Photography Blog
Photography Blog
BANBURY BIRDS
19/02/2021
![](https://amazon.clikpic.com/milescrisell/images/Reservoir_Reed_Bunting_15_Feb_2021_downsized.jpg)
I am definitely not an ornithologist, in fact as I am an ornithophobiac (i.e. a person scared of birds) I try to steer clear of them! However, I have noticed during the 2 Covid 19 shutdowns during the winter months that birds do actually provide plenty of photographic opportunities (and challenges). Although I don't "wait for the nature to come to me" as advised by local ornithologist DaFu, I've have amassed quite a collection of images of birds, some of reasonable quality, some not so. A large proportion of the images have been taken on my Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ90 camera, often at or near the far end of its digital zoom range of 1440mm which doesn't exactly enhance the quality.
One of the problems that I encountered was identifying the birds as my knowledge is extremely limited. A Christmas gift of the book "Britain's Birds" from Sue and Kevin Blakemore helped but its a bit tricky given that it is nearly 600 pages long and I often don't know where to start. Enter Google Lens. I had been posting a lot of the bird images on Facebook, often asking if anyone knew which species I'd photographed but everything became much clearer when Mike Simpson-Lane pointed me in the direction of Google Lens; it's absolutely amazing!
I must say I do enjoy the challenge of capturing a well focused shot, although as you will see I don't always succeed! Anyway, I've added a new Gallery, Banbury Birds, to showcase the images that I like best (although to be fair I could have almost called it Banbury Robins!)
One of the problems that I encountered was identifying the birds as my knowledge is extremely limited. A Christmas gift of the book "Britain's Birds" from Sue and Kevin Blakemore helped but its a bit tricky given that it is nearly 600 pages long and I often don't know where to start. Enter Google Lens. I had been posting a lot of the bird images on Facebook, often asking if anyone knew which species I'd photographed but everything became much clearer when Mike Simpson-Lane pointed me in the direction of Google Lens; it's absolutely amazing!
I must say I do enjoy the challenge of capturing a well focused shot, although as you will see I don't always succeed! Anyway, I've added a new Gallery, Banbury Birds, to showcase the images that I like best (although to be fair I could have almost called it Banbury Robins!)