Beach Walk, Feathered Community
Sometimes photography turns out great when birds 'cooperate', after the rain the beach cacophony of bird life, zooming around. My amateur photography is all with my Canon PowerShot SX730 HS, no tripod to help, long beach walks equal aim and shoot, hope for the best.
Great Egret hoving above, this is my first trial run doing photography using manual only, some photo's came out swell others, well don't blame the equipment, a lot more practice is needed. [f/5.6 1/125 sec ISO-80]
Egret on the move fishing, one bird scooped a small fish moving up the lagoon, I was just too slow to capture, rejuvenated after the rain they appeared to have more wind under the wings than usual.
Yellow-billed kite doing a fly over scanning the beach for dead birds or fish, a carrion bird on regular patrol over the beach or up the rivers. [f/6.3 1/125 sec ISO-80]
Woolly-necked stork gliding gracefully in, need I add with speed, more a diving motion suddenly pulling back lands neatly for a big bird. Practice with this camera is definitely needed, learning is part of the fun! All tips/advice greatly appreciated.
Delightful long beak to plunder morsels in the mud pools, long toes to scratch around. Another bird comfortable on the beach and inland.
Around the corner a small trickling of water flows toward the river stands a Goliath heron with the Little egret (excuse the humans mess) quietly surveying our passing, not moving a muscle, if we went any closer they would have flown away, not interruping their morning a quick photo and moved on again.
Birds mingle with comfort and ease down here on the beach, in the one hour walk, rewarding sightings of feathered friends on the beach.
Grey heron against the waves moving along the shoreline. Photo Friday with @qurator - Feathered Friday with @keithboone
Thought for Today: You cannot stop birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair. ~ African Proverb
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!steemitworldmap -30.0836005 lat 30.8678566 long Sapphire Coast South Africa D3SCR
Those are some very exotic looking birds Joan, and they are all so big. Great captures of them girl.
Really a wide variety on the beach, it was great fun with most the bigger ones being present Wanda. Ironically no seagulls to be seen, thanks for visiting @sunscape
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That first photograph is just stunning, @joanstewart
In limbo, I was thrilled when I got home to see that capture @fionasfavourites
I have been amazed with the photographs that you have taken
Thanks for you kind comment @merryslamb
"Practice makes perfect"( Uses promptos facit) it seems that John Adams knew what he was talking about in the mid 15hundreds Lady Joan and some of the shots here are great. Blessings!
Lots to learn, finding the right settings with birds whizzing overhead I did not have time to focus, making a concerted effort not to just switch over to auto, actually learn this camera.
In my case Auto, or Sports are the best settings for moving things Lady Joan. A difficult trick is indeed the zoom, especially in changing distances. Blessings!
Will have to look out for the sports option and perhaps start in that neck of the woods, thanks Stephen.
These beautiful birds sure look comfortable going about their daily affairs!
Strutting/winging around having a good day @alimamasstory
First time shooting manual? That's awesome to see. I like that high-key shot of the Great Egret and the Grey Herons! Followed, voted & resteemed :-)
Now my second digital camera, never took time to learn manual shooting, now adamant to learn with this one.
Thank you for the kind comments, follow and resteem @keithboone will become a regular with Feathered Friday sharing our African birds.
That's good to hear! Once you get the hang of it, I think you may find it is actually easier to shoot in manual mode and get better results. I now shoot manual 100% of the time. I'd be happy to share tips on this if you're interested.
Always keen to learn, tips are always appreciated.
I feel positive that once I learn to apply some basic ideas in the right direction, I will be able to squeeze a lot more out of photography.
You mention having a new camera. What have you got?
Settled on the pocket size Canon PowerShot SX730 HS along with GoPro soft bag to carry in pocket to save lens, Orico hard cover to pack neatly with silicone sachets in a drawer when not in use.
Also find these small camera's fit neatly into leather fanny pack with cables, battery charger, extra battery, everything handy for travel.
Our humidity is high, any visit to the beach everything needs a good cleaning as soon as I return home.
Ok, that looks like a good camera. Here's my recommendation for shooting birds... this is just a starting point. I don't know how you make adjustments to your controls but since the camera shoots manual, these settings can be achieved. 1. Set the aperture to wide open. On this camera, the range is f/3.3 to f/6.9. As you zoom closer, the aperture gets smaller or "stops down". Doesn't matter, you just want wide open, meaning the lowest number it will allow. 2. Set Auto ISO. 3. Set your shutter speed to 1/1000 second as a starting point.
For birds in flight, a fast shutter speed will help to freeze the action giving you nice sharp wings even though they are moving. If the bird is stationary you can use a slower speed like 1/250 or 1/500.
Start there and see how it goes. If the pictures are too dark you will have to lower the shutter speed to get more light. You can also take any dark shots and brighten them to some extent with software. Let me know how it goes.
I just love our feathered friends @joanstewart, enjoy practicing on your camera, not doing badly at all hey! Very wise proverb at the end :)
Thanks @Lizelle always something new to learn, that is life....
I am also pretty new to photography with a digital camera, it has been more than 30 years since I really took to photography, for the last 10 to 11 months I have really been enjoying it. manual on a digital is pretty fun to do, I know we can all do it the easy way, but I, like you, wanted to learn more.
When I go out for birds and critters, I usually set my ISO up to 400. Not to high as to cause digital noise, but makes for good speed shots. I try to pay attention to the little viewfinder bar, and the first thing I try to adjust for is speed when hand holding the camera. I read on another post that for hand held almost blur free you want a speed of at least 1/1250 of a sec.
The other thing I recently finally grasped, is that of the f-stop. I kind of look at it like a ruler now when trying to figure out what I want. starting at the low numbers of f-stop means that you can only see so far down the ruler and still make out the numbers. With a big f-stop looking down the ruler means that there are a lot more numbers in focus so you can see more. I also read that f5.6 is the best for clarity of image. I don't really understand that yet, but the f5.6 ones do seem to be a lot more in focus.
Any ways, have fun with the camera, I think you will enjoy it, and there are so many places to share your snaps with like keithboones mountainmonday and featheredfriday, and there are a lot more. All about having fun, not stressing over if is it good enough for this contest or that type thing.
We have an old film camera an Olympus with four lenses, sadly I never had time to enjoy photography raising children, more my husbands forte (hobby). Learning f-stops, lens speed will be an adventure all on it's own.
New camera is compact, learning to preset to work under various conditions, I am taking note of your suggestions, thanks @bashadow.
Will enjoy this camera, purchased compact due to living in Africa travel, nature, many bloops will happen, all part of the fun. Has been great meeting @keithboones doing this post.
Lovely birds! I pretty much take everything with the camera set on auto. I've tried experimenting but I think the camera is smarter than I am!
I have done the same @melinda010100 now learning there is so much more on offer, inquisitive as hell to see if I will be able to master the art I see in some fabulous photography here in Steemit.
With that sort of attitude, you will do great!
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The first of your photographs is awesome. I love it.
Thanks so much @ikarus
Beautiful piece of work,you did excellent click with your camera.
Thanks so much @tussar11
For me, these are unusual birds to see on the beach. I’ve seen only seagulls here in New Jersey. I’ve seen some pelicans in Caribbean and that’s about it. You are surrounded by a lot of animals there in South Africa, always a pleasure to check out your posts. 😊
Love sharing them with you @starjewel each visit offers something new.
There was some energy when you were walking a mile near the lake that was captured by birds. I feel now a days I miss that positive energy.
Very positive energy emanates in nature @kcherukuri
I really love the first photo! It looks so awesome! Thanks for sharing this! I bet in the future you're going to become a great photographer.
Thanks for kind comment, I was thrilled with the first photo when I got to see it on a big screen @sgbonus
Beautiful Pictures and Informative Article Birds are Really Part Of Beauty Of Nature
Sharing our beautiful country always an honour @orakzai
We love taking photos of Great Egret, mostly white here, seldom see any other colours around here.
Variety of Egret in South Africa, all to my knowledge are white @joelai thanks for visiting.
Thanks for sharing @joanstewart!
What beautiful herons live on the ocean! I would like to see these in nature, but we live only seagulls.
Great photos of the birds in your area. In my area today we had an influx of birds for the harvest of the berries off of one of the local trees. It is great to see many birds on these trees eating the berries off of them and it only takes a few hours before all are eaten. This is a great food source for the birds at this time of year.