Crimson Sunbird

Dear regular readers, it has been ages since I updated this blog. A lot of changes have happened in the intervening years. I got married- changed my camera system from Sony to Canon and developed interest in conservation as well. I will endeavor to keep the posts flowing regularly from now on.
Today's post features a Crimson Sunbird. The most colourful of the sunbirds that visit our home. There are more than a couple of sub-species, of this beautiful bird in India. This male regularly visits in the morning for his dose of nectar from the flowers that you can see in the photographs. I have planted 3 such plants and all seem to be doing well.
It was about 10 in the morning, there was a cold breeze blowing, lush green all around and I was having a lovely time speaking with my wife. It seemed nothing would make me move from my perch- that is until the sunbird came fluttering around. As if by instinct, I just disappeared and appeared with my camera gear. The next thing that my wife could hear was the sound of clicking shutters. Looks like she has now got used to this routine now.
P.S. - Wife say's she hasn't got used to it yet.. 

Heuglin's Gull - Juvenile

Photographed about 1000Kms off East African coast was this Juvenile Gull, probably Heuglin's Gull. It stayed on board for about one hour. Since I did not see it indulge in fishing may be it was migrating and must have decided to take a break enroute.
The first photograph actually makes a good wallpaper.

Cattle Egret

The Cattle Egret, is actually a small white Heron, but unlike other species of heron, which prefer shallow water, this egret prefers dry grassy habitat. I photographed it in a paddy field in mangalore, after the crop was harvested and was probably foraging for insects or grasshoppers. These birds are generally found very close to cattle and other large animals, because, when grazing these animals disturb small creatures which the egrets then catch. This species will be sometimes found riding on the backs of these animals.
Since I was standing on a paddy field, when photographing the bird , I could not deploy my tripod, on the wet, soggy ground and had to click the photographs holding the camera with my hands. Now in situations like these, where I cannot deploy a tripod and have to use a telephoto lens, I prefer to click the photographs on a burst mode (i.e. you have to click the shutter button once, and photographs are clicked continuously, as long as the shutter button is depressed). The first photograph, where you had to press the shutter button, generally experiences camera shake, (even when on a tripod, the act of pressing the shutter button can sometimes cause slight camera movement, causing blur in photographs) but the subsequent photographs will be much better off. Both the photographs were third pictures of the sequence.

Indian Cormorants

Two 'Indian Cormorants' Photographed on the banks of Nethravathi river. I was in a dilemma when taking this picture, the water background was very bright and the subjects under lit. If i Increased the exposure time it would have over exposed the water surface, killing any details that were present, if I reduced the exposure then it would have killed the details on the birds.
Well since I did not have much time to keep adjusting the shutter speed, I opted for the most under used feature of today's cameras, taking a series of photographs with increasing Exposure values. I selected Pattern metering and the camera took a series of photographs, with a increment of 0.3 EV. The underexposed photographs turned out better than the correctly exposed ones.
P.S. : I had Initially identified these birds are Little Cormorants. Thanks to Prasanth Narayanan for pointing it out as Indian Cormorants.

Bulbul Airborne.

Photographing birds airborne is pretty tiring and requires a lot of patience. The best idea is to focus on a perched bird and wait for it to takeoff, generally nectar eating birds don't sit for long, but are swift to take off, while birds of prey can sit for long periods at a place, but they show signs prior take off and hence one can get time to click on the shutter.
Using a faster shutter speed can freeze the action, while slowing down the speed will give you a chance to photograph the movement.
Photograph details: f/4.5 , shutter speed 1/1000 sec.
Even with a shutter time of 0.001 sec you can make out a slight movement of the bird, this goes to show how fast these wonderful birds fly.

Flying Dragon Fly

Photographed at Shutter speed of 0.0125 sec. In spite of such high speed you can make out the flapping of the dragonfly's wings. This shows how fast it was flapping and flying. In order to freeze the dragon flies flight I had to reduce the shutter speed to 0.00125 sec (1/800th of a second) as shown in the 3rd sequence below.
If you look closely, you will see that a dragonfly has two wings on each side of its body a long front wing and a slightly shorter back wing. During flight, small but powerful "tornadoes" of air move along each of the dragonfly's front wings. These tiny tornadoes help the dragonfly maintain its lift and stay airborne. A dragonfly's back wings help keep the "tornadoes" from breaking up.
With a shutter speed of 1/800th of a second i was able to freeze the dragonfly midair. Well with this I conclude that the insect flaps its wings at a rate of 700-800 times per second. This was my observation, any entomologist please correct me,if i am wrong.

The best time to photograph dragon flies mid air is during its mating season. The male fly to show its skill to a potential mate, hovers midair for a while. Though the flight is not absolutely stationery, photographing becomes a little easier. Specially because you can preset the focal length and be ready. Because of the creatures size, auto focus does not work, and manually focusing once the subject is framed is quite impossible.
I was unable to get a crisp close up image of the dragon fly, today. Keep watching this page, with improved skill and better equipment, that day is not very far.