"National Geographic": Photographing Birds [Paperback]

"Photographing Birds" is a pocket-sized book aimed at covering the full gamut of bird photography from equipment to a short list of places to take photographs of birds. In between, chapters include luring and stalking birds, photographing nesting and flight and special challenges like night photography and winter photography.

This book is apparently an update of a previous National Geographic book entitled "National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Birds". While I did not read that prior volume, this book has the feel of a job of cutting and pasting. For example, in the Getting Started chapter, there is an extensive discussion of film in the main text and then some sections that feel like they had just been appended on digital photography. The same section contains a discussion of catadioptric (mirror) lenses. No bird photographer I know would consider using such a lens today.

Two of the basic problems that any bird photographer will face are exposure and focus. There is no discussion in this book of how one might compensate for different lighting conditions and bird tonalities. There is a reference to the histogram, one of the most useful devices that digital SLR cameras offer for the control of exposure, but no explanation of this function. With regard to focus most modern cameras offer a choice between single focus and continuous focus and the selection of one or the other can greatly affect the images taken, but there is virtually no mention in this book.

The basic shortcoming is that while the book recognizes the problems of bird photography, there is very little practical advice. Even such a basic subject as depth-of-field is not included in the book.

For several years the gold standard for bird photography has been "The Art of Bird Photography" by Arthur Morris. It doesn't cover digital photography but it's still a lot more useful than this book. Morris has an e-book on digital bird photography which is available from his web site, but which he is not yet offering in a printed version.

The bottom line is that I cannot recommend this book for any photographer.

As the previous reviewer mentioned, there are several references to film cameras as well as digital cameras. The recommended settings don't seem consistent with others I've read. He suggests using a "fast" shutter speed of 1/150 - other sources typically recommend 1/1000. I wonder if some of these recommendations are more oriented to film.

I also don't like some of the ways that he suggests setting up a shot, such as taking an off focus picture of flowers, printing it in a large format, and propping it up to create a background for his "natural" hummingbird shots. What's up with that???

I have a lot to learn about photographing birds, and I'm sure that much of the guidance is sound. But I can't recommend this book.

JoAn

I learned a great deal about photographing birds with this volume. The other critiques about the book are harsh and perhaps they are from very experienced bird photographers. I am not a newbie by any means but have come to devote more time to this subject in recent years. The concepts of setting up natural looking feeders and using feeders arranged with "staging branches", setting up blinds, are not intuitive so I credit the authors with helping me to improve in my photos in the backyard, bribing birds in the park and Cape St Mary's. The list of "Ways to Get Close to Birds" at the back of the book is a great reference, showing species and method. Very simple and succinct. Yes, there could be more updated information on recommended infrared triggers etc, but concepts are concepts. They don't change. By the way, slow manual focus 500 Mirror lenss are a great affordable way to break into bird photography and see if you want to pursue it. I just sold one for $100. Price a 600mm lately?