Improve Your Garden Bird Photography - Part Two: Gear and Technique

[@Cloud_Owl]

Great video man. Was that pixilation on your face when you mentioned the word "Resolution" deliberate or just one of those weird coincidences?

[@MaliDaviesPhotography]

Something about the style of the edits! They look super real but not fake, Jesus am I making sense, like they could fly off the screen. Susan perb!

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks mate, and yes it makes perfect sense (sort of!)

[@peterslagmolen]

you are right, maby the fist one to do the colors as natural as it truly is and the contrast is perfect to! Cropping I would be different though ;-)

Nice video, Like 62 and Greetings from Italy :)

[@alancarey8619]

Thanks Gary great vlog very informative and fantastic images.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Alan, I'm glad that you enjoyed it :-)

[@markzphotoscom]

Thanks for that. Lots of helpful information. Great pics too.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Glad that you enjoyed it :-)

[@DGriffGallery]

Taking notes. Have bought a camo net for my hide 😊👍

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Loving this mate! When lockdown is over I’m coming over to share the hide with you!! 🙂

[@DGriffGallery]

@@GaryNormanPhoto It's a greenhouse!! Plenty of room for comfy chairs, shelves for drinks and snacks and it's much warmer than the outside, even with the lens 'hatch' open! 😊👍

[@ianspendlove4776]

Do you get kingfishers on the lake Dave? Perhaps put some perches out to encourage them.

[@jasonfranklin8604]

Great Vlog and lots of good tips, Love your images thank you for sharing

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Jason, I'm glad that you enjoyed it :-)

[@colleenoliver2673]

You have captured some beautiful images

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks very much Colleen :-)

[@mesohano9477]

Thank your for the tips!

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

You are very welcome 🙂

[@Leo_Santisteban]

Hi! Great video!! Im a 15 year old photographer from Mexico so I don’t have access to expensive gear but I’m using my 75-300, and I’m going to buy a 300mm f4 soon so I’ll save this video for whenever I get that lens!

[@mickbellman7308]

Hello Gary another good video watched it twice to understand the points you are making I will try them out over the weekend looking forward to part three 📷📷👍

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks so much Mick, I hope that your photography is going well :-)

[@kevinmarshall7604]

Cracking shots Gary, you've got bird photography off to a fine art, great video.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Kevin, that's very kind of you to say :-)

[@peterblackthorne1262]

Lots of good advice. Gary, you are really getting good at this. Really nice photos🤗

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Peter, very much appreciated :-)

[@markwoodgate4044]

Thanks for that Gary. Has given me lot's to think about and hopefully improve my bird photography.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Mark, I hope that in some small way I have helped you :-)

[@tuftyhill]

Fantastic set of images Gary 👍 I'm just starting with my garden set-up 7 days and hardly anything visiting yet but I remember you had to wait

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

I certainly did, once they find the feeders, you'll be off and running (hopefully you already are by now)

[@ianspendlove4776]

Nice episode, I had to smile when you said don’t be afraid of the iso then said 800 or even 1250 on a dull day, I think I have my upper limit on 10,000, if a woodpecker does arrive in my garden I’m photographing it whatever. We do still get very good results from my Nikon D7500 at 3200 iso and my wife’s OMD EM 5iii at 2500 iso. We are now getting greenfinch in our garden but they aren’t coming close enough just yet to get good shots.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

You're right, I did have a bit of a chuckle to myself when I said that, but I guess that the landscape photographer in me... Anything over ISO100 can be very scary for us ;-)

[@ianspendlove4776]

@@GaryNormanPhoto I almost said it was the landscape photographer coming out 😀 but it sounded too negative. We have been trying to get in flight or just landing shots today, manual focus preset and on a tripod so had to have a shutter speed of about 1/3200, ended up with an ISO of 6400. Just need a very bright day now. The photos are ok from a distance but I couldn’t put them on social media. Even Topaz couldn’t rescue them quite enough but we now know the settings we need when the weather plays ball.

[@andrewgaffney4881]

Amazing images.

[@keithratcliffe5576]

Thanks for another relaxing video, lots of good information in this one. I loved the two pictures at 22:16 & 22:31, they were like portraits that showed the character of the bird.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks very much Keith, that's very much appreciated :-)

[@KB_Lincolnshire_Photography]

you've definitely got this bird stuff down mate

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Cheers mate, much appreciated :-)

[@victorcarmelo8606]

Magic, beautiful images.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks very much :-)

[@JamieOverland]

Some really useful information in here for people wanting to learn this stuff. Some classic comedy moments also including the hide erection 😬 and a premature smirk 😂

[@iainmc9859]

Wonderful images. Great advice. Your back garden is obviously 10 degrees C warmer than mine. I'd be suffering from hypothermia within an hour ;-)

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

It's getting warmer thank god, but I'm not sure it ever gets down to Scotland levels of freezing!

[@iainmc9859]

@@GaryNormanPhoto I subscribe to Azriel Knight, a Canadian photographer, who said recently 'Its minus 30 degrees outside and I'm seriously considering not taking my new camera, I'll just take an older one' Really :-0

[@JohnHPettigrewFujishooter67]

Great video mate thanks for sharing, but you are still wearing that hat.... Glasgow Celtic mate, best team in the UK!

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

I'm afraid so, but the good news is that the weather is getting warmer and the hat is now off ;-)

[@shannonsnow8298]

Love this! Gorgeous photos and useful information for us- thanks 💕

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Shannon, glad that you enjoyed it :-)

[@stsorsby]

Wonderful images, incredible detail, so sharp, I'm using a canon 5d iv with a 100-400 but cannot get anything like your images, so envious. Very informative vlog, thank you for sharing.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Thanks Stu, very much appreciated. Next in a couple of weeks I'll be releasing a processing video, and you may be surprised at how sharp you can get your images with a few tricks :-)

[@peterhewlett1531]

Thank you Gary for another very informative video. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But What Happened to the Pubcast ????? I really missed it. Regards Peter in remote Eastern Tasmania

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

The Pubcast is alive and well and I hope that you've watched the latest one :-)

[@garystone6583]

Absolutely brilliant Gary, beautiful images and great tutorial on how you set up your camera Think I'll use the 7dii for birds as its much faster the the 5d iiii and gives me more reach with the 150-600mm. Looking forward to part 3

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

The 7d is the way to go in my opinion, faster burst rate and APSC :-)

[@burtjake4137]

Great vlog again mate looks like you are going to cost me money hopefully the wife will understand I will tell her it's your fault 🤣🤣 great images again keep safe and well Burt

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

You can tell her as long as you don't give her my address!! ;-)

[@burtjake4137]

@@GaryNormanPhoto coward 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Gaztography]

Hi Gary, some beautiful super sharp images you have. Is that the sport or Sigma, and what IS do you set with? I have the sport with a R5 and so far cannot get anything near as sharp. Not sure if it does not work well with the R5. Who knows.

[@joshcarrick]

Brilliant dude 👍... Just uploaded my birds ... Pretty poor but my first real effort... Place where will definitely keep going back to. Garden not working well ATM, but love the learning process... Take care ❤️

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

It takes time but I have no doubt that you will get there :-)

[@SideshowBob44]

Get something like the RX10 IV... 1 inch sensor and a massive 24-600 zoom range, quality is more than good enough.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

I'm more than happy with the Sony A7r3, but thanks for the tip :-)

[@SideshowBob44]

@@GaryNormanPhoto Yeh not a good downgrade but maybe for someone wanting to get into wildlife photgraphy.

[@gz-n3gzmail142]

Subscriber 500 here. Not commented on your videos for a while, Great stuff. I noted that you didn't mention good buffer speed as a required spec for a birding camera body. Do you have a preference for using mechanical or electronic shutter? I'm surprised that you don't like tripods for home birding photos. I accept that it's a pain in the field. That said, would a monopod not be better than handling a heavy lens. I accept that it is still not for everyone but from my own experience shooting sports, I find it's the combination of the head and how I use it that defines how beneficial a pod is to use for a given shoot.... and I do deliberately shoot handheld for certain sports/venues. Keep it going strong.

[@GaryNormanPhoto]

Yep, I should have mentioned the buffer, it was on the list but completely slipped my mind... My father-in-law uses a gimbal head and I can see the benefit at times but for me I feel that I can react faster if I'm hand holding, it just feels more natural.