Featured

spotted towhee before and after editing

Education, Featured, Guides, Main Feed

Editing Bird Photos: A Beginner’s Guide

You’ve just returned from your first birding trip with a camera full of photos, now you’re ready to go through them all, edit them, and post them for the world to enjoy. Let’s get started! In this guide I’m going to be showing you how to edit bird photos with Adobe Lightroom CS6. This article shows some of the tweaks I make to my photos before posting them online, but won’t go into the technical things that each change does, you’ll see it for yourself as you edit your own photos.

Why Lightroom instead of Photoshop?

There are two main advantages of using Lightroom to edit your photos.

Photo of author

Written by: Jeff Mann

Published on:

Featured, Gear Reviews, Main Feed, Reviews

iPhone 7/8/X and Samsung Galaxy Binocular Adapter Case for Digiscoping

With more and more people carrying cameras with them everywhere, ‘digiscoping’ has increased in popularity. Digiscoping is the practice of pointing a phone camera or digital camera through a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope to increase the zoom and take photos of birds that are really far away.

Trying to do this by holding your phone up to a scope or binoculars is very difficult and tedious. It often requires the cooperation of two people: one to hold the camera and position it properly, and the other to find…

Photo of author

Written by: Jeff Mann

Published on:

Education, Featured, Main Feed

Beginner Birding Mistakes

If you’re thinking about going on your first bird walk or bird outing here are 8 things you should avoid.

1. Wearing Bright Colors

Bright colors like white amplify movement and make you contrast with your surroundings. Subdued earth toned are best. Birds see more color than we do (even UV) so they’ll be sensitive to colors that far contrast what they are used to seeing.

2. Making Loud Noises

Remember to silence your cellphone (if you even have service!), and keep loud talking to a minimum when necessary. If you are trying to get a good shot or spot a bird that’s close-by, you don’t want to scare it away. You’ll eventually get shushed by other birders if you’re a jabber box. This is less important when viewing birds at far distances, like most water birds.

Photo of author

Written by: Jeff Mann

Published on:

Education, Featured, Main Feed

eBird: The Gamification of Birding?

Growing up in the ’90s you could definitely consider me a part of the “Pokémon Generation.” Throughout my childhood I played games like Sonic, Zelda, Mario, but the one that seemed to have the biggest impact on me and my friends was Pokémon. We spent countless hours battling, training, trading—but most of all collecting Pokémon.

I confess to still being a fan of the series and continue to play the newest games today (while gleefully passing on “adult” shooter and sports games).

What does this have to do with birds?

Photo of author

Written by: Jeff Mann

Published on:

Birding Summary, Featured, Main Feed, News

Participating in the Christmas Bird Count

December is coming to a close, and some of you may have participated in one or more “Christmas Bird Counts.” What is a Christmas Bird Count, you may ask? Well, it is an annual “bird census” that is performed by volunteers mainly in North America during the month of December. Over 100 years ago people used to go on what were known as “Side Hunts” where they shot and killed as many birds as possible, trying to kill more than their peers. They recklessly did this every year without regard for bird species or rarity. In the year 1900 Frank Chapman suggested to do a bird count rather than a hunting contest (go conservation!), thus the Christmas Bird Count was born.

Photo of author

Written by: Jeff Mann

Published on:

Prev