OM1 Day Out at Featherdale: The Birds

Part One: Flying Subjects

Having made the slightly nervous leap from Canon to Olympus cameras last month, it was time to take a trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park to test the camera's performance using three new M.Zuiko lenses we'd bought to compliment the OM1 bodies - the M.Zuiko 12-100mm f4 PRO, the M.Zuiko 40-150mm f2.8 PRO and the M.Zuiko 300mm f4 PRO lens.

I'd forgotten that, although the park has an impressive range of bird and animal species on display, most of the avian inhabitants are, of course, behind bars or wire mesh, making photography of the inmates particularly difficult, if not impossible.

I discovered that the best technique to get a good clear shot through the bars/mesh was to use a telephoto lens in combination with a wide open aperture (i.e. shallow depth of field). In fact, the longer the lens (i.e. 300mm+) the less likely you are to see any bars at all. 

Other tips for getting clean results in this situation is to:

• Position yourself close to the cage
• Choose a subject that's active at least four or five feet away from you. Following this technique seems to be the best way to get clean, natural looking avian photos. 

Aside from the obvious weight, cost and size factor, a driving reason to choose the 4/3 system is the effect the crop factor has on lens magnification - a 4/3 sensor doubles any lens' magnification, effectively making if financially possible to own a super telephoto lens (i.e. 300mm +) without having to sell the house (note: all focal lengths mentioned here are the 35mm equivalent).  

I remembered from a previous visit that Featherdale had a few of these surreal-looking Tawny Frogmouths - we found them sitting under a log in a small unenclosed space near the entrance to the park. I assume that their wings were either clipped or the birds so tame that they didn't need to move, making for perfect first 'test' subjects. Pic at left by RN (600mm, 1/50s @ f10, ISO640) and at right by NH (300mm, 1/125s @ f5.6, ISO800).

My first real 'through the mesh' photo challenge was of this magnificent Black-breasted Buzzard. Snapped with my new 300mm f4 lens (which is really a 600mm telephoto, 35mm equivalent), with a wide open f4 aperture at 1/500s, ISO 800. The bird was perched 12 foot away at the back of its cage - and the whole structure was in shade. If the sun is on the bars/mesh of the cage it shows up as a light and soft haze over the image that's near impossible to edit or remove. Besides the lens magnification, wide aperture and dark mesh, the close focussing characteristic of this lens (1.4m) really forces the foreground mesh completely out of focus, rendering it, in this example, almost invisible.   

Another focal length comparison - this time snapped in an open enclosure with no wire: At left, pic by NH, (200mm, 1/1250s @ f5.6, ISO800, at right, RN, 600mm, 1/2500s @ f7.1, ISO640, -1 ExpComp.

 

Another cage-free shot, this time of a White Heron pottering about in the penguin pool. No mesh to worry about. (RN, 600mm, 1/1250s @ f9, ISO200).

I considered this to be one of my best bird shots from the day. This is a Double-barred Finch - a tiny little bird incapable of sitting still for more than a couple of seconds at a time - making a good shot more of a waiting game than any shutter-pressing skill on my part. That said, birds tend to flit back and forth to the same perch (especially in a small cage) so I prefocussed on this spot and eventually got a nice result. Most shots of this subject were captured using the camera's 10fps sequential shooting mode. Wire netting was quite fine, bird perched about 5 feet from lens. Again the magnification of the 600mm lens, plus its close focussing nature, produced an almost perfect result providing very little evidence that this was shot through the side of a wire cage (600mm, 1/800s @ f4, ISO200, -1 ExpComp).

It was only once I started to edit this picture of a Rainbow Bee-eater that I realised that it had a damaged wing (probably beaten up by the other birds in the cage as it was the only bee eater there?). Anyway, as the subject was tiny I tried shooting at f11 to get more of the bird sharp - as it was closer to me (probably only 1/2 metre) the smaller aperture meant that the back mesh became slightly more visible - though not enough to be annoying (I don't think). Focal length: 600mm, 1/60s @ f11, ISO200.

Australasian (Purple) Swamphen
(No cage, 600mm, 1/2500s @ f4, ISO800,-1 ExpComp).

Black-necked Stork.
Sometimes having a big magnification telephoto can be too good - I had to step back quite a way to get this large bird in the frame!
Caged, 600mm,1/2500s @ f4, ISO800, (-1.7 ExpComp).

A Peaceful Dove - I think this fella had been picked on by some of the (non-peaceful) inmates - his head feathers had seen better days - but the rim lighting was nice. 300mm, 1/500s @ f5.6, ISO1600 (-1 ExpComp).

An Elegant Parrot (inelegantly photographed). Here's a clear example of what can go wrong when shooting through bars - I'm too close to the bird, it's too close to the mesh, and f8 makes the wire slightly clearer - even though it's all very unfocussed. Not a good, clear result. 1/200s @ f8, ISO1600, (-1 ExpComp).

Female Superb Fairy Wren.
Another tiny little bird that never seems to want to sit still!
1/2500s @ f6.3, ISO1600

Male Superb Fairy Wren
Like the female, this is also a busy little bird, constantly flitting about amongst the foliage around the bottom of the enclosure so I tried a fast shutter speed to help freeze the motion a bit. Unfortunately no light in the eye. 1/3200s @ f6.3, ISO1600 (-1 ExpComp)

Wonga Pigeon.
This was an easy shot - the pigeon was not in a cage and sat quietly against a contrasting dark background - so there was no cage to contend with. As with most of my shots on the day, a one stop underexposure produced the best tonal range, especially when including sunny highlights. 
1/250s @ f7.1, ISO1600, -1 ExpComp.

Rock Dove (?)
1/2500s @ f4, ISO1600, -1 ExpComp.

Tiny Star Finch - another great result from shooting thru wire mesh. By positioning the camera very close to the wire and focussing into the enclosure you can effectively lose all signs of the cage. 
(Pic by Natalie Hitchens, 200mm, 1/40s @ f4, ISO 800)

The aptly-named Ghost Bat. This is about as tricky a shot as you can get. Featherdale has a night exhibit featuring Bilbies and ghost bats. Didn't see a bilby unfortunately (night off?) but there were a few of these bad boys hanging about. Very hard to focus, very low light and a subject that, despite supposedly 'resting', continuously moved, twitched and trembled. Luckily the OM1 can push its ISO settings to 16k, and beyond - Natalie kept it to 16000 and processed/reduced the unavoidable noise using Topaz Denoise. Not perfect but a good exercise nevertheless (NH, 1/15s @ f4, ISO 16k).

White-faced Heron, pic by Natalie Hitchens.
(200mm, 1/100s @ f4, ISO 800)

Another cracking shot of an Osprey taken thru the fence. As with the pic of the black-chested buzzard, this bird was sitting still and positioned way to the back of the enclosure so even though this 40-150mm f2.8 lens is only half the magnification of my 300mm lens, its 260mm magnification and f5.6 aperture was sufficient to make the ugly fence almost invisible. (NH, 2.8 1/125s @ f5.6, ISO 1600).

Blue-winged Kookaburra perched.
While I don't always clock what's going on when I take pictures, I always find it important and very useful to check the metadata afterwards as it can explain why any image looks the way it does (unfortunately metadata doesn't help with identifying species!). This bird was perched very close to the front of its enclosure so shooting through it reduced the mesh to a very vague haze which almost disappears with a little contrast adjustment. Unfortunately though, at this angle, you can clearly see the side of the cage behind the bird. Moving to the left and shooting more to the right hand side of the cage might have lessened its visibility. NH, 300MM, 1/80s @ F5.6, ISO 1600.

Gouldian Finch - I read that these birds were endangered - but that flocks of them had recently been discovered around Katherine and further north in the NT which is good news. The background is not as defocussed as I'd like it to be - f2.8 would have produced a more diffuse result.
(Pic by NH, 1/80s @ f4, ISO1000).

(Pt. 2, Mammals, coming soon)