Bird Photography Technology Makes Great Images Possible

Lisa is not a professional photographer. She started taking photos and learned about photography because she started watching birds and wanted a way to document it. She’s originally from Germany and moved to the US with her American husband. She lives in Michigan now, and although the landscape and weather is similar to what she experienced in Germany, the wildlife, especially the birds, differ quite a lot. 

She shoots with a Canon Rebel T5 DSLR mostly, but wanted to get closer to the birds. She found the Bird Photo Booth, a Kickstarter project that recently went live. The booth includes a 4K HD Motion-activated Wi-Fi camera with custom built-in motion detection. It's also possible to fit different cameras with an interchangeable casing that comes included. 

The birds are most active during the morning and that's when she says she gets most of her shots. But, it all depends on the weather. She even hand-feeds too if she feels like it, and says some birds are quite fearless towards humans, especially the red-breasted Nuthatches, Titmice, and Chickadees, and notes that it is key to not force it.

By looking at the images, it’s almost as though the birds are curious about this box that provides them with the seeds they enjoy which makes for epic images.

Initially she captured photos as well as videos and shared it on a closed bird-watching Facebook group. The members liked it so much and asked her to make it public. Since then her posts had more than 40,000 shares on Facebook. 

It really took her by surprise and I myself, not a birder or bird photographer at all, enjoyed the colors of these flying creatures, their expressions, and even the personalities of each bird. 

Bird photography has been improved by technology and creativity. We can now get textures of the feathers, close ups of their eyes, beaks, and details we wouldn't ever have seen on a free, live bird. 

The Bird Photo Booth can now also be found on Amazon.

In our discussion she confessed a secret. Her dad is a professional photographer and she knows how much work and knowledge goes into making great photography. She doesn’t see herself as a professional, but that photography was rather a means to capture the birds in the best way possible. She does minor post production on the images she posts to her social networks and blog. Because of the amount of images she captures, it’s the selection and the style of edit that gives her her unique eye.

This made me wonder whether photography was a means to capture what interested me, or whether I am more passionate about the experience of photographing someone or something more than what I am photographing. I suppose it is a combination of the two, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I don’t know, which makes photography even more interesting and evokes even more enthusiasm about the medium.

You can check out the Bird Photo Booth’s Kickstarter page here and the Bird Photo Booth website here. 

You can also follow Lisa's work on her Tumblr Blog here.