Nine Days Across the Outback: Day Seven

Our seventh day saw us taking off from Darwin and heading into the wilds again -- on a cruise to see wildlife (read: Crocodiles) down Mary River, and then into Kakadu National Park, where we first went to an Aboriginal site at Burrungui Rock.

Culturally and geographically, Burrungui was more interesting. Viscerally, Mary River was more interesting because I witnessed firsthand the *snac* sound that a saltwater crocodile makes when it closes its jaws. The crocodiles, however, are not what today's photo is about.

"You Talkin' To Me?"

Along with the crocodiles, the Mary River was lousy with various Outback birds. Most of them were entirely new to me, so I was fascinated by them. Unfortunately, I ran into the problem one always does when photographing birds:

• They move pretty fast
• The good light for them (like most things) is not broad daylight
• Most of them are pretty afraid of people
• Did I mention they were pretty small?

Unless you are going to be photographing emu or giant ostriches, this means that bird photography is pretty difficult. You need a nice, long, telephoto lens (probably at least 400mm if you want to be properly insane about it), and you always want this lens to be reasonably fast -- probably f/4 or better, so you can catch birds in lovely golden hour light (e.g., get ready to break the bank). You also need to really understand the behavior of the bird, and how to get close to it. You've got to catch it doing something more interesting than just flying through clear air. You've got to get it in good light, like every other photo. You've got to get the focus right on something which can move very fast. And, while you're at it, make sure that composition is interesting. ;)

If I were going birding in the Outback, I would probably have needed to bring a big lens, which be something that would have added about six pounds to my lens collection. And which would likely not be handhold-able. And would have added about $1400-$10K to my lens budget, depending on how wedded I am to my new career in selling photos to the Audobon society. ;)

I made do with my 70-300mm f/4-5.6. Every one of them had to be cropped, and image quality was fairly poor. But I loved the look on this bird's face, and for one brief moment I thought, "This isn't just shooting birds. It's bird portraits.", and then it clicked for me.