Some from this morning

[wigz]

When I pulled into the car park at Eagleby this morningI found a group of photographers having a meet-up. I went off on my own but met up with them later. Plenty of birds around this morning but most stayed too far away.

1. Mangrove Honeyeater. First time I've seen one of these


2. Same again.


3. White-throated Gerygone. This one stayed among the branches but this is my first photo of one of these so it's a keeper.


4. Same again


5. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin. There were a couple of flocks of these flying around but they stayed too far away for a decent shot.

[David_MC]

Excellent shots Alan.

[wigz]

Thanks David.

[HansE]

Very good results under difficult conditions. I tend to go back to manual focus or increase the depth of field. Do you have a set approach to capturing an image?

[wigz]

Thanks Hans. I don't think I could focus manually on a small moving bird and I like to keep the depth of field as small as possible. Max aperture is f/5.6 anyway.

For birds, I usually use manual exposure to fix aperture and shutter speed but use auto ISO to for correct exposure, and exposure compensation if necessary. Full manual quite rarely.

I normally use single point continuous auto-focus, with another two buttons - one set to switch to 3D tracking and another to Group (which will focus on the closest subject under a set of points around the currently selected point).

Exposure is normally set to 1/2000 at f/5.6 in bright conditions but I will drop the shutter to 1/320 or 1/250 in shade.

With shorter focal lengths I'm usually in Aperture Priority and usually leave auto-iso on unless I'm doing landscape on a tripod as keeping ISO low is not as critical these days.

[HansE]

I feel it is getting more complicated rather than easier, The old brain has trouble keeping up with all the options.

[Isac]

All good Alan but #1 is a standout for me. Great framing and that added green foliage is a bonus. Wonderful POV and a good pose by the bird.

[wigz]

Thanks Isac, #1 is my favourite here too.