Balcony Robin

I’ll admit that I’ve never been very good at wildlife photography. When animals have presented themselves, I’ve photographed them but I’ve never really pursued this side of nature photography like I have with landscapes. The boredom of being stuck at home during the Covid quarantine has given me time to ponder them a bit more, even if only in the most limited backyard fashion ever.

Like the squirrel I photographed last week, the American Robin is ubiquitous to backyards everywhere and has probably been shot by every photographer with a long lens. So it’s not exactly the most exciting subject. Nevertheless, this particular bird on this particular day was able to teach me some lessons that I probably wouldn’t have learned without the Covid quarantine.

To wit:

• Patience is a virtue in wildlife photography. I know that seems kind of obvious but actually putting it into practice was still instructive for me. I didn’t have a lot planned for the day, so I was able to spend a lot of time on the balcony just watching. Taking that time made me aware of some of the habits of this particular bird. What part of the tree it was most likely to fly to. What it would do when it got there. What kinds of things put it on guard and what sorts of things were just background noise that it didn’t flinch at. Additionally, by spending time with it, I was able to capture a moment that was more interesting (with its mouth open) than other, more traditional bird-perched-on-a-tree-limb shots.
• It’s useful to plan shooting angles to make the most use of backgrounds. While I am limited to a 6′ x 12′ area of balcony, that gives me a surprising amount of control of angles and backgrounds while using a strong telephoto like my 400mm. In this case, I was able to use a red flowering tree across the lake from our building to create an out-of-focus red background that gave a much nicer look than if I had been a foot or two to the left where I would have been shooting with a building in the background.
• A surprising fact about animal photography I learned long ago is that sometimes it’s good to have a loud camera. It’s easy to think that the quietest camera possible would be the best option for wildlife photography. What can happen with a more cacophonous camera is the sound of the first frame can make the animal look right at you for a second frame. The effect diminishes with time after the animal figures out that the sound of the camera doesn’t seem to be a threat but it’s useful for the first few shots. I did that with this robin and I have a couple of shots where this happened. In the end, I liked this frame with the open mouth better, though.
• Low level sunlight is nice but cloudy days work, too. This is something I’ve known for awhile with other photographic genres I’ve pursued but it’s eminently true for wildlife photography, too. The soft, diffuse light that cloud cover provides can make it easier to shoot because there aren’t harsh shadows to fight.

And those were my lessons for the day. I have some ideas for the next time I go on a balcony safari. I’ll be sure to report back when I get a photo of the ever elusive house sparrow or enigmatic Canada goose. 😉