Mark Carwardine - RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds

For Florence and Miller, with love

BLOOMSBURY WILDLIFE

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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This electronic edition published in 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in the United Kingdom 2023

Text, photographs and diagrams copyright Mark Carwardine 2023

Mark Carwardine has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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ISBN: 978-1-3994-0454-9 (PB)
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CONTENTS

Dont assume that you have to travel to far-flung corners of the world to take great pictures of wildlife. Its not true.

Terrific wildlife photography is less about the subject and more about composition, light and perhaps surprisingly the background. Just because a picture is of a Giant Panda or a Sumatran Tiger, or some other rare and exotic creature, doesnt necessarily make it a great picture. Indeed, some of the most memorable and eye-catching images Ive ever seen especially while judging wildlife photography competitions over the years have been of common and familiar species taken close to home.

Yet these more ordinary subjects tend to be ignored by many photographers. They are considered too obvious, or insufficiently compelling (although Ive never understood why because, by any standard, many garden birds are strikingly beautiful). But the mere fact that they are often taken for granted means there are more opportunities to take original pictures of them pictures that havent been seen before. While there are countless awe-inspiring images of Polar Bears and Humpback Whales, when was the last time you saw a truly inspirational image of a House Sparrow, or a Robin, for example? Exactly. In other words, its not what you photograph its the way you do it.

All you need is a few birds

Since youre reading this, Ill assume you have access to some sort of garden. Good. Thats all you need. If you have a garden, no matter how big or small, you can attract birds (hopefully, youre doing that already). And if you have birds, you have some wonderful and inspiring opportunities for wildlife photography. Even if you have no more than a few different species visiting regularly, dont despair. Everything can be photographed in myriad ways, as well as in all sorts of different light and weather conditions.

You just need to know how to do it. And thats where this book comes in. Step by step, it will help you to take uncommonly good images of common subjects right on your own doorstep.

The trick is to attract the birds to an area near your camera and then control as many variables as possible something you can easily do in your own garden. Its the same basic principle as street photography (first find your stage and then wait for your subjects to arrive). Except its even better because you can design your own stages and then wait for the birds to appear exactly where you want them.

Why garden birds?

There are three great advantages to photographing garden birds. First, they are readily accessible you can even capture frame-filling images of them from your kitchen window. Second, they tend to be tamer and more relaxed around people than most wild birds out in the countryside; they are used to you wandering around the garden, putting out the washing, playing with the dog, pruning the roses or whatever else you do. Third, they are impressively adaptable; you can move the feeders around, change the perches or add a new prop and they will often return within a few minutes. Theres a fourth advantage, too: there is no need for flights, hotel rooms or car rentals. You dont even have to leave your house (you can shoot through an open window, from indoors).

Once you have mastered the basics, you can make garden bird photography as simple or as challenging as you wish. A Robin perched on a garden spade? No problem. A Blue Tit in flight? That may take a little more time and planning, but its perfectly achievable. Its just a matter of knowing how to use feeders, perches, backgrounds, hiding places and whatever camera equipment you own to create professional-quality images.

Its all about practice. As the master French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson once said, Your first 10,000 pictures are your worst (in other words, only then do you start shooting masterpieces).