As the title suggests, I am NOT a bird photographer. Don’t get me wrong. I love our fine feathered friends. I just don’t have the patience or the gear to photograph them properly. There is a true skill set and art to the process of bird photography that I do not possess. But I still try.
This past weekend we took a trip out to Reifel Bird sanctuary for an afternoon walk/exploration. I brought along my little mirrorless system for myself and the larger Nikon for the kids to play with. The longest reach for both cameras was an 80-200 mm lens. Immediately on arriving I experienced lens envy. There were dozens of people walking around with monster lenses the size of my leg. Then I noticed quite a few photographers had their gear in roller carts, and that reminded me of why I bought into the mirrorless camera system. I hate the weight of that gear. But if you want to shoot birds it’s what you need.
We saw Sah-Whet owls, Sandhill Cranes, Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles and lots and lots of ducks. I quickly realized that my 200mm lens reach really wasn’t going to cut it, but I still got some decent shots. On processing them it dawned on me that while I am no bird photographer I had taken a few bird images over the past year. So without further ado here are a selection of bird shots from the past year:
