George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Tour Notes By Madan Kumar, Camera Club Member

10-Jun-2017

So, what were we up to in Ladner while it rained cats and dogs everywhere else? Apart from enjoying the sunny weather, we had a lot to absorb and observe about bird photography.

After a quick meet and greet, Sridar kicked off the first photo walk of the club, by setting the expectations right for all. We had definite goals and specific objectives, which kept all our focuses intact.

After getting our entrance tickets sorted out, Sridar explained the concept of composition, the importance of background with a couple of example poster shots in the gift shop. He explained how in bird photography we can either choose to fill the whole frame with the bird or make even more interesting clicks by including some background details. While the rest of us already started to feel overwhelmed with all this rich information, Sridar was just getting started.

We had barely made a few strides into the sanctuary when we spotted a black squirrel and halted for our first practical lesson. The key, as explained by Sridar, are as follows
· Recognise and identify an opportunity
· Discover the best spot/position
· Get eye level with the subject
· Finally, be patient
Once you have the subject in your frame, your finger in the trigger, you should be prepared to be patient. Wait as long as you have to because the subject (squirrel, bird or wildlife) is definitely going to move and one of those positions is going to be a picture perfect.
He demonstrated all the above points and took a couple of wonderful shots of the squirrel. @Sridar, for the benefit of the other members, would you be able to post those shots?

Followed by this lessons was a short talk from Sridar about tripods and monopod, then about proofreading your own pics and deleting unwanted ones. Then he also suggested some tips on how to make our picture stand out and be different. As explained by him, there could be millions of pictures of side-posed ducks, so we should try to get a different pose, for example – ascend or descend, in flight, fluttering wings and so on. While we all tried to get such shots, Sridar went around the group, looking at our pictures and giving constructive feedback. Burst mode, fast shutter speed and AI Servo concepts were explained at this point.

After that, we continued to walk further into the sanctuary until Sridar spotted a crow on a branch and stopped. He once again emphasised how to perceive an opportunity and how to be discreet and click only worthy shots and how to avoid random clicking. This, to me, was an important skill, that I wish to practice and incorporate.

The tour continued along with some tips about how to make use of the surroundings to better frame and highlight the subject. This fact was attested with a demo of how we could frame a bird perched on a tree stump by bordering it with a bunch of leaves. His low F-stop pictures of this tree stump were indeed wonderful. It was a good lesson for me on the importance of aperture and how it controls the pictures.

Eventually, we all came to a small pond where we saw a bunch of ducks floating along and occasionally taking a dip and then raising up and fluttering their wings to get rid of the excess water in their feathers. Sridar gave us the assignment of capturing this event and got into the action himself. We all followed his steps, set our cameras in shutter-priority mode and set the value around 1/1800 to 1/1000 and got flat on the ground, without minding the gravel. I’ve got to accept that it was not an easy challenge. We had to wait on the edge of our seats for the correct moment. Either those moments were very short, or the foreground was noisy. But still, it was a good exercise to practice. For the rest of the club members, who could not make it to the photo walk, I’d highly recommend this exercise. Please do let us know how it goes.

At this point, most of us were actually starting to get tired. While some of us rested in the shades, rest of us ventured to capture a couple of cranes, which were standing tall and posing patiently. This was an opportunity for me to practice the concepts of filling up the frame with the whole bird and also how to include the background. Time well spent.

Finally, Sridar gathered the troops and summarised our learning and ended the photo walk with a recommendation to continue practising the fine art of photography. Because only practice is going to take us close to perfection.

Coffee and Sign-off
On our way back, we took a short pit stop at a coffee shop and enjoyed the tasty cakes Shanti had baked. Sridar welcome other members of the club to organise walks like this and learn from each other coz the gain is mutual. He also briefed about the upcoming sports photography session, scheduled for July 30th 7:30 AM.

Overall, the first photo walk of the club was a grand success. Loads to learn and lot to practice.
On behalf of all the members of the club, I’d like to thank Sridar for investing his own personal time, organising this and sharing his knowledge.
Looking forward to meeting you all on July 30th, until then, happy clicking.

~Madan