23 January, 2011

Non-Intrusive Photography: Nesting Pin Striped Tit Babblers

20th January 2011,  Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan

 

For the first time I feel that I have the necessary gear to engage in  more non-flash  photography. The situation   demanded exactly this kind of technique when I stumbled upon a pair of Pin Striped Tit Babblers happily ferrying dry leaves every 1 minute, to build their  nest. It was about 4ft off the ground, slotted in between several dried palm fronds.

Lighting along the trail was poor. Upping the ISO to 1250 I managed to obtain some fairly decent shutter speeds of around  1/40-1/80s. I was hardly 20 ft away from the nest but somehow they didn’t show any sign that they had noticed my presence. The D7000 has a QUIET MODE setting on the dial that allows you to reduce the ‘clicking’ sound of the shutter, I think this helped tremendously. I was happy with the outcome, and the birds…………….they simply carried on with what they were doing, uninterrupted.

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3 comments:

  1. Great photos as always. I do wonder why modern cameras still have such loud shutter sounds, maybe for the 'good old days' sound. I do find it so annoying when I try to video. If there's a bunch of photographers, it sounds like a war zone!

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  2. Great catch, Madi, looks like the upgrade is worth every cents!

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  3. Very intimate photos, Madi. Great work.

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