Birds of the Desert

[Peter Ryan]

The abundance of water at this in the desert has brought a lot of bird life to the area. Here are some we saw.

Australasian Grebe


Flock of noisy Corellas


Emu amongst the wildflowers


Little Eagle


Pacific (White Necked) Heron


Yellow Billed Spoonbill (in the morning just before he took off for the day)


Yellow Billed Spoonbills roosting for the night.

[jeeperman]

Another nice series from you Peter, Really like #5 and 6.

[KeithH]

What a wonderful opportunity for you Peter and you have come up with the goods I particularly like #6.

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks Paul and Keith. It's good to be back. We ran a photographic tutorial all through the desert with the other people who came along. I did tutorials at night and then followed up the next day as we stopped for shots. I had them all lined up on the bank taking photos of the roosting spoonbills. As each bird moved to preen itself everyone was firing off shots. I could not tell you how many variations of the sponbills I got. One member of the party was heard to say 'this is better than sex'.

[Pandrion]

Excellent series Peter, I like all your current posts.

These shots are all good but #6 and #7 are my favourites, you must have had a great time in the outback (I hope that's what you call it ).

[lizzy310]

I like all of them...as a newbie...I have to ask...what kind of lens did you use to get the birds?

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks Mike and Liz for your kind comments.

I did have a great time. My partner say I am always happy on the 'red dirt' of Central Australia. The bird life was wonderful following a couple of years of good rains in the desert.

I use a 70 - 300 mm Tamron VR lens. My setup is: -

Aperture Priority with the aperture wide open. I am not interested in the background detail and this gives me the fastest shutter.
ISO 200 or 400 but I have been known to shoot at 1200 or 1600 in rainforests.
I normally do not use VR on the lens for birds in flight but do so for stationary birds.
I will crop as necessary but always allowing room for the bird the 'breath' in the shot. Sometimes I think people crop too tight wit bird shots.

I definitely use single point focus and sometimes continuous focus mode but more often than not just single servo. I did experiment with multi-point focus for birds in flight where there was nohing but sky in the background and it worked well but forgot to change it for a Black Kyte sitting in a tree and the camera reverted back to 'closest-to-the-camera-subject-priortiy' and I got some really sharp branches but the bird was blurred. A great missed opportunity but another learning experience.

I hope this helps Liz.

[jamn4ex]

Love em all but the spoonbill in front of the moon... that is truly a great capture !

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks James. It would take another 12 months and hopefully the birds back in the right position to get it again. I tried the next morning to see if I could repeat it but the moon was 15 minutes later getting to this spot and the birds had left for the day.

[lizzy310]

Thank you...it does! But what does the VR mean? Not virtual reality...I'm sure.

Thanks Mike and Liz for your kind comments.

I did have a great time. My partner say I am always happy on the 'red dirt' of Central Australia. The bird life was wonderful following a couple of years of good rains in the desert.

I use a 70 - 300 mm Tamron VR lens. My setup is: -

Aperture Priority with the aperture wide open. I am not interested in the background detail and this gives me the fastest shutter.
ISO 200 or 400 but I have been known to shoot at 1200 or 1600 in rainforests.
I normally do not use VR on the lens for birds in flight but do so for stationary birds.
I will crop as necessary but always allowing room for the bird the 'breath' in the shot. Sometimes I think people crop too tight wit bird shots.

I definitely use single point focus and sometimes continuous focus mode but more often than not just single servo. I did experiment with multi-point focus for birds in flight where there was nohing but sky in the background and it worked well but forgot to change it for a Black Kyte sitting in a tree and the camera reverted back to 'closest-to-the-camera-subject-priortiy' and I got some really sharp branches but the bird was blurred. A great missed opportunity but another learning experience.

I hope this helps Liz.

[Peter Ryan]

Sorry for the abreviation Liz - it means Vibration Reduction technology and allows me the hand hold with this lens at 4 stops below normal setting for its focal lenght.

[Bobobird]

Lovely series.

[RockNGoalStar]

Cracking series Peter... I really like the shot of the Emu!

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks Tommy, sometimes they are in the right place with the right light. Most often you cannot see their eyes.

[Dave Humphries]

Good variety of shots there Peter, well done.

If mine, I might try 10% off the left of the Pacific (White Necked) Heron.

Favourites are; the Emu and both the spoonbill shots.