nikon d300
Marsh harriers Part 2
Having spent weeks positioning the hide, my real desire was to obtain images of the parents bringing food back to the nest. Talons clasping marsh frogs and birds for example. However, allowing for light, wind direction and not wanting to move the hide and alert the adults, I only obtained a few images that although were nice to get weren’t quite as I had hoped. With this kind of work you really are at the mercy of the elements. The following images were taken over 3, 5 hour sessions. On some occassions I didn’t get any pictures at all though I always saw them. In total I spent 30 hours over 6 sessions.
Marsh harrier carrying prey. Full frame. No cropping.
The image below has been cropped considerably so you can see exactly the prey it was carrying. A young rabbit as it turned out.
Considering it was taken at iso 800 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed, I am extremely happy with the quality the Nikon D300 produced.
Male bringing in another young rabbit. Other prey items include marsh frogs and birds, from lapwing to coot.
A long-shot showing clearly the outline of this fine bird. Broad wings and tail giving it plenty of buoyancy and maneuverability. Unlike other birds of prey, marsh harriers aren't put off by inclement weather. I have witnessed them in the rain, howling wind and snow quartering reedbeds.
The final image is one of my favourites. It’s all about the wing positioning with the late afternoon sunlight illuminating it’s underside. Although not the fastest birds they were quite hard to track. Indeed, when you are in a hide, your vision is restricted and so I would go by the mobbing calls of lapwings to alert me of their presence. I would then frantically look through each peep-hole to try and locate it. For all the images a 300mm f2.8 lens with either the TC-14EII (1.4x) or TC-20EII (2x) tele-converter was used on a Nikon D300. Stopping movement was the prerequisite so I selected an iso of 400 or 800 (depending on how late in the afternoon I was shooting) and the camera set to either shutter priority or manual.
Female arriving at nest
It was a wonderful experience witnessing and photographing marsh harriers from such close range and even with the amount of preparation involved, I am sure in the future I will attempt to improve my coverage of this stage of their lives. In the next installemt I accompany licenced handlers ring and wing-tag the young birds.
Live View for close-ups
When shooting close-ups I normally use the Nikon D2x since the quality at iso 100 is better than the Nikon D300 at L1 which is supposed to be an equivalent to iso 100 (the lowest iso it would normally go down to is 200) but it doesn’t really work out that way. Without going into too much detail, the D2x produces better results at iso 100 than the D300 which I normally reserve for bird and mammal photography when I may have to shoot at higher iso’s (400/800) and this is when the D300 out-performs the D2x. Purchasing a D3s / D3x would be the all-round answer but of course they don’t come cheap!
But there is a feature that the D300 has (and many other cameras besides) that the D2x does not and that is Live View. Over the 6 months I have come to quite literally, LOVE this feature for close-up photography. Take the scenario below. It’s around 5.45 in the morning and through blurry eyes I scan the grass for chalkhill blue butterflies, the size of a 10 pence piece. Why so early I hear you ask? At this time of the day they are still too cold to move and possibly wet from the nights dew, and if you can find one, you can take as long as you like before the sun rises to compose and take your image. Once the sun’s up, it warms, it’s wings quiver as the blood flows and then it’s off!
Nikon D300, 105mm f2.8 Micro Nikkor, Nikon 3T close-up filter, iso 200, 1/20th sec f8, Manfrotto 055 tripod.
When shooting at such close quarters, it’s absolutely vital to get the camera back (used to be called film-plane) parallel with the most important part of the subject and with this individual, that means the wings, both vertically and horizontally. Depth of field is so small in comparison to shooting landscapes, that unless you do this your images will end up in the recycle bin. Don’t even contemplate firing the shutter until it is sharp across both axes.
Given a sufficient distance between the subject and background and if there isn’t a nagging wind, I would usually use an aperture of f11 or 16 as this would allow me a tiny amount of lee-way. But, there was a nagging breeze and the background was only a few feet away, so a compromise had to be met. Shooting at iso 200, I opted for an aperture of f8 which gave me an all-action-stopping 1/20th sec! Now, this is where Live View really comes into it’s own. I had to be certain that at full aperture the butterfly was sharp on the eye and along the 2 axes of it’s wings. I therefore activated LV and zoomed right in to it’s eye, just as if I were zooming into an image to check it’s sharpness after I had taken it. After focusing on the eye, using the cursor, I then just moved the focusing point to the edges of the wing, checking its sharpness. My first attempt showed that the wing tip was slightly out of focus as it was further back, so I raised the tripod an inch or so which in turn tipped the camera down and brought the wing into sharpness. I repeated the process with zooming the LV until all areas were sharp.
Zooming in and focussing on the eye.
Then checking the sharpness of the wings.
It doesn’t stop there. Aside from sharpness, any wind movement is greatly magnified at such close quarters, so you need to be sure of a dead calm before taking the picture. Rather than straining your eye to see when this is, activate the LV again and zoom in a little where any movement immediately becomes apparent. Cool eh? Unfortunately, as in all things in life, there is a downside. With shutter speeds of around 1/15th sec. and longer and especially when working so close, the sudden de-activation of LV and the slap of the mirror during exposure can cause enough vibration to result in unsharpness. I tested this and it was apparent so I would really only use the technique to see when the wind stops at 1/20th sec. and above. Of course, if you are shooting a stationary subject such as a mushroom, then simply de-activate LV first and better still, if you have it, use mirror lock-up.
There’s probably some of you reading this saying to yourself, “I’ve been doing that for years.” But for those of you that haven’t, it’s a jolly useful technique to have up your sleeve.
So, to conclude, is the slightly inferior image quality that I get when shooting at iso 200 with the D300 worth sacrificing for the benefits of Live View? Definitely! In my book, it’s better to get a tack-sharp image with a bit of grain than it is to have a grain-free out of focus one.
About Robert Canis
Robert Canis is a professional photographer specialising in the natural world.
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