So as I mentioned in my last post, I’m slowly learning how to use my new Canon EOS R5 camera to photograph nature. Mostly birds, but I also photograph anything else that catches my fancy when I’m out walking around every day.

Right now, I’m working with the following equipment: a Canon EOS R5 camera, the Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens, and the Canon Extender RF 1.4X to get a bit more range. I don’t quite have the RF setup yet for doing true macro photography (1:1) which I’d like to do because of my interest in spiders, but that’s another story.

Again, as I whined in my last post, I’d been spoiled in a way by my Canon PowerShot SX70 camera because what that camera lacked in fine detail (e.g. feather detail) it more than made up for in range, flexibility, and portability. It was really lightweight to carry around all day and I could photograph everything from macro shots of spiders to long range shots of birds. Sure, it wasn’t that great in low light and as I mentioned, the shots don’t have the exquisite detail of cameras like the R5, but hey, for just walking around, it was–and is–pretty darn good.

But after using the SX70 for a few years, I yearned to improve the details of the birds I was photographing to see fine feather detail and clearer eyes, hence the R5.

While I do lug the R5 around, I’m finding that as far as getting close to birds and getting halfway decent shots, a blind is very helpful. So I rigged up a pseudo blind by draping a long piece of camo netting over a black umbrella and then zip-tying that umbrella to a chair. It makes a small “tent” that covers me pretty well when I sit in the chair. And I wear a camo poncho, as well, while I’m there. Then I set up the camera on a tripod and pull the camo around that, leaving the lens looking out through a gap.

The Canon RF 100-55mm lens is white so I sewed a brown sleeve or tube with elastic at either end that I can slip around the lens. I had scraps of brown cloth–it’s nothing fancy but it does make the lens less obvious.

The whole setup is positioned about 25 feet away from some bird feeders we have at the edge of a ditch that separates our front yard from a farmer’s field. There is plenty of cover and water in the ditch and we get quite a large variety of birds in that area, even without the feeders. In fact, I can stand there and on most days, count about 30 species without doing a thing except keeping watch.

The Carolina Chickadees and several other birds don’t even really care if I’m just standing there by the feeders, out in the open, gaping like a fool, because they’re used to seeing me fill the feeders or work in the yard. They rarely bother to fly away when I’m out and about. In fact, I’m contemplating doing a bit of hand feeding, as well. But I’m drifting off of today’s topic.

So given that setup, I’ve been spending an hour or two on most afternoons in my pseudo-blind, learning how to photograph birds. Right now, I’ve pulled together a few settings and saved them to C1 (the first custom mode) and those settings are mainly things like using animal eye detection, Servo AF mode for focus detection, and turning off Image Review. I’m still doing things mostly in automatic although my next step will be to move into using Aperture priority mode, but I’m not confident enough to move there just yet.

I also mentioned before, I’ve set up the R5 to do back button AF so the shutter button just takes the photo.

Here are some of the results I’m getting using the 1.4X extender with the 100-500mm telephoto lens. They aren’t the greatest photos on earth but I’m slowly learning.

Orange-crowned Warbler

The warbler was shot with the Canon EOS R5/RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, RF 1.4X at 700mm, ISO 2000, f/11, 1/1000 sec

We’ve been having a lot of rain and overcast days, so the lighting hasn’t been that great as might be obvious in some of these photographs, particularly the sparrow below.

Savannah Sparrow

The sparrow was shot with the Canon EOS R5/RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, RF 1.4X at 700mm, ISO 640, f/11, 1/1000 sec

Orange-crowned Warbler

The warbler was shot with the Canon EOS R5/RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, RF 1.4X, this time at 700mm, ISO 640, f/11, 1/1000 sec

Eastern Towhee

The towhee was shot with the Canon EOS R5/RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, RF 1.4X at 700mm, ISO 4000, f/11, 1/1000 sec

We did have one sunny day and I was just goofing around and photographed a Carpenter Bee visiting one of my daffodils. Yes–it’s already spring here and the daffodils are blooming like crazy. I had to stand about 10 or 15 feet away in order to even focus on the bee since I was just walking around with my R5, the RF 1.4X, and RF100-500mm lens and didn’t have any other lenses with me at the time. It was still interesting to see what that combination can do as long as you have some distance from your subject.

Carpenter Bee on a daffodil

The bee was shot with the Canon EOS R5/RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM, RF 1.4X at 700mm, ISO 1000, f/10, 1/1000 sec

It would be nice if we could get some more sunny days, but I’ve had to work with what I have. I’m hoping to get to the coast soon. Not that there will be sun, but it should be easier to practice photographing birds as shore birds are out in the open and don’t move around as much as the itty bitty birds around here. The kinglets and gnatcatchers have really been the bane of my existence because they are just so fidgety and almost never sit still. But I’m going to keep on practicing and see if I can’t get some photographs of the flighty little creatures, too. However, next up will be shore birds simply because they might be a little more cooperative considering my skill level (or lack of skills).

One final note: taking the cue from my PowerShot SX70 with its cropped sensor, I’ve been playing around with using the 1.6x crop mode on the R5. Yes, it does throw away data. However, it throws away data that I don’t want anyway because I’m not at the stage where I’m doing artistic crops to re-center or otherwise adjust a good shot to make it outstanding. I’m just trying to get my first good shot. The crop mode gives the photos the appearance of being taken closer to the subject, which is something the SX70 did and that I appreciated.

I like the results although in the long run, I’ll probably go back to the full mode and crop in software such as LightRoom when I’m better. The crop mode photos have a little less resolution but the files will be smaller and right now, I don’t really need huge files or the extra data they contain.

Final, final note: I’m also taking the photographs as RAW images rather than JPG. I use LightRoom to save them off as JPG for posting here and to eBird. Right now, it’s probably overkill but I figure why not start out with good habits? RAW gives me all the data available (except that data I’ve cropped out using the 1.6X crop mode, of course) and if I someday decide to start editing my photographs to improve their appearances, RAW images provide the best data set from which to start.

That’s about it for now.

Happy birding! (And happy bird photography!)