My bird photography

I'm not mechanically inclined and really feel inept at bird photography. My son is a professional photographer, and I have many friends and acquaintances who are expert photographers. They've all been generous with advice and tips. It seems too much for me to absorb and remember. So I just sort of set my Canon Rebel  Xti on Programs (P) mode, and try different positions on the bar that goes plus or minus. That's it! I usually start at 2/3 plus, and adjust it according to how the pictures turn out. I then take dozens of pictures and post my favorite one or two.

Everyone tells me if I shoot in Aperture Priority (Av) mode I'll do better. But that's one more thing to remember and have to adjust and maybe miss a chance to document a rare bird, which is more important to me than taking perfect photos. However, I do get frustrated seeing everyone else's photos turn out much better than mine.

Recently, a lovely couple, Jim and BeaAnn Kelley visited. BeaAnn got enviable shots of the Lucifer Hummingbird courtship display. I've taken many but can't get the action sharp enough. She kindly and patiently helped and explained to me how to use Av mode. It occurred to me that it was about time I learned to do one more simple setting on my camera to improve my pictures. Surely, like everything else, it'll become automatic when I do it often enough. I made up my mind to commit, even though whenever I tried it before I ended up going back to P mode. But this time I'm not going back. I'll practice until it's a piece of cake.

So this afternoon I started with the 2/3 plus, the ISO at 800, which I always do, and had the f-stop set at 5.6 like BeaAnn showed me. I was going to take a bunch trying different settings, but the bird flew after the first shot, so tomorrow I'll practice again. Nevertheless, I'm satisfied and encouraged by that one photo. It's of a Yellow-breasted Chat, which are very secretive and hard to photograph. I think the colors turned out accurate, and I like how they're reflected in the water. Here's the picture...my first decent Av shot. Thanks BeaAnn (hope I'm spelling your name correctly)!