User Manual

B
ackyards, gardens and empty streets
are all havens for urban wildlife. You
might want to capture the moment a
heron lands on your bird table or a fox returns
from its nightly forage. Stunning wildlife
photography doesn’t always need an exotic
location. Everything you need to create a
spectacular shot is around the corner from
your home.
The first thing to consider is how close
you can get to your subject. If you’re
photographing birds in your back garden,
you won’t be able to get too near without
scaring them away. A telephoto zoom will
allow you to really close in on your subject
and fill the frame.
The EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM is a good
entry-level telephoto zoom – you’ll get plenty
of reach and high image quality. Used on an
APS-C camera, its focal length is equivalent
to 88-400mm on a full-frame EOS – enough
to fill the frame with fast-moving subjects
such as birds or squirrels. With built-in optical
Image Stabilizer technology, you can shoot
handheld images at slower shutter speeds
than normal, without unintentional blur
from camera shake.
Preparation can help you get the shots you
want – put out food on a bird table or hang
a feeder from a tree which has good leaf
colour. You can also use your home as a
hide – if you shoot from an open window,
birds will be less likely to notice you.
If you want a bit more magnification, look
for a zoom that extends to 300mm, such as
the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. Used on a
full-frame camera, this will fill the viewfinder
with subjects from your garden or park. And
on an APS-C sensor camera it will give a view
equivalent to a 480mm lens, which takes you
even closer.
Further afield, look for juxtapositions
between man-made and natural worlds.
Unusual contrasts help keep images
interesting – a bird on a branch is expected,
a starlings’ young contrasting with neon or
concrete isn’t.
EXPLORING
THE URBAN
JUNGLE
Action
Amazing wildlife shots are closer than you think.
CHOOSING THE
RIGHT BODY
Photographers shooting with APS-C
sensor cameras can enjoy greater
telephoto reach than those shooting
with the same lens on a full-frame
camera. This is because the smaller
sensor crops the image by 1.6 times.
EF-S lenses, which are designed for use
only with APS-C cameras, are smaller,
lighter and often more affordable too.
Full-frame users can enjoy the benefits
of a larger sensor, which include greater
control over depth of field in order to
isolate a subject against an out-of-focus
background. Full-frame cameras also
let you take advantage of the full field of
view offered by the range of EF lenses.
Also look for cameras that can shoot
continuously at high frame rates – 7fps
in the case of the EOS 70D or 8fps for
the EOS 7D, and up to 14fps in the
professional EOS-1D X. Cameras that
have multiple autofocus points can
track subjects as they move quickly
around the frame.
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM, 1/3200 sec @ f/7.1 ISO 1250, © Brutus Östling. Canon Ambassador
EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
50