Deliberately tricky

As the light faded this evening I decided to give myself the challenge of taking photos in really poor light. Not only that, but to use the 300mm prime too, to limit myself even more.

I sat a while on the riverbank in the hope of a Heron flyby but alas not today. There were LOTS of fish jumping, but always in a different location to where I was looking at the time.

As the light fell nearer darkness I noticed the trees silhouetted against the sky and a couple of those nearly made it to Blipworld. But then I spotted this lone blackbird/crow (i'm no expert on wildlife) sitting very still on a branch high up in the canopy.

I was using ISO 800 and Max aperture but the shutter speeds this was yielding were obviously still very slow. This wasnt really an issue for stationary things though, as long as I kept the camera as still as possible (and made sure Image Stabilisation was switched on)

By far the trickiest part of this image to get right was focusing on the bird and not any of the dozens of branches between me and it (or indeed behind it). There is not really any point in using auto focus with the subject so badly obscured so it had to be manual (manual focus not manual mode)

The image you see is approx one quarter of the frame taken, so the bird was far too small to see in the viewfinder with sufficient clarity to focus upon. This meant I had to use 'live view' on the camera screen, and keep the bird central as I digitally zoomed in x5 then x10, then adjust the focus ring until it looked as sharp as I could get it.

I didnt spend long at this - it made my arms ache rather, and the rain was starting to come down heavily so I was keen to move into town for some different photos. As ever, there were a few duff shots but this one seems to be about right with the tail feathers nicely defined and also the beak as it turned its head backwards for a moment

As always with my experiments in new aspects of photography, I am not exactly delighted with the result - after all its a very uninspiring photo of a very common bird which is far too small in the frame and has nothing by way of interesting markings or plumage. I dont imagine I will even keep it.

However, I hope the explanation of the way I achieved it give a little insight into how to have a go at this type of shot, and the image perhaps a hint of what be possible given more light, more time and more interesting birdies.

Note 1, To try to 'lift' the bird out of the tree I have drastically altered the tint and temperature of the final image as well as reduce the green of the lichen and few remaining leaves.

Note 2, Compact users may well be able to acheive better results than this as the zooms lenses featured on many models can reach well beyond my 300mm and the large depth of field gained from the small sensor might render the bird (as well as many more branches) in sharp focus using autofocus.

Note 3. Yes I know this reads a bit like I think its Friday already but I may or may not come up with a plan for EPF tomorrow.