my only lens with me!
The bird can be caught. But is it possible to make a cell more pleasant to her than free air? I liked your post, good luck and have a good day :)
No, the bird will not be happy in a cage... Thank you :)
Beautiful
Thank you.
Beautiful photos. Congratulations on the shot.
Best regards.
wrong lens or not, those are truly beautiful shots!
Very nice Duck´s !
Brilliant photo
thank you for the explaination @keithboone. it's useful for me