iloveoliver

I’m getting a new Canon 7D Mark Ii soon.
I was looking at a book called The Art of Bird Photography by Arthur Morris. What’s your opinion? Anyone have suggestions for bird photography books..??

Thanks

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I'm not aware of any books, especially for bird photography!

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Welcome to UHH.
I can't recommend any books, but there is a Bird In Flight/Bird on Water forum section that you may be interested in and they may be able to make some suggestions. http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-112-1.html

patmalone51 Loc: Washington, DC., Montgomery County, MD

Morris has a 2nd edition of his book only available on his website on a CD. I haven't read it but looking at his blog he is technically uncompromising and would likely be a good teacher in written form.

Fotoserj Loc: St calixte Qc Ca

I’ve pick up some setting from him and it did help my ratio of keepers

CaptainBobBrown

If you're looking for general guidance one good source is the series of UTube videos on the subject by Tony Northrup (sp?). He addresses the most common features of good bird portraiture and BIF shooting of birds like positioning, catchlights, use of aspect ratio of post processed images, etc. Wherever you live you've got a list of "backyard birds". Go out and shoot all of them, especially in the early morning around sunrise and late in the afternoon. Be very selective in what you keep and do it often and a lot until you've got one really good image of every bird in your area. This is important to developing and both for finding birds in the right conditions for good images, post processsing practice to get the best from your images, and for getting really familiar with on the fly adjustment of your camera settings appropriate to the exact conditions you find the bird in. Finally, stick with one lens and learn it's strengths and limitations. Others will have their own favorite guides and suggestions for bird photography. Look at all of them.

If you're looking for location specific guides my advice is get one good one for an area you're planning to shoot in and do your research as to times, patterns of behavior, and appearance before you go.

You didn't mention the lens you'll be planning on using but after shooting in Africa, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, New Mexico (Esp. Bosque del Apache), and Alaska I've come to the conclusion that the best bird photography lens for me (Nikon) is the 300 mm f2.8 Nikon prime because it's long enough to do the job, is hand holdable and fast enough for a wide range of conditions from rain forest to savannah. Also it doesn't burden one with a tripod requirement thus making mobility easier to get good line of sight angles. Birds in trees and brush always hide from the camera behind twigs and branches so mobility on the ground is important. That's hard to do with much bigger and heavier lenses even though the increased focal length is seductive. I've tried a variety of longer lens but other then the "wow, that's a big camera mister!" comments from cell phone shooters they don't bring that much to the party. Longer focal lengths aren't as important as lens quality and to get the same quality in a much bigger lens costs disproportionally more and beyond a certain distance, especially for small birds, you lose sharpness simply due to atmospheric conditions.

Canon, of course, has very good equivalent lenses but for serious bird photography stick with a moderate sized (say 300 to 400 mm) fast prime and get as good as you can get with it.

Good luck and good shooting.

Also, I suggest looking at the wealth of online images:

e.g. www.flickr.com/photos/captainrbrown

Bill_de Loc: US

I have the original version of the book. I would recommend it. I shot with Artie a number of times when we both lived in NY. I also took one of his workshops. He knows birds and knows how to photograph them.

He recently switched from Canon to Nikon for his own photography but is well versed in both.

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iloveoliver

I’ll be shooting with a Canon 100-400 lens.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Go to YouTube..there are all sorts of tutorials and opinions on this and related photography topics. Much better than reading.

patmalone51 Loc: Washington, DC., Montgomery County, MD

another lens to consider is the Nikon 200-500 zoom. light enough to handhold. at f5.6 it's not nearly as fast as yours but the extra length adds a lot of pixels to the image.

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

It's a good book. I own it.

iloveoliver

Can I use a Nikon lens on a canon body? I don’t think so

Wingscapes

Artie is one of our leading veteran bird photographers, his materials are very good. Assuming you'll get as much out of a random UTube instruction video may be a mistake. There are a lot of 'instant experts' running around out there.

Neil Barry

I have another suggestion: I live in southeast Florida in a community that has two or three excellent bird photographers who are more than happy to share their skills. They will even take you on field trips with them to show you exactly how and what they do. (And also explain why!) I would refrain from purchasing any equipment until you go on one of these ride-alongs, so you actually get a taste of the kind of bird photography that you want to do, and then buy appropriate equipment. I have found books extremely helpful, but as someone once said to me: "You can read all the books on swimming you want to, but it don't mean a damn thing until you fall into the water!"

Jerry Green Loc: Huntsville, AL

Authur's e-book is excellent. Here is another e-book from Canon Photography on the Net: http://www.digitalbirdphotography.com/