Adventure Zoom
Candaba Adventure
I don’t go to the north often because my daily routine is close to home in Laguna.
Last year in August I had to visit a client in Pampanga so I drove the North Luzon Expressway for the first time since its expansion. It was that time that saw the sign of the Candaba Bird Sanctuary on the other side of the highway. As a camera bug it was perfect for my first hands-on bird photography.
The Right Gear.
I like to shoot macro and still life so my gear is not really suited for any kind of wildlife shooting. But I was able to get my hands on a diminutive Nikon D40 and a long-ish 70-300mm f4-5.6G AF Zoom Nikkor. This is not expensive and certainly far from being professional.
The other essential gear aside from the zoom lens is a monopod. It is very useful especially after shooting for a few hours and your hands or arms start to get tired. Your camera begins to shake and that can make your images softer than it should. A tripod will do but it is bulkier to carry.
Time is important.
The best time to go is from October to February—the time the birds escape the winter and breed. A recent report by the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines told of about 17,000 migratory birds that passed through Candaba recently.
We have been getting very unpredictable and extreme weather recently so it is important to plan your trip ahead of time. Check the weather outlook. If the forecast is for monsoons or tropical storms, it is best to cancel the trip.
Useful tips.
The images on my camera were far from encouraging. I met Jack S. who played hookie from work that day and he shared his technique learned from several outings at Candaba.
I learned to shoot at aperture priority using settings no wider than f/8 to get the maximum sharpness from my lens. With the 70-300mm f4-5.6G AF Zoom Nikkor I ought to shoot at f11 on a tripod when zoomed at 300mm to yield better results.
I can get by with a shutter speed of 1/250 at 300mm but at 1/125 as the lowest shutter speed I can only hope for 1 in 2 shots that will yield sharp images. Check the shutter speed frequently but stay at aperture priority. Also, setting the camera to continuous focusing mode or even switching to manual to pre-focus on a perch or a watered area will yield better images. The modern day VR (Nikon’s image stabilization technology) helps a lot but sharp focus is still the most important technique no matter what your gear is.
Finally I am quite eager to try out on my next outing something that I see only on Animal Planet and that is to get under a hide–like a green blanket or behind foliage. You can compose and check your camera settings more thoroughly under or behind a hide. Your mind will not race to tell you “you’re exposed, shoot now because now the birds will see you and fly away.”
Earth-toned clothing helps as well. Pack a rain jacket and some weather proofing material for your camera gear.
With these added to my knowledge I hope to get better images when migration comes.
If you have a digital SLR, these days a lot of people do, why not try wildlife photography?
About the Author
Rose is editor and content manager of activephilippines.com. Get valuable information on what’s hot and hip in the metro, from dining and recreation to the best places to visit. In addition, activephilippines.com promotes e-commerce and provides small to medium business entrepreneurs with a venue to sell and advertise online. To top it all, registered members of the site have the option to subscribe to a complete business software package that allows them to do every step of their daily operations – inventory, accounting, auditing, purchase, payroll — completely online.
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