"Bay Birding Photo Cruise" or Photographing Birds on the Water from a Boat (rev. 09 Jan. 2010)

This page is http://water.photomorrobay.com same as http://photomorrobay.com/water/
A checklist by Michael "Mike" L. Baird bairdphotos.com  mike [at} mikebaird d o t com
Prepared for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival http://morrobaybirdfestival.org/  (uses Subsea Tours' Dos Osos boat; Captain Kevin Winfield)
"Bay Birding Photo Cruise" Friday 15 January 2010, 1:00 - 2:45 PM and Sunday 17 January 2010, 9:00 - 10:45 AM

(the below uses mostly Canon vernacular)

  1. Use a long lens - 400-500mm handheld
  2. Leave tripods at home
  3. Stabilize camera with posture, breathing, arm bracing (avoid supporting camera on rails of boat if engine is vibrating)
  4. Image Stabilizer (IS) or Vibration Reduction (VR) on and if possible set to panning mode
  5. Set shutter speed to equal 1/focal-length = 1/mm or faster (e.g. 1/500 or 1/1000 or faster)
  6. Set Aperture to f/8 or tighter (e.g., f/11) for forgiving depth-of-field if possible, while maintaining an ISO suitable for your camera (e.g., <=800 for Canon pro-sumers)
  7. Set image quality to RAW or if jpg to highest resolution and quality
  8. Burst mode for action shots
  9. One-shot and single center-point-focus for static shots (focus on bird's eye and re-compose with shutter held half-way down)
  10. Al-Servo or tracking and single center-point-focus for flying birds
  11. Wait for birds to come to you - be patient (know when not to push the shutter)
  12. Our Captain will drift boat from up current and or upwind to slowly and gently pass at a respectable distance from stationary birds
  13. If birds look up at you or move away you are too close
  14. Examine histogram in test shot - look especially for blown out whites - For white consider setting exposure compensation to say-1/3 ev; for black birds +1/3 ev, depending on scene
  15. Custom function - highlight recovery set to on
  16. Battery - charge the night before and bring a spare
  17. Storage cards - bring formatted spares
  18. Reset camera settings to preferred default values so you don't inherit settings you used on last session
  19. For photographing flying birds, stop shooting after birds pass (it is the rare good shot taken from behind).
  20. Polarizer filters - circular - recommended on the water as they may reduce glare and improve images
  21. Close is usually best
  22. Angle - low eye-level photos (the bird's eye that is) are often the most satisfying
  23. Portrait mode composition versus Landscape may be appropriate (note that polarizer, if used, will need re-adjusting)
  24. Illumination - study and exploit light intensity, direction
  25. Thirds composition says don't always center your subject in the frame