by    1

Review: Backyard Birds – Looking through the Glass by Glen Aspeloff – part 1

A splendid little book for new birdwatchers

Many people start looking at birds in their backyards. The process of going beyond just feeding the birds to actually watching them and learn what they are, as well as get familiar with their habits, is what takes the bird-feeder to the next level to become a bird-watcher. Some, especially today in the digital camera age, also become bird photographers in the process.  Millions of people go through this process every year. Glen Apseloff of Ohio describes the process  in a lovely new book  called Backyard Birds -Looking Through the Glass.

The book is illustrated with 125 amazing photographs of birds which regularly occur at feeders in Eastern and Midwest US/Canada, so it can easily be used as a birdfeeder field guide.  I especially like  how all species are presented with descriptions of the habits of each, how to separate the sexes, what kind of seeds they prefer and any natural history or trivia connected to the species.  At the end of the book, there is also a mammal bestiary visiting the feeders as well as some common butterflies in the garden. All photographs are shot from inside Glen’s house through the window.

Glen sent me a copy to review some time ago, but rather than giving you only my opinion, I want to publish a few extracts of the book.  In this first part is the introductory text how Glen got into it. He was not a birder when he started this project, but he is now.  Sit back and enjoy!

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Through the Looking Glass – Inside-Out

Red-winged Blackbird male Glen Aspeloff

Male Red-winged Blackbird in the backyard

Every photograph in this book was taken from inside my house (in Powell, Ohio) through a closed window. This in part explains the title: Looking Through the Glass. But the title is intended to mean more than that. For most of my life, I viewed windows as simply something to let in light. I didn’t appreciate what was on the other side. I do now.

The title of this book is also a play on words of Lewis Carroll’s literary work, and it’s a metaphor. When Alice stepped through the looking glass, she entered a place of wonder. When I look through the windows of my house, I too experience that, and when you read this book, I hope the same thing happens to you.

The baseball player Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Until recently, I didn’t do that, and I didn’t notice much around me. I had no clue how many species of birds could be found in my own backyard, and I didn’t know enough to distinguish one from another if they looked even remotely alike. To me, a sparrow was a sparrow. Not a song sparrow or a field sparrow or a house sparrow or a chipping sparrow. Just a sparrow. I had grown up with cardinals in the neighborhood (they’re the state bird of Ohio), but I never wondered how a juvenile of that species differed from an adult, or how juveniles of any species differed from adults. I had also never noticed that birds molt, and I never gave any thought to possible differences between winter and summer plumage, let alone the transition between the two. I’ve since learned the basics, or at least some of them, from books and from the internet, including web sites of state departments of natural resources, the Audubon Society, and the All About Birds site of Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The information I provide in this book is from those sources.

Winter wildlife in my backyard

Eastern Bluebird Glen Apseloff

Eastern Bluebird looking fluffy..
Glen writes: In the cold of winter, as shown here,
bluebirds frequently fluff their feathers to trap air between the
feathers and their body, for added insulation.

Until a couple of years ago, I believed central Ohio was relatively devoid of wildlife. With that misconception in mind, I traveled widely to photograph animals as far away as Madagascar, Botswana, New Zealand, Alaska, and even Antarctica. Usually I hired guides, and they showed me local fauna in natural settings, sometimes with stunning backdrops—the jungle, the ocean and mountains, glaciers. I never imagined that anything in Ohio could compare to that, to lemurs hanging from trees, or penguins jumping off icebergs. Certainly nothing in my own backyard could compare. But then a couple of years ago I faced an extended period without a vacation. As weeks turned into months, and one season into the next, I felt increasingly compelled to take out my camera and photograph something.  Anything.

That’s when I thought of what I might be overlooking. Backyard birds? Maybe, but how many birds can people really see in their own backyard? When I go to art festivals and find photographs of what look like backyard birds, the photographers invariably tell me they took the pictures in a state park or some other out-of-the-way place. Of course, people really do take pictures in their own backyards, but the best photographs I’ve seen have always been somewhere else.

So what about my backyard? Could I photograph anything there? I had serious doubts. Especially in the winter. It isn’t like Antarctica where you can just sit down and penguins waddle up to you and peck at your parka.

One thing I knew was that I did not want to spend a lot of time outside in the winter. The last time I did cold-weather photography, I thought I might get frostbite and cause permanent damage to my fingers, despite chemical hand warmers inside my gloves. I don’t mind sacrificing time, money, and comfort to photograph wildlife, but I draw the line at body parts.

Looking out the window for birds

Mourning Dove Glen Apseloff

Mourning Dove close up by Glen Aspeloff

However, outdoor photography typically takes place outdoors, and if it’s done in the winter, that means going out in the cold. Or does it? Instead of photographing birds the way countless other photographers do, by going out and finding them, what if I just stayed inside and waited for the birds to find me?

That’s how I came up with the idea for this project. One of my objectives with wildlife photography has always been to give people a better appreciation of nature. By photographing birds from inside my house, I could show others what they’re missing around them, and maybe I could motivate them to want to see more and to learn more. I could show people that working long hours and seeing daylight primarily through the windows of an office building or a house isn’t an excuse to ignore nature. I could show them that all they have to do is look outside. This was assuming, of course, that I could find birds to photograph.

With that goal in mind, I embarked on this project. It started as a calendar, not a book—a calendar of backyard birds photographed from inside my house, through closed windows. I wasn’t sure I could find a dozen different species, but I figured I could include pictures of both males and females for those that are sexually dimorphic, and then I might need as few as half a dozen. Eventually I should be able to find that many.

I used a handheld camera (no tripod or cable release for remote pictures) with no special filters, not even a polarized filter, and no flash. I wanted to show what people can see if they simply look outside their windows. I removed a couple of screens, put up decals to try to minimize the likelihood that birds would fly into the glass, and then I started observing. Because it was winter, with no plants to attract birds, I put out suet and bird seed in feeders on my back deck and experimented with different types. I learned that most birds seemed to prefer peanut-butter suet (especially with large pieces of peanuts) and definitely black-oil sunflower seeds. Many birds were also attracted to safflower seeds, and the smaller birds (including finches, buntings, and chickadees) seemed to prefer a mix of finch food with millet and sunflower seeds.

Like other full-time workers anywhere, I could find only limited opportunities to watch and photograph birds. I’ve never been good at standing still for extended periods, but I forced myself to spend time at the windows, and not just the ones with a view of the back deck. I began looking out the bathroom windows, the dining-room windows, and even the little panes of glass alongside my front door.

I’m seeing birds

My wife, Lucia, bought a book called Birds of Ohio Field Guide by Stan Tekiela, and I looked at the pictures to identify birds I saw outside. When I first flipped through the pages, I couldn’t believe such a wide variety of birds lived in Ohio. The book described more than a hundred of them, and in the introduction, the author mentioned that more than 400 different species have been recorded in Ohio. I found that especially difficult to believe. But then, after I started this project, everything changed. I began seeing birds— unusual and even exotic ones—through my windows: brilliant blue indigo buntings and other species that I thought existed only in the tropics, such as the scarlet tanager. I was amazed by how many birds I observed “just by watching.” Close to half of them, I had never seen in my life—northern flickers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, cedar waxwings, and a rose-breasted grosbeak, to name a few. Others I had seen but had never really noticed, like the multicolored iridescent European starlings that I had always thought were simply gray and black.

In an attempt to show people what they can see just by looking through their windows, I discovered what I had been missing for years, actually for decades. In this book, I’ll show you what that was. I’ve arranged the birds in alphabetical order by common name (e.g., “bunting, indigo” precedes “robin, American”) for lack of a better system. Whenever I introduce a bird, the name is in bold print. The first entry is a blackbird, more specifically a red-winged blackbird.

Red-winged Blackbird Glen Apseloff

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Glen’s book will soon be distributed (on trial) in Barnes and Noble bookstores, but  Backyard Birds: Looking Through the Glassis also available at Amazon.

Glen Apseloff is an award-winning landscape/wildlife photographer who has traveled on all seven continents to capture unique images in nature. His photographs have been published in several calendars and print magazines. He also has photographs in the Kent State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives. He lives in Powell, Ohio, with his wife, Lucia; dogs, Poco, Tiki, and Gucci; and cat, Pelusa.

The next post will be dealing with How to take photographs and provide a safe environment for the birds.

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by    38

Birding with a Point & Shoot Camera.

Once upon a time, $25,000 and 35 pounds.

Once upon a time, oh, about 5 years ago, if you wanted to take satisfying photos of birds, you invested about $25,000 in equipment, which weighed about 35 pounds including a tripod or two, and you spent a lot of time in the field learning enough about birds to get close to them. You did most of your photography from a blind, sitting for days in the dark, set up as close to the birds as you could get, so you would have the best chance of filling the frame with the bird (and, because, honestly, no one carries 35 pounds of cameras and lenses and tripods further than they have to).

Using a camera to learn to bird was not an attractive option…and using a camera as your primary birding tool would have been considered insanity…and rightly so!

Marsh Wren, Arcata CA. 1680mm equivalent. Hand held. Canon SX40HS

Today, Point & Shoot <$500 and 2 pounds.

Today, on the other hand, you can buy a super-zoom Point and Shoot from most camera makers for under $500…a camera that weighs under 2 pounds and fits in a small camera bag that you can carry over your shoulder all day without fatigue, and with which you can take frame filling photos of birds from as far away as, and often from much greater distances than, the guys and girls with the big lenses and expensive bodies.

The images will not be quite as good…but, with practice and persistence, they will be quite satisfying, and will often surprise you, and your fellow birders, with their quality. The birds in this piece were all taken with a super zoom P&S.

And, the inexpensive super-zoom Point & Shoot camera, coupled with the resources available today on the internet, opens up a whole new way of learning to bird.

So, if you were to go this route, what kind of camera are we talking about? A bit of advice here. Do your research first, before you get near a camera store or an on-line retailer. Check the reviews on dpreview.com and other similar sites. Pick a few cameras for your short list, based on the considerations below, and then read what users are saying about them on the dpreview forums. There is a lot of interest in using super-zoom P&Ss for bird and wildlife photography right now, so, for any camera worth considering, there will be posts in the forums which specifically address the topic. No bird or wildlife posts on the camera you are considering? Think again.

Once you have narrowed down your choices to one or two models, do a camera search on www.flickr.com and pull up sample images from each camera. That can tell you a lot about whether it is the camera you really want.

9 Considerations:

1. Long zoom.
You want the longest zoom you can find, consistent with the other considerations below. For the budding birder the long end of the zoom is more important than the short end…you want to be able to fill the frame with the bird from a reasonable distance…so you are looking for a camera with a zoom that reaches out over 600mm equivalent.

Equivalent: the actual focal lengths of Point & Shoot camera lenses are quite short compared to the focal length of the lenses used on full sized DSLR bodies (Digital Single Lens Reflex, cameras with a large digital sensor that take interchangeable lenses)…but the small size of the sensor makes them act like longer lenses…that is they provide the same sized frame, or field of view, as the longer lenses on full sized bodies. If you take a photo of a bird from the same distance with full sized DSLR and a 600mm lens, and with a Point & Shoot with a 600mm equivalent zoom, the bird will be the same size in the image.

There are several cameras out there today that reach into the 800mm and even the 1000mm range. The Canon SX50HS that I use reaches 1200mm optically (50x), but it has a built in Digital Tel-Converter that extends the range out to 2400mm and still returns decent quality…certainly enough for an id.

The zoom race is not over yet…each year one or more of the camera makers up the ante, stretching the zoom a bit further. (Fuji just announced the second P&S with a 50x zoom.)

Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magee Marsh OH, 1240mm equivalent, Canon SX40HS

2. Fast focus.
You want the fastest focus possible. Birds do not sit still, at least for long. You need to lock on focus as rapidly as possible, or the bird is likely to be gone. One of the disadvantages of most P&Ss, when compared to full sized DSLRs, is that they use a different, slower, less accurate auto focus system. And not all P&Ss are created equal in the focus department. Check the reviews on dpreview.com for focus speed ratings. You might trade a bit of zoom reach for faster focus. P&Ss are now reaching the market which feature fast focus as a selling point. Canon claims the SX50HS mentioned above focuses 40% faster than its immediate predecessor, and it does indeed…with more accurate focus at that.

3. Image stabilizer
You want efficient, reliable, image stabilization. Without image stabilization any shot over about 500mm taken without a tripod would require very fast shutter speeds…otherwise it would show motion blur from camera movement. There are two kinds of image stabilization: optical which moves elements in the lens to stabilize the image on the sensor, and sensor based, which moves the sensor to stabilize the image. In my experience (and I have owned and used both), the best optical image stabilization is far superior to any sensor based system. Efficient image stabilization will allow you to hand hold shots at 800-1000mm equivalents with confidence. I shoot at 2400mm with my Canon SX50HS hand held every day, with results that surprise even me.

4. Megapixel
You want a 12-16 megapixel sensor, most likely a Back-illuminated CMOS sensor. 12 megapixels is more than enough for high quality images. 16 mp will give you more ability to crop the bird out of the frame to make it larger when you don’t have enough optical reach in your zoom. BiCMOS sensors provide rapid continuous shooting, improved high-ISO performance (meaning that you can shoot in darker situations and use higher shutter speeds with confidence) and the ability to record HD video. All good things.

5. Continuous shooting.
You want the ability to shoot continuous frames at a reasonable speed. Continuous shooting means that the camera continues to take images, one after the other, as long as you hold the shutter down. The speed is measured in frames per second. You want 3-8 fps for both moving and stationary birds. For moving birds the advantage is obvious. You have a better chance of catching the bird in a satisfying position. For stationary birds, taking a burst of 3-5 images at 3-8 fps just increases your chance of getting a tack sharp image…especially if you are out at the ends of the zoom range where image stabilization is stressed to the max.

Roseate Spoonbill. St. Augustine FL. 840mm equivalent. Canon SX40HS. More by chance that design.

Many BiCMOS based P&S super zooms also have what is called burst mode (or they have burst mode instead of rapid continuous shooting…you need to be aware here, that some camera makes do not distinguish between the two, even though they are very different in use). Burst mode takes a rapid sequence of images, often at 8-12 frames per second, every time you press the shutter button. You see the difference? With continuous shooting you control the length of the burst by pressure on the shutter release. With burst mode a single press of the shutter release takes the whole burst. Burst mode is generally faster than continuous by several fps (reaching 10-12 fps), which is why many camera makes quote their burst mode rate as the frames per second rating for the camera. Buyer beware.

I like a camera with at least 3-4 fps true continuous shooting. I do not want to take 8 or 10 shots every time I press the shutter button, even when I am trying for rapidly moving birds…and when shooting stationary birds, a burst of 8 shots at 10 fps will give you 8 virtually identical frames, without any chance that one will be sharper than the others.

A final wrinkle to the whole fps thing: some cameras have two different continuous shooting rates: one with focus between shots and one without. Clearly there are advantages to having the camera focus between continuous frames, but it generally slows the frame rate significantly. There are a few cameras that provide true rapid continuous with focus…but in my experience even 4-8 fps without focus will work for the vast majority of birds.

Great Egret. Viera Wetlands FL. 1240mm equivalent. Canon SX40HS

Many P&S superzooms also feature a Sports Mode which is tailored to capture high speed action. The Canon SX50HS, for instance, has a Sports Mode that features focus tracking, and 5 fps with focus between frames. It is ideal for birds in flight…the first P&S Superzoom that makes bif relatively easy!

Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR. Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode.

6. Image Quality
You want the highest image quality possible. Another of the disadvantages of P&S cameras is that images form the small sensors require a lot of in camera processing to produce reasonable image quality. The quality of that in camera processing, which generally you have no control over, varies from camera make to camera make, and from camera generation to camera generation. Remember when I said that no P&S is going to give you the same quality as an image from a full sized DSLR with a big sensor and a long lens…well it is a testimonial to the iniquity and creativity of the software engineers that work for the camera makers that they can even come as close as they do. In-camera processing is more art than science. Artistic decisions…what the team thinks the image should look like…drive the end results more than the math does. A digital image is a rendering…not a photograph in the literal sense…that means the scene was reduced to raw mathematical data by the sensor, and decisions have to make as to how to reconstruct, or render, the image so we can see it again. That is the source of the variation between camera makers and generations. In my experience, some makes get it better than others. That is to say that the software and in camera processing decisions they make consistently lead to images that are more pleasing to me than images from other cameras. That is not to say that they are inherently higher quality overall…just that they are more pleasing to my eye…better rendered. But it is a very subjective matter.

You will find image quality rated in reviews at dpreview.com and other such sites, and you will find it much discussed (debated) in the forums.

What I look for is:

  • the rendition of fine detail…feather detail on birds…detail in foliage and grass, tree bark, architectural detail, etc. No blurring of fine details (out of focus blur is normal in background…but the in focus details should not run together as if someone dragged a wet brush across them).
  •  the smoothness of tones and the graduation between tones…no mottling or patchiness in face tones, blue sky, brightly painted walls, etc.) and an even blend from one shade of color to the next.
  • no obvious digital artifacts…no blocky pixelization in solid tone areas, no color or brightness fringing along sharp contrast lines.
  • true colors…believable sky blue, grass green…vivid authentic reds and yellows. Browns that do not get mushy.
  •  most importantly, just a pleasing rendition…close to what the eye would see from the depicted distance.

Great Egrets, St. Augustine FL. 840mm equivalent.

What I do is to read the reviews and get a general sense of how image quality is being rated for any given camera. Then I read what users are saying about the image quality in the forums. Then I look up as many examples of images taken with the camera (or its most recent sibling if it is a new camera). Then I buy the camera and test it myself. Sometimes I am delighted with my choice. Sometimes I am not. Like I say, I have learned which camera makers are most likely to produce an image quality that is pleasing to me, and I am now sticking pretty much to one brand.

7. HD video
You want full HD video at the highest frame rate you can get. Trust me. You do. (24 fps is adequate. I am waiting for a camera that has that looks to be as satisfying to me as my Canon SX50HS and has 60 fps!)

8. Portability
You want something small enough to carry everywhere you go. You want something durable enough to last a while, and with a solid enough feel to be satisfying in your hands. (But remember, at less than $500, often less than $400, camera makers rightly consider these cameras disposable…if you get 2 years out of a camera, well, by then something better will be out…and, imho, you got your money out of the camera anyway if you took as many pictures as you should have 🙂

9. Additional features.
You want what you want: creature features. Though you don’t need any of this for bird photography, I would never willingly buy a camera without:

  • an effective macro mode…I take as many close ups as I do bird shots!
  • an articulated LCD. I like low angle shots and shooting around corners and over heads and, as said, lots of macros…all of which are SO much easier with an flip out LCD, or a fully articulated one (flip out and rotate to practically any position)
  • built in, easily controllable, flash. Sometimes it is just too dark.

So, those are my considerations. Taking that into account I have assembled a short list of cameras for you to compare. I will keep this list updated as new products come out, and rebuild the comparison table at dpreview.com which is linked in. Please note that not all the info is complete in the table. For some reason, for instance, there is no entry under Image Processor for the Canon SX40HS…which I happen to know is the Digic 5. Also note that the Canon SX500IS is a new camera, which, despite its shorter zoom and older Image Processor (Digic 4), is advertised to have much faster focusing than previous super zooms. And of course, my favorite to date is the Canon SX50HS mentioned so often above.  (UPDATE: Prices given are those of Amazon.com Nov 12, 2015. And newer models mentioned by Stephen in the comments below have been added. Price for some of the older models are given as used).

For a comparison chart, courtesy of dpreview.com go to Compare.

So there you have it. Short of buying your camera for you, that is the best I can do.

One final note.

Let taking photos of birds with your new super zoom be fun. Even if you are an experienced photographer, let the camera do the work. It is practically impossible to out-think the exposure systems built into today’s P&Ss. Put the camera on Program (just in case you want to adjust exposure compensation on occasion) and let it to its thing. Cultivate a Point and Shoot attitude. Just get lined up on the bird and hold the shutter button down for a few seconds. You will be surprised and delighted at the images you bring back. Like I said, all the images you see here were taken with a P&S super zoom…on program and auto focus. Let it be more about finding and enjoying the birds, observing what they are up to, where they are, how they behave…than it is about photography.

And you will have lots of fun. And you will learn to be a birder!

Little Blue Heron. St. Augustine FL. 840mm equivalent.

Stephen Ingraham
p4td.lightshedder.com
weiw.lightshedder.com

 Top Photo: Yellow-headed Blackbird, ND. 1240mm. (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter) Canon SX40HS (Stephen Ingraham)

Gunnar’s addition:  I am currently using Canon SX40, but will upgrade to the SX50 very soon.  Many people who bought the SX40 will probably do the same. I am very pleased with my SX40, but to get even better sharpness, more optical zoom and a faster auto-focus makes it a no-brainer to upgrade.

A used Canon SX40 could be a great gift to a kid who just starts getting interested in birds or to lure him/her into it, as explained in the intro-post. Currently they sell for just about $200 on eBay.com.

Whether buying a used SX40 or a new Olympus SP810 UZ could be a hard choice. I am sure Stephen will have some opinion. Check below in the comments section the following days. 

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by    13

The rewards of birding

9000 birds on his list!Tom Gullick hits 9000 species with Wallece's Fruit-Dove

How do you measure your success as a birder?  How do you get recognition of other birders and non-birders? Is there some sort of measurement to quantify the experience?

The easiest way, is to keep track of how many birds you had seen. The number allows you to compare yourself with other birders. This is known as competitive birding.

Even if there is no competition and you only compete with yourself, the listing game is the most prominent way how birding is practiced today. The number, of course, reveals nothing of the birder’s actual skills in identifying birds.

Tom Gullick (above) recently hit a landmark of 9000 species seen when he saw Wallace’s Fruit-Dove (top photo). This is truly amazing! 9000 species of the around 10,000 species that exist in the world.

But such numbers do  not impress non-birders, nor do they attract more people to the hobby. What is the point with putting a mark in front of the name of the bird in the field guide or on a birdlist indicating that you have seen it? What is it good for? Why would anyone else care? Why would a non-birder even pretend to listen or pay attention when the birder brags about his new life-birds?

Having said this, there are of course birders, who are well recognized for their birding skills. They are bird guides and authors of bird books. But most people who throw themselves into the hobby need some sort of measurement – and that is when the listing game starts

The digi-birders

Maybe we need a new term. I have been bashed for labeling those who start taking photos of birds birders. Let’s introduce a new word. Digi-birders – who get hooked by taking digital photos of birds.
The new digi-birding boom has put things in a new perspective. Just as mentioned in an earlier post of with a kid getting into birding via a digital point and shoot camera, the same is true if we talk about recruiting new birders among adults.  Taking interesting photographs of birds becomes far more interesting than counting numbers of birds seen. Sharing the photos on the internet where everyone can see them even your non-birding friends. You gain recognition by sharing your bird photos. The more shares and likes you get for a photo on Facebook, the greater your satisfaction and the recognition of your peers.

Frankly, which of the two models do you think works better for recruiting your non-birding friends to take interest? Are you sure they want to hear about your last lifebird you added to your list? Or do you think they’d be more interested in seeing the great photo of a bird you took yesterday. They certainly would not share your Facebook update of a new birder milestone of species seen, but they may just share your great bird photo – of say a Wallece’s Fruit-Dove.

Internet and especially Facebook has made it easier for bird photos to gain recognition and it is this mechanism which will make interest in birds massive.

Digi-birders could adopt birding ethics.

Can you see how powerful this change is? Don’t you agree in this light there could be millions of new birders in the coming years – if including also bird photographers into the birder label? At least labeling the bird photographer as potential birder – or at least digi-birder.

What is important is that there will be a lot of people who will care about birds. That will be more people interested in conservation. It is up to us, the traditional birders to be there for the new digi-birders to teach them birding and identification skills and to introduce them to the ethics of birding. The impact on the birds and the environment by our presence needs to be looked after. Birders in general have good ethics and practice a code of conduct and can/should transmit this to other users of the natural areas.

Top photo: Wallece’s Fruit-Dove by Mehd Halaouate. Swedish readers will find Mehd’s wife’s blog about living in Indonesia interesting.

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This was the seventh pre intro-post in the birdwatching from the beginning series. There are one more intro chapter to go.  In the next post, I will make an outline of the coming posts. I hope to get a lot of guest bloggers to treat different topics. Please make sure you tell your friends of this series so they can be with us from the start.  You are allowed to share the posts via email, or on Facebook, Google plus and Twitter. Check the sharing options below.
If you liked this post, you may want to  subscribe to this blog.  The launch is on January 1, 2013.  A good way to start the new year.

Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com

by    2

Digital photography – nature watching revolution.

More and more people get interested in nature.

It is easy to see that it is digital photography which is the engine of the new trend. It is likely that people who get into birds via digital photography, also start getting into plants and bugs, because it is easy to take photos and no one need to spend money on film anymore.  The nature watchers of the future should  become much broader and more knowledgeable than traditional birders.  Similar photographic challenges with dragonflies or butterflies, are getting very popular. It is the digital photography which has made this possible.

It is also interesting to see that in countries which lack a traditional birdwatching  movement,  such as Brazil, Thailand, China, Costa Rica,  nature watching through digital photography has become massive in recent years. The national parks and nature reserves of these countries are full of local people with massive cameras and blinds – all intending to take superb pictures of birds.

How do we get new and young members to our bird club?

Meanwhile, in the traditional stronghold countries such as US, UK, Netherlands and Scandinavia, there are often complaints that there is little regeneration of young birders. In fact every so often one hears the birders saying that the hobby is dying, as membership figures of bird clubs dwindle and the average age among the members is way over 60.

But if the birdclubs instead concentrated on recruiting new birders with a focus on bird photography and sharing photos on social media there is enormous potential for growth.  As the potential is so large, it will also save the “old school” birding which considers good birding is about nurturing field identification skills.  There will always be people who shine if enough people get into the “game”, but if we – the birders – close the doors and continue to promote birding the old way, the risk is that we shall not be competitive enough in the digital age. The kids will continue to play video games and be stuck behind the computers and the TV sets instead of discovering nature.
Bird photography in contrast is cool!

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This was the sixth pre intro-post in the birdwatching from the beginning series. There are two more intro chapters to go.  Please make sure you tell your friends of this series so they can be with us from the start.  Share the posts via email, or on Facebook, Google plus and Twitter. Check the sharing options below.
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Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com

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How to start birding. Intro 3.

How to inspire a kid to get interested in birds and nature.

Say you have kids and you really would like them to become more interested in nature, but they are more into to TV and computer games.  You are tearing your hair with the potato couch kid. You read some manuals about birding, which all invariably recommend getting a pair of binoculars first of all.  You got $350 to spend. (You are a rich parent just for this argument).

Scenario 1. Binoculars.

You spend 350 dollars on a pair of binoculars and then drag the kid outdoors and show him some birds. Maybe he says “wow”… maybe he says “drag”….but when summer camp comes, he has invariably most likely already forgotten to pack his binoculars.

Scenario 2. Point and Shoot Camera

You picked up THIS EBOOK (forthcoming) and decided to spend 350 dollars instead on a point and shoot mega zoom camera. You drag the kid outdoors, let him take photos of plants and bugs using the macro, and dragonflies, butterflies and birds using the 35x optic zoom.  Then you post some of the photos on Facebook or he posts them on his blog. Maybe you will find a local Facebook groups for birds or dragonflies which can tell you what the species they are. You are met with respect, in spite of having no experience of either birds, nor dragonflies – and you don’t own a field guide (yet). The experts on the group tell you the field marks you should look for to clinch the ID.
The kid says wow! How can they know all this? Another question to the Facebook group and you are recommended some field guides applicable to your area.

Comes summer camp and the camera is the first thing to be packed. In fact he’d have it in his hand the entire trip, documenting every detail. Sure, he probably won’t be thinking of shooting birds at all….but because he can,  he clicks off some shots of a bird sitting on top of a tree, and when he zooms in, he can see it is a raptor. He shows his friends and they share it on his blog. Hey, it would be kind of cool to know what kind of raptor it is. Mom asks the Facebook group again. Red-tailed Hawk. Other kids, see his pics and also want a point and shoot camera. They also want to learn about the nature around them.

It is easier
It is cooler
A photo is tangible – and observation is not.
It possible to share it
It is viral.

But is it really birding?

I have gotten a lot of comments from birders, that this is not really birding. And maybe they are right. By sending off the picture to Facebook or an online forum and get the ID this way is a bit lazy.

Per definition by American Birding Association:  A birder is a person who is actively pursuing the hobby or sport of birding. Birding  is a sport and/or hobby in which individuals enjoy the challenge of bird study, listing, or other general activities involving bird life. Critics say that people  photographing birds are not really observing.

But taking photographs of birds is a general activity involving bird life, isn’t it? With the new digital photography technique  it is far easier to get interested in birds via photography than with binoculars as demonstrated above. This is where I am going with this series.  Eventually, the kid will also want a pair of binoculars. Why? Because he likes  birds. And he would like to watch them when the photography conditions are not the best. Birding grows on you.

Maybe the definition of a birder will be change soon: Someone who is actively pursuing the hobby or sport of observing or photographing birds. The old school birders will protest. So be it!  Digital bird photography at all levels is here to stay. Some people will never become experts. But that is OK.

Jeff Gordon, president of the American Birding Association, said on my Facebook wall:

“Birders have often as a group been insular, though to be fair, they’ve often been marginalized. But part of my whole thesis about how I approach my job at the ABA is that we have to let go of the past, suck it up, and let our lights shine. Become less focused on ourselves and our own successes and failures and more concerned about building a bigger, more fun tent.”

Should pursuing birds by photography be included in the word birding? Comments below please. And don’t forget to subscribe to email updates so you don’t miss any posts. Have a wonderful week full of birds.

Top Photo:  Canon SX40 HS (affiliate link): a highly recommended Point and Shoot Camera for $350 dollars. See Stephen Ingraham’s review. Stephen will be blogging about birding with Point and Shoot Cameras later in this series.

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Gunnar  Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com.