H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

There are countless people that love birds, they are used to see them flying around or perhaps  sitting on a tree branch, some in their backyard or the park, and lots of other places you get the idea. They also see photos of birds on the Internet in galleries or blog like this one. I read their comments saying the birds look so nicely posed and colorful. Like many of them would say: Why couldn’t I shoot pictures like that?  Next, they grab their point and shoot camera and go out there and try their hand and seek to get a great shot. They see a nice bird sitting on a fence across the street and click the shutter. Right away they they check the shot and get a sudden surprise! They see a house with a fence with a small dot on top of it… that’s the bird.

That’s the crucial moment when they realize looking at the picture, they could hardly see the bird that they saw so clearly through the viewfinder.

I say to that… Don’t get frustrated right away! Simply, you did not use the appropriate camera to get the right results. The only way to get close up photos is using using a long lens or zoom lens!

Keep in mind a few things that are of great importance to help you be successful in your quest and why is it that you need special lenses.

Birds are small and very fast moving creatures and by nature they keep their distance from people as well as from animals for their own safety. This translates to the fact that you can not approach birds close enough to take good pictures with a “point and shoot” camera. You will definitely need a long lens or zoom lens in order to being able to shoot from a reasonable distance from the bird.

There’re countless brands of cameras and lenses that could bring you a lot closer to achieve a decent capture of a bird.

There are several not too costly cameras that have most of the necessary elements to get what you’d like to star seeing better pictures. I suggest that you do some Web searching for cameras and pick one with the required features for wild life pictures of course within your budget and good enough to use and hone  your photographic skills.

You’d be surprised how soon you’ll pick up the skills and improve your bird photos!

“Go for it!”

Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Northern Mockingbird

House Finch (M)

Brown-headed Cowbird (F)

Mourning Doves

Northern Cardinal (M)

White-throated Sparrow