Photo Failures: Yellow-rumped Warbler

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This photo is a failure. Can you spot the flaws?

This is the first of what may turn into a series of posts about my photographic failures. We tend to learn more from our failures than our successes, so it can be a valuable exercise studying our failed photographs to determine what went wrong, and what we could have done to turn the failure into a success.

Take a close look at the photo above. Click on the image for a larger view. What do you like about the photo? What problems do you see?

When analyzing my photos I first focus on what I like about an image. What did I do right? In this case I like the general pose of the Yellow-rumped Warbler, the position and angle of its body. The image does a reasonably good job of showing the colors and patterns of this bird. I really like the clean, solid color background. I intentionally positioned myself to have this sort of background. I like the general composition, the placement of the bird in the frame and how the tree runs along the right side of the frame.

But why is the photo a failure? What do you think? Do you see any issues? I see a couple. The most obvious is the bird moved during the exposure, resulting in a blurry head. Blurry subjects like this rarely work. There are exceptions, but I don’t believe this is one of them. The second issue is the angle of the birds head. Notice it is slightly facing away from the camera? This isn’t a major issue but it can detract. It would have been much better had I captured the bird with its head tilted more towards the camera. It would have created a more pleasing angle, and the resulting eye contact would have increased the chance of engaging the viewer. Eye contact with the subject can strongly bring the viewer into a photo.

Thankfully, I was able to create a similar photo, one I consider a success. Compare the two. Do you see the differences?

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This photo is a failure.

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This photo is a success.

Now take a look at a zoomed in comparison of the two photographs. You can more easily see the issues I mentioned with the failure, and the slight shift in head angle and focus that made the second successful. Notice how much better the image looks when the subject is in focus. And do you see the difference in the angle of the head, how in the failed photo the head is facing slightly away but in the successful one it is angled a bit more towards the camera? Another benefit of this is a small catch light in the eye in the successful photo. It’s a small and subtle thing, but catch lights can enhance viewer engagement. We seem drawn to eyes, and eyes with a catchlight often catch our attention more than those without.

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A comparison of the failure and the success. Can you spot the differences?

I hope this exercise was useful. We all create photographs that just don’t work. In fact, most of us will create far more of these than we will successful photographs. But don’t let this discourage you. Each failed photograph can be an opportunity to learn and to improve our photography.

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A Fly on the Rail

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A fly on the rail at a local wetlands park

When heading out to photograph nature with a long telephoto lens most photographers, including myself, would be on the lookout for wildlife of some sort: birds, maybe deer, a shy fox, perhaps. But I try to keep my eyes open for anything because long lenses work great for other subjects, as well.

I was walking along the boardwalk of my favorite wetlands park. They have a slightly elevated section with a larger observation area with railing and benches. I was heading down the boardwalk from here towards the section flat against the water with no railing. And just before the railing ended I noticed a large fly, sitting on the metal rail. It remained where it was as I walked by, so I turned around, setup the tripod, and began photographing this patient little subject. I liked the angle of the railing and the interesting light patterns in the background. And, of course, flies are always fascinating subjects when viewed closer than we typically see them. Click on the image to see a larger view of the photo.

If you’re curious about the technical details I was using my 200-400mm lens at almost 400mm with a 1.4x teleconverter giving a focal length of 550mm. On a crop sensor body like my Nikon D500 this gives a 35mm equivalent focal length of 825mm. That’s a fair bit of reach.

My lens has a minimum focusing distance of around 6.5 feet, and I’d moved in as close as I could get. I set the aperture to f/8 to give the photo a little depth of field but still completely blur the background. I probably could have stopped down a bit more and gotten more of the fly in focus. This would have dropped the shutter speed or forced me to raise the ISO, but I had room for both in this situation.

With the light conditions what they were I had the ISO set to 400, giving me a shutter speed of 1/400 sec. I don’t like to let the shutter speed drop too low with this long lens, even when on a tripod. Too many chances of vibration blurring the image. I have a mild case of essential tremor, so there’s always a risk of me introducing vibration, which a long lens will amplify. And the fly was on railing attached to the boardwalk, which can vibrate far more than you’d think when people are walking on it nearby.

When photographing in this situation I tend to wait for folks to walk by and let the boardwalk settle before shooting. Then I try to focus on my breathing to calm myself and relax. And I very often put the shutter in burst mode and shoot in short bursts of 2-4 shots at a time. This can be a waste of frames and creates many more images I must sort through when I get home, but it also increases the chances that one of those frames will be more in focus than the others, so it’s often worth the extra effort.

Next time you’re out in the field, whether photographing or just out for a walk, look around you. Really focus on your surroundings. What do you see that most of us might overlook and walk by? Is there a chance it might make an interesting composition if you had a camera with you? Practice this exercise as often as you can, train yourself to see more in the world. I do this all the time but still have so much to learn. I see photographers I admire create compositions I doubt I ever would have seen the potential in, and yet they create something absolutely fantastic. We can do that, too, if we better learn how to see.

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Flight of the Northern Pintail

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A Northern Pintail duck flying right in front of me. Click the image for a larger view.

It was mid-January in Northern Virginia and the weather was unseasonably warm. We walked along the boardwalk of the wetlands park watching several species of ducks swimming at a distance, along with the typical groups of Canada Geese. One species of duck that caught my eye, as it often does, was the Northern Pintail, named because of that distinctive tail, as seen in some of the included photos.

Northern Pintails are a beautiful duck. The males have a brown head with a white neck that makes them easy to identify. They have a light reddish-brown chest and light brownish-grey back. As with many duck species they have gorgeous colorful bars on their wings, most easily seen when they take flight. Photographing ducks in flight is something I always hope for, though it can be quite a challenge.

On this particular day I hadn’t gone out with the intention of photographing birds in flight. If I had, my gear of choice would likely have been my 200-400mm lens, perhaps with a 1.4x teleconverter to bring me in a little closer. But for this trip I wanted something a little lighter and less bulky, something I could hand hold with ease. And because my 70-200mm is currently on the fritz I borrowed my brother’s 70-300mm lens.

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A male Northern Pintail swimming in the wetlands.

Instead of seeking out birds in flight I was looking for more static subjects. Because of this I’d turned off the continuous high speed shutter mode to keep from creating lots of images of the same thing. A continuous shutter is great for capturing action, but a waste of frames for still subjects. And then I saw the Northern Pintail swimming alone not that far from the boardwalk.

I should have switched back on continuous high shutter mode when I began photographing the pintail, but I don’t always think of these things fast enough. After all, the duck was peacefully swimming in the water, not moving all that fast. And though I still had the camera set to continuous low, continuous high would have better prepared me for what came next.

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The Northern Pintail took flight.

Seemingly out of the blue the duck sprang from the water and took flight. I wasn’t prepared for this so I didn’t capture any images as it first left the water. But I was fortunate to get it in focus for a couple shots as it flew low over the water, droplets still falling from its wings. I didn’t expect much. The lens I was using isn’t the fastest lens. But it’s also a lens I don’t have much experience with, so I may have underestimated it.

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Profile shot of the Northern Pintail in flight.

Because I wasn’t in continuous high I didn’t capture as many frames as I’d have liked, but I was thankful I still captured some. At one point I realized I’d lost focus, so I worked to track the duck and regain focus, worried I wouldn’t be able to. But the lens quickly locked back on as the duck gained elevation passing right in front of me. This created a nice profile view of the pintail in flight, still throwing off droplets of water. The final image shows the departing pintail and some of those beautiful color bars I’d mentioned on its wings.

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The departing Northern Pintail shows its beautiful wings.

In the end I was very impressed with how this lens handled tracking a bird in flight. It did a better job than I’d expected and many of the out of focus frames I captured were more due to my poor technique and being unprepared than they were through any limitation of the lens. At this point I’m considering purchasing one as a reasonably light weight walk around lens. I wouldn’t get it specifically for birds in flight, but at least now I know it’s capable of that. And if I don’t end up purchasing one I likely will ask to borrow it again.

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