Last week it was mentioned that photographs of a bird on a perch is also nice. Not every image needs to be an action shot. These kind of images are calming and beautiful. Here is an example.

So how do we get nice images such as this one? Here are a few tips:

• Overcast but bright days are best. The soft defused light just works well with birds. Long lenses need light because even if your bird is sitting still, your camera and lens is still moving as you are holding them. This means that you will need a fast shutter speed. So make sure that you have enough light so as not to necessitate a too high ISO.

• Get as close to your bird as you can without impacting the bird's behavior. This means you will need less cropping leaving you with higher resolution files. Secondly, this also helps to blur your background better. Your distance to the subject impacts depth of field.

• Choose a perch where the background is far back. The further the background the better it will be blurred. Creamy, blurred backgrounds make birds pop and stand out.

• Consider the perch. The image above is not a set up. It was taken in Tanzania, in a field. Still, choose where you wait to maximize your success. Images of birds sitting on perches that are large in proportion to the bird tend not to look that great. So take images of birds on smaller perches.

• Shoot from the bird's eye level. Shooting up or down on birds results in images that are not the best. Sometimes you have no choice and those images can be nice, but the best images often come from shooting at eye level to the bird.

Enjoy being out there with the birds.