How to Approach Birds for Photography | Motorised Zeapon Micro 2 Slider

[@EspenHelland]

You can check out the photos and camera settings here: espenhelland.com/project/photographing-redstart-camera-settings/

[@noelchignell1048]

Good approach and philosophy. Easy to forget the whole point of why we photograph birds and spending time just sitting and watching is never wasted time

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks Noel 👍

[@RobShootPhotos]

Agreed. I find the method of waiting for the birds to come to you, while it takes more patience, much more feeling of reward.

[@robgerety]

I love this. Sit still. Listen and watch. Let things unfold.You will be rewarded.

[@Nearlyloved865]

ONLY calm people like the calm bird watcher himself can watch this video properly. No hit and run. I enjoy till the last. Edit: I go to the site given above and find those stunning photos. Instead of just focusing on the birds only how you include the trees and surrounding gaps are thrilling and enjoyable. You had given a space to breath the greenness of the forest and let the photos came to life. I had seen lots of photographers focusing very sharply on the subject only with no background. This is a way to go man. i love it. I will sub you.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you very much 🙂

[@JaraKada]

Love your approaching method, step back rather than disturb the birds normal behavior. Birding with etics, you have a new subscriber. Cheers from Indonesia.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you Jara :)

[@Treydmusicmedia]

Very mellow and very instructive! I'm new to bird photography. I appreciate the isolated, blurred-background portrait approach, but your "nature setting" approach is just what I used to do before I ver picked up a camera. I shall practice your approach! Wonderful choice of musical soundtrack; it fits you voice and mood very well!

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you 🙂

[@rmgwheelsspokeslab.7767]

Love your words. We both think same way. Over all: RESPECT NATURE. Hey, WOW, we even have similar photo style. I was obsessioned about bird portraits then cropping and wishing to have a more and more powerful zoom, but actually I love burds with their surrounding, the composition, their habitat. It says much mre to me. Regards from Spain.

[@EspenHelland]

👍 Thanks :)

[@Gibbons3457]

Pied Flycatchers last time, Redstarts this time. I've not yet seen a Restart in the wild. Fantastic bird.

[@ridealongwithrandy]

Why in the heck would anybody downvote these vids, they are amazing, and educational too

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you Randy 🙂

[@systemanaturae105]

Super clip. I have never set up back button focus as Olympus 300mm and 40-150mm have MF clutch. Now I have the 150-400mm there is no MF clutch so have set up L-Fn buttons next to focus ring as MF with X3 magnification and focus peaking. At 500mm it is very difficult to use more than X3 magnification. Not sure if Back Button Focus would benefit me now ???? For birds in flight I am currently using 5x5 grid with C-AF-MF. The Bird Tracking on my EM1X works fairly well if no other objects (tree branches) in the the field of view. Looks like I currently need three custom settings just to shoot birds ha ha!!! I have 2 trips booked to Scotland this year in June. Isle of Mull and Cairngorms and then Ardnamurchan staying on Nature Reserve. Hope they go ahead. Can’t wait 😊😊

[@EspenHelland]

Nice! some great places that :) I still like BBF as you can focus and recompose if the action is fast.

[@grephusingati7807]

Exactly the concept we use while birdwatching...shy birds like silence.

[@robertlawrence7958]

I love that first image of the redstart. The negative space to the left with the smooth background really compliments the bird and the foliage on the right. I'm loving those kind of images more and more these days, they offer a lot more than the full frame portrait, although the portraits still have a major role.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you! Yes, I like and try for variety when photographing wildlife :)

[@neilcole3406]

This is the most satisfying way to photograph nature l find!

[@adriancaldwell]

Great video. That camera tracking kit is amazing

[@arunrao5628]

Great video Espen! My dad recently purchased the Olympus EM1 mark 3 and the 300 f/4 pro, he's loving it. I'm using the canon 6d with the tamron 150-600, I use the same technique, wait for birds to come to you, you get so much more that way! Great shots :)

[@EspenHelland]

That is awesome!

[@clanelliott0305]

The slider is a nice bit of kit and adds to the video.

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks Chris!

[@michaelsansom8416]

Good morning .. at least it is in Nova Scotia. Sunday AM coffee, your video, tips and tricks. Thank you again and have a great week....stay well and stay safe.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you! You too!

[@ZEAPONTech]

Morning Espen, always enjoyable to watch your video 😄

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks so much! Helped make it more interesting with your slider :)

[@ZEAPONTech]

@@EspenHelland our honor 😊

[@Lindonedhel]

It's almost funny how you missed a big bird at your back (11:02), like it was checking you out... hahahahha :) Great video and images! :D

[@EspenHelland]

Oops 😅

[@RobShootPhotos]

I usually set my Olympus to AF-MF mode instead of using the focus clutch because that clutch sometimes seems to bump you out of focus when switching.

[@EspenHelland]

Happens occasionally to me, but not so often that it's bothered me.

[@ronmacdonald3043]

Glad to see you back with the redstarts! I agree the motorised slider greatly adds to the quality of the video. Well done. I think what you describe in approaching wildlife (i.e. fieldcraft) will vary depending on the situation but it should always be done responsibly and ethically.

[@EspenHelland]

Absolutely, there's no one size fits all in nature :)

[@1971wizzard]

Absolutely captivating presentation, I just love your approach to this type of capturing wildlife.....Your skills are awesome.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you very much Fleming 🙂

[@anthonyhurren5613]

Hi Espen! I am liking the new slider cuts on your intro B-roll shots👍

[@EspenHelland]

Good to hear!

[@RickyKresslein]

Really cool shots with the slider! I'm always surprised how much I see when I just stand/sit still for a while in nature. It's easy to think we will miss something by not moving around and searching for it, but often the best way to find the animals we are looking for is to sit down and let them come to us. It's also the best way for them to be comfortable with our presence and therefore look comfortable in our photos. Thanks for sharing this great video! BTW that forest looks amazing!

[@EspenHelland]

Absolutely, thank you 🙂

[@stavrost2871]

Hallo Sir. i have just saw your video and got excited with the way you approach wild life. From now on a fan of you. Thanks. Greetings from Greece

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you very much Stavros :)

[@hanzkilian1806]

Hi, you mentioned back button focusing. It would be good for me and possibly others if you do a more in-depth video on back button focusing, and how you use it. For me I have tried it and most likely I am doing something wrong. The birds I photograph eg Superb Blue Wren. They are so fast and never sit still. With that type of bird, I find it difficult to engage BBF. So if you could explain more it would be appreciated. I use an EM1 mkll with a panasonic leica 100mm-400mm f4 Lens. Cheers

[@EspenHelland]

Cool, I'll do that!

[@catrionathomson8981]

Wrens will repeat their behaviour. All you have to do is, as Espen said, wait and observe then find a vantage point from which to snap. I don’t have a lens with a clutch so I’ve allocated the DoF Preview button for S-AF allowing rapid transit between M & S-AF modes.

[@przybylskipawel]

I am such a fan of your content. It would really benefit form using a better vlogging camera. 1080p footage from M50 looks so bad... Or is it youtube compression? But it looks so much worse than the footage from camera you shoot wildlife with. I assume you have Olympus E-M1 II at your disposal aside from E-M1X. It would make a world of a difference to use it for vlogging. BTW I don't know if you are aware but C4K 24p video footage on Olympus E-M cameras looks much better than reegular 4K. This is especially true for low light situations. Of course this aspect ratio looks a bit odd for such a content but still you could crop it a bit from sides.

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks Pawel :) I'm using mostly the em1ii for vlogging these days or my DJI Pocket 2, I'll try out the C4K feature I haven't tried cause of the odd crop ratio as you say 👍

[@przybylskipawel]

@@EspenHelland But it is really worth it. C4K in Olympus is oversampled whereas regular 4K and 1080p is a mix of line skipping and pixel binning. That is lost data and lost sensor surface area. Both are critical for dealing with noise in low-light. Many cameras nowadays produce 1080p image this way so that they can achieve higher frame rates. This is really not good for the picture quality in the footage. In terms of video quality something like Panasonic G9 produces way better image. The problem is lousy continuous AF and IS is not on par with Olympus glass. Of course if you need something really small for vlogging DJI pocket 2 must be really convienient. It is hard to beat in that regard. Insta360 One R 1 inch is better in low light but workflow is a major PITA. Sony ZV-1 is not that small. Anyways vlogging is not the most important thing. I can't wait to see your footage taking advantage of your sensor's full potential, because in terms of atmosphere it is breathtaking!

[@AndyGustavsson]

Great video Espen love the stump photo really beautiful with the out of focus foreground and blured background! The sliding shots are stunning, a cheap trick for achieving this effect is just to shoot wide, crop in post and adjust the position of your frame and make a timed position change, won't be as smooth and you loose some of the frame but a easy tool if you're on a budget! 😊🙏 Anyway great stuff as usual!

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you very much Andy :) That's a great tip for a slider effect!

[@AndrewJulianPhotography]

Patience is always the way to go in birding 👍🏼😁

[@EspenHelland]

You got that right! :)

[@bradleydahl5191]

@@EspenHelland I appreciate the "forthrightness" of this approach. The thing I'm curious about is how long did you need to wait in this one spot for the birds to return to the area and resume their normal activities? (As you may infer I'm kind of new to this.) It's a hobby and I'm curious the amount of time I need for such an outing.

[@EspenHelland]

@@bradleydahl5191 I think that all depends on the birds and what their up to. If they keep calling and generally look distressed I'll back off. In this particular case, I didn't wait long at all.

[@paulinefollett3099]

The slider really elevates your videos. Definitely an improvement to your footage. Love the photography.

Thank you for your instruction.

[@EspenHelland]

Glad it was helpful!

[@wandelmacherstudio]

Love it, when @11:11 that bird appeared beautifully behind Espen :-) Made me subscribe.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you :)

[@klackon1]

Lovely still images Espen.

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks Pete :)

[@clivewelch1025]

Hi Espen a really good video to watch I have seen a few people use these slider things and it does make a hell of a difference to the video very pleasing to the eye. Once again you got some really beautiful images, until next time take care and stay safe.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you very much Clive :)

[@Planedude60]

Nice sitting rug

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks! My mum will be happy to hear that, she made it 😁

[@jasonfraser3572]

Cracking photos of the Redsart ,not seen one myself. New toy look good.

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you Jason!

[@GingerPhotographer]

Great video Espen, very well put together! Wonderful images to boot! - How's the Olympus combo compared to your 7D Mark II combo?

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you! I'm very happy to have switched. The portability and light weight of the system and being able to shoot in complete silence is so much fun :) And there's a quite a few features that I now use daily that wasn't there with the 7Dii.

[@GingerPhotographer]

@@EspenHelland How's the image quality compared to the 7D - I'm going to switch to Mirrorless soon - by all accounts the Canon R5 will be priced around €4300 "too much for me" so will settle for an R6 or even trade the 5D Mark IV in for a EOS R - then hopefully the RF 100-500 is not too expensive!

[@EspenHelland]

@@GingerPhotographer Sorry I don't get notifications for all replies so I sometimes miss them. I think it's fairly similar to the 7DII, I'll probably upgrade to the em1x soon which I think is a bit better. What did you go for?

[@malcolmtoyer8950]

Some great tips. Stunning opening sequences and wow, I do love redstarts!

[@EspenHelland]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks

[@svencaspers]

Hi Espen, your videos are getting better and better from time to time, but this video is a big jump in quality. I would say on par with Morten Hilmer, but with its own character. But when you sat there, drinking coffee out of the same bottle like him with the same passion, I had to laugh a bit :-) At the moment, I am photographing great woodpeckers and pheasents in the garden, but even the 400mm(800 on FF) of my Panaleica 100-400 seem to be not enough. I would use the 2x TC on the Oly 300/4 if i had one. I wonder if all of your shots are photographed without TC? And why? Can you tell us something about the drop in quality, when using a TC on the Oly 300? Please keep making such great content and stay healthy! Greetz from Germany Sven

[@EspenHelland]

😅👍 There is a slight drop in quality when using the converter and sometimes a little harder to achieve focus, but really not much. Images still comes out very sharp and I use it regularly. I don't like to keep it on all the time though and try to use it when I find the need. In the woodland it gets dark and I prefer to not use it so that I can be shooting at f4.

[@JasonTheZoologist]

I think the motor is a little loud at max speed, don't you think so?

[@EspenHelland]

Maybe, but I never use the audio I take when I use the slider anyways so doesn’t really matter to me.

[@SimonWattsWILDPresentationsUK]

I did an upload exactly on this 3 weeks ago. Brilliant. Si.

[@EspenHelland]

Great minds 😉👍

[@ashishsjith7330]

Please put on the camera settings that you showed photo

[@EspenHelland]

Trying to add the photos to my website with settings there.

[@neilcole3406]

Hi Espen can you crop in the images at all when you edit on this camera system? Thanks

[@EspenHelland]

I try not to crop too much especially if I want to print images, but it’s perfectly fine to crop a bit.

[@Rudy60426]

Awesome video Espen

[@EspenHelland]

Thanks Rudy!

[@njrtech]

Great video. Sad to hear about Olympus being sold. Regardless great video

[@CamillaI]

Wow thats a great slider. Certainly beats my manual one I use on my channel, great effect for such a short one. They are not cheap though will have to get more subscribers to warrant buying one. Thanks for the video and demo. Half the fun is making the video for me at the moment and of course always learning while immersed in the natural world

[@EspenHelland]

Yes, it's definitely a learning curve to make the videos, but a fun one :)

[@JoeMaranophotography]

4k crop/zoom. Almost the same but free of charge ;)

[@zeroken]

Will you suggest using CAF+MF for small birds?

[@EspenHelland]

I prefer CAF with back button focus, that way you have single focus as well and a quick change to manual focus when the autofocus fails completely.

[@abelfernandez5648]

Comparto tu filosofía Espen, lo primero disfrutar del entorno, molestar lo menos posible y si se consiguen buenas imágenes, jornada completa.Bonita la pareja de colirrojo real.

[@EspenHelland]

👍🙂

[@CheikoSairin]

Hi, greeting from Singapore birder. I really enjoy watching your entire video and thanks for your tips too. Big like for your video 👍👍

[@EspenHelland]

So nice of you, thanks!

[@CheikoSairin]

@@EspenHelland you're welcome

[@weylintracking-worldwide]

Ahhh, you got a proper slider now, awesome! They add so much quality, not? :) Been using various brands & models myself for decades. Its a little investment, but well worth it :) Looking forward to see how you are going to use it Espen! :)

[@EspenHelland]

They definitely do, thanks Jeroen!

[@WildlifeBirdsUK]

👍 #1K+ Thank you for the tips and the footage showing yourself sitting and waiting and the inevitable appearance of birds around you. I like to find similar locations in woodland, though it's not so easy finding decent woodland with access like this. I travel to the Forest of Bowland for this purpose and there are also Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls on nearby moorland to fall back on. Thanks again Espen. 👍◕‿◕

[@EspenHelland]

Nice! That’s a great backup 🙂

[@PistonMotorss]

Why you switched to Olympus from canon ?

[@EspenHelland]

Suits me to travel lightweight when I vlog and hike

[@gregharvey4663]

I thought you had hired a videographer! The slider definitely added something.

[@EspenHelland]

😅 Thanks!

[@JaminTaylor]

When did you start using Olympus?

[@EspenHelland]

A few months back

[@finnillson4808]

Espen, how much does the slider weight? I’ve been on the hunt for one that has manual physical controls of some sort and doesn’t break the back, literally!

[@EspenHelland]

with the motor it's 2kg, can definitely recommend it. Fits nicely in my bag :)

[@ColinMacDaniels]

I didn't know that Willem Dafoe was into photography, cool.

[@EspenHelland]

😅 never got that before!

[@rajaskaaseepathi6870]

I like 🐦 birds and how can i meet you to more birds.

[@elvisdepelvis4431]

For a second thought the title referred to ‘Da Ladies’... Still a great video 😉

[@EspenHelland]

🤣sorry to disappoint 😉

[@phuongbang8031]

đẹp tuyệt! like like

[@fotovlog9704]

I love wild photography but no camera😞

[@mobimo2832]

Thank you for your nice video Unfortunately there isn't enough zoom in your Olympus camera for bird photography. Maybe good for large birds and animals!

[@oneoldgit]

Mobi Mo why do you say that? If you had bothered to listen to what he said you would understand that he likes to take shots from further away so more of the background is included. The lens he is using is a 600mm equivalent to full frame!

[@ammadoux]

thanks so much for this great video, love your shots. Restarts come to my garden in Jeddah twice a year, usually those who come in the Spring (April) are in hurry they stay 3-5 days at most, but those who come in Sep-Oct stay sometimes for 3 weeks, but mostly we get the eastern race. i use similar way to yours, as i just set between the hedges and a water plate nearby, which is very important in our hot weather. Redstarts rarely visit my feeders only once i had one who was so found of the little millet seeds, but they usually get busy with little flies and bugs in the ground. here is a vide for the one that came back in April 2019, using that same lens. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqbEXqp3j8-LicU

[@EspenHelland]

Thank you :) That's great that you get redstarts in your garden!!

[@paulbennett2540]

Bit disappointed to be honest. I thought it was going to be about how to chat to women. Very misleading!

[@EspenHelland]

🤣 it's called clickbait!