Swallow Tale
This entry is about failure and learning and retrying...and rationalizing new equipment :-)
Out for a walk in late June I noticed somebody had put up a bird house next to a field, and some swallows were diving into it, beak first, then reemerging moments later. Clearly there were newly hatched chicks inside. There was lots of clear space around the bird house, so I set up the tripod 10m away, chose a point of focus just in front of the bird house, and put the camera on burst mode. I figured 1/400 of a second was plenty, since even with the telephoto maxed out (300mm on a crop-sensor), I was still on a tripod and it should be steady. The first few shots were disappointingly blurry, but on the small screen on the back of the camera it was hard to tell whether it was due to motion blur or lack of focus. I closed down the lens as far as I could (f22), and it eventually became clear it was motion blur.
I should mention here I rarely try to shoot little birds. They move too fast to track by hand, and my camera's autofocus wasn't the best: a 5 year old Pentax K-30 never won any awards for that. Big birds like gulls and pelicans usually haven't given me much trouble at 1/400th of a second. Then again, I don't really have the equipment to zoom in close, and the K-30's 16MP didn't allow for much cropping, so any motion blur was probably lost in the general haze of distance.
So I kept upping the shutter speed until I got to 1/2000th. By this point it had clouded over, and I had to up the ISO to the 12800 range. I knew this would introduce a lot of noise (especially on a 5 year old camera body), but I was curious to see the result: which was a LOT of noise. These are after post-processing in Lightroom. If you're losing detail when you're trying to get rid of noise, there's not much point in pushing it further.
Having the camera on burst mode generated a lot of shots, and sometimes I missed completely:
Wave hello to the cameraman.
I knew the latest generation of Pentax in my price range (the K-70) would have better low-light performance, but I wanted to be sure I couldn't just deal with this by having more light. A couple days later was gloomy and stormy all day, but in early evening the massive storm clouds passed, and the sun blazed forth:
So I raced out to the site, and when I got there I realized I'd forgotten my tripod...! I kept the windows rolled up while I cursed a blue streak... But there was nothing for it, so I parked myself back at the bird house, at a respectful distance, and took a stance. I tried a couple of times to track them coming in, but they're just too fast. Again with the burst mode, and this time I had one eye in the viewfinder, and one eye scanning the sky. I figured 1/2000th should do it for shutter speed, and ISO was at a manageable 3200. It was quite a challenge, and some straggler clouds from the storm cut some light occasionally, but I managed to snag a couple of shots:
It's that human again, making those clicking noises. What does he want?
I think these are okay, but when I got home there were too many with motion blur. Also, though Lightroom does an admirable job of reducing the noise, I decided I needed the 24MP and better low-light processing of the K-70. I put in the order and waited a few days, but it didn't arrive. I knew the chicks were growing fast (on my second visit the adults were no longer diving straight into the bird house), so I made one last trip with the K-30, and made sure to bring the tripod.
Sure enough, the chicks were big now, taking over the whole bird house. I set up the camera at a decent angle and set the shutter to 1/4000th. It's the magic number:
Mom! Dad! Food! Mom!
By this time there were four adults involved in the feeding:
Two chicks, four adults, and the chicks are still squeaking for food.
Eventually they were either tired enough, or just accustomed to my presence they didn't mind perching a bit and posing:
My new K-70 didn't arrive until another couple of weeks had passed, so I haven't been able to test it in the same conditions, the chicks having been long grown. But I'm prepped for next spring, with the following thoughts in mind:
- 1/4000th is minimum shutter speed for these tiny birds. They move and dodge and change direction even in the last few centimetres of flight.
- Spray and pray is required: set the camera to burst mode and hold that shutter down.
- Give lots of depth of field. You need at least half a metre to get a reasonable rate of in-focus shots.
- A captive situation is essential. The birds had to feed those chicks, so their flight path was relatively predictable. This ties in with...
- Patience. Getting to know the bird's behaviour pays off. Prepare to spend several hours watching. It got to the point I could see them coming sometimes half a minute ahead, and could predict the timing of their dive. They're still too fast for handheld, unless you have the reflexes of an athlete and the steady hands of a surgeon, but at least you'll be able to maximize your burst moment.
A final note on equipment: I've been using the K-70 since early July and I'm very happy with it.
Thanks for reading!
