[clydebirder]

Originally Posted by Chrissy

I was reading Alan's review of the D40 and was interested to hear that he sometimes puts his camera onto sport mode to get some good results. I confess to having done so too, especially when a big buzzard flew over my head and I didn't want to miss a series of shots.
An excellent photographer also talked me through spot light metering which really seems to have helped my shots in the trees.
I purchased my camera a couple of months ago and am I am using manual mode a lot more lately and I am gradually getting more confident with it but I do think bird photography can be very challenging.
Lesson 1
The one that miffed me the most was I set my camera up and was taking photographs of all the geese and ducks down the river when the Mandarin swam past. But, to get a good shot I needed to go to the other side of the bridge. I didn't even notice that the other side was in shadow and all my close ups came out uselessly dark, doh! First lesson learnt, look at the viewer every so often!!

I often put my camera in Av mode and set the f stop I want to use and the camera adjusts the shutter speed. This saves any problems with taking photos in different lighting situations. The problem with sports mode is that the camera often selects a high ISO setting which brings with it noise problems in the images. I very rarely use higher than 200 ISO to ensure I get the best quality shots I can
A tripod also is a great asset, they can be cumbersome to carry around but they realy do make a difference

cheers, John