Video Digiscoping with Andreas Kieling

Whilst at the Pannonian Bird Experience, we got to spend some time with and make a small video with Andreas Kieling. Kieling is a real super-star in German nature documentaries, having made some stunning videos over the past couple of decades. He started out with documentaries filmed while spending many months at a time by himself in the wilderness of arctic Alaska. Out of this grew his passion for bears; becoming an expert on bear behaviour, and in the process was the first to film many amazing aspects of the lives and behaviour of grizzly bears, black bears and polar bears. His work on polar bears - in particular - has brought him a great deal of critical acclaim and success.

Anyhow, so we had spent the morning digiscoping on one of the lakes in the Neusiedlersee-Seewinkel National Park and had decided to spend the afternoon looking for the Great Bustards that should be displaying in the area. Kieling has a very gentle way about him and it is easy to see why animals are so calm in his presence.

.......................................click on the little triangle to get the closed captions / subtitles ^

While we were out there, we made a video about video digiscoping, or videoscoping. The new DSLRs with full HD video are really opening up an exciting new field for bird and animal lovers. Capturing animals on film has a charm and 3D realism about it that is hard to capture in photos. Photography potentially has a greater artistic beauty value to it, but video wins in pulling you in to the moment.

Here are a couple of Kieling / arte / National Geographic / BBC Wildlife videos:

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dale Forbes

Fun photographing flying gulls

The one evening in Burgenland at the Pannonian Bird Experience, there were a series of gulls flying over the meadows and vineyards in lovely light. These are some of my favorite shots.

All gull photos digiscoped with Swarovski Optik STM80 HD spotting scope, TLS800 digiscoping adapter, and Canon 7D

Happy weekend!

Dale Forbes

What Alpine meadows sound like: the Yellowhammer song

Our Alpine meadows are a beautiful rich green colour in spring. And in early spring, they are matted and strewn with wonderful yellow blossoms (Ranunculus spp.; Crowsfoot/Buttercups; Hahnenfuß), such that some fields are just a blanket of yellow.

And these fields typically sound like this, strewn with the wonderful sound of the Yellowhammer:

Digiscoping photos and video of the Yellowhammer made with a Swarovski Optik STM80HD, 25-50x W eyepiece, UCA digiscoping adapter and Canon 7D.

May your spring be filled with joyous sounds!

Dale Forbes

Great White Egret take-off digiscoping

About 5 minutes after taking the flying Purple Heron digiscoping photos, I was in the hide and a beautiful Great White Egret came by. She stayed long enough to get a couple of photos. I liked this one:

Great White Egret digiscoped with Swarovski STM80 HD spotting scope, TLS800 digiscoping adapter, Canon 7D

Happy digiscoping,

Dale Forbes

Flying Purple Heron digiscoped

On the Saturday of the Pannonian Bird Experience 2010, I was taking out a "crash course in digiscoping", and a Purple Heron gave a fly-by so I dashed over to my digiscoping setup and fired off a few shots:

Swarovski STM80 HD, TLS800, Canon 7D

I've had to compress them to not blow out my internet connection, but I am quite happy with them. They could have done with a lower ISO, but there really was not time to think about settings, so I will forgive myself ;-)

All flying bird photos digiscoped with a Swarovski Optik STM80 HD spotting scope, TLS800 telescope photography adapter and a Canon 7D. I am quickly becoming a fan of this camera: it has a little more reach than my favorite digiscoping camera, the Canon 5D mark II (due to its crop factor and APS-C sensor), has many of the controls of the 5DII, but does not seem to have quite the same high ISO noise control as the 5DII.

Happy digiscoping,

Dale Forbes

Common Redstart / Gartenrotschwanz

While waiting for some HD movie files to copy (this is going to take a while), I came across a photo of a common redstart I took a couple of years ago. They are really not that common here, black redstarts are by comparison almost dros, but this one popped out on a forest margin right in front of us, in gorgeous sunset light.

Digiscoped with a Swarovski ATS80 HD, a 30x fixed eyepiece a DCB digiscoping adapter, and a small Canon A590IS point and shoot camera.

The image moved me when I saw it again so thought I would share it. I am glad I did.

Happy birding,
Dale Forbes

This spring is just incredible!

wherever I go this spring I seem to be finding cool birds: lifers, country ticks, patch ticks and unexpecteds. and it is really inspiring me to get out birding. alot of the time I have not had my digiscoping stuff with me simply because I wanted to just absorb the splendour of mother nature without getting distracted in my passion for digiscoping...

Here are some photos I did happen to take along the way:

A patch-tick Red-backed Shrike at the Inzinger Gaisau:

Other patch ticks recently have been Hoopoe, Red Kite, Common Snipe, Sedge Warbler, Wheatear, Stonechat

and a few real unexpecteds: Nightingale, Bluethroat, Jacksnipe, Great Reed Warbler, Savi's Warbler

A bad photo of a Red Kite in Inzing. I still have not seen the Black Kites in Inzing/Pettnau yet. I hope they return again.

Whinchat

Wide-angle view of a Ruff playing hide-and-go-seek with me. Ruff is very unusual in Tirol. This one I found at the Wildsee in Seefeld.

Photo taken with a Canon 7D high-end DSRL through a Swarovski EL 8x32 binocular. Never designed to fit together, but good enough to take an ID shot.

May your spring be as wonderful as mine!

Dale Forbes

Using the Swarovski UCA digiscoping adapter: Universal Camera Adapter

Last year we made a couple of little video to show digiscopers how to set up and use the new Swarovski UCA digiscoping adapter.

The Swarovski UCA digiscoping adapter was developed with two core principals:

• universality
  
• stability

Canon EOS 350D set up for digiscoping on the new UCA adaptor

Practically any camera suitable for digiscoping can be mounted on the Swarovski UCA using the camera's tripod thread. This is particularly important because camera technology is changing so quickly that it makes sense that people will want to have the option of changing their cameras every few years, without having to change their entire digiscoping setup. Many people also start digiscoping with the small compact point & shoot camera they have at home already, but would like to have the option of changing camera in the future, or possibly even purchasing a DSLR for digiscoping. This is when the Swarovski UCA comes in really handy.

To set up the Swarovski UCA for a compact camera:

• align the supporting platform such that there is just a small area (suitable for a compact camera). If you have a DSLR, you would rotate this platform around to give a much larger support area (see video)
• attach the camera on to the removable base plate. note: if your compact camera has a tripod thread that is not directly under the objective lens, then you will want to move the screw to the off-center position on the removable base plate
• turn the camera on and extend the zoom lens out (normally in wide-angle position)
• slowly slide the camera on to the mounted UCA making sure the camera lens does not bash up against the telescope's ocular lens
• adjust the height by loosening the screw on the right and watching the camera's display screen
• now loosen the large black screw underneath the platform to adjust the horizontal and distance alignment. Ideally, you want to position the camera so that there is either no vignetting (the black ring around the image), or until the vignetting ring is a sharp, centered circle
• If you still have a little bit of vignetting, then use a little bit of camera zoom to remove the vignetting completely. As a general rule of thumb, always use as little camera zoom as possible (and then only optical zoom, not digital). Using your telescope's zoom on the lowest magnification will give you the brightest image (biggest aperture), making it easier to take sharp photos. If you need to zoom in more, then rather use the spotting scope's zoom than the camera zoom (the quality of the former is likely to be much higher than the latter)
• now that your camera is set up physically, you can use your normal camera settings to go digiscoping (Aperture priority, smallest f number, suitable ISO, macro focus mode, count down timer...).
  
• For tips on taking sharp digiscoping photos, see this video
  

watch in HD!

To set up the Swarovski UCA for a DSLR camera:

• align the supporting platform so that you have a large area, big enough to support your DSLR, as opposed to rotated and made more compact for a point and shoot camera (see video)
• attach the camera on to the removable base plate, making sure that the screw is in the centre position on the base plate (as opposed to the off-set position for many compact cameras)
  
• the type of camera objective lens you use is important for mounting and using your DSLR for digiscoping. Normally, your best bet would be to use something like a fixed 50mm f1.8 lens (aperture wide open). Pancake lenses are great as they keep the camera's weight as close to the telescope's eyepiece as possible. It is possible to use a small kit zoom with some small DSLRs. e.g. with a Canon 1000D setting the 18-55mm zoom to 37-55mm should give you a vignetting free image. The problem with zoom lenses are twofold: they generally do not have the quality of the fixed lenses, and they are longer so there is greater leverage holding the weight of the (comparatively) heavy DSLR far away from the attachment point and the scope's eyepiece.
  
• slowly slide the camera on to the mounted UCA making sure the camera lens does not bash up against the telescope's ocular lens
• adjust the height by loosening the screw on the right
  
• now loosen the large black screw underneath the platform to adjust the horizontal and distance alignment. Slowly move the camera until the front of the camera's objective lens fits snugly and centered against your spotting scope's eyecup
• TURN AUTOFOCUS OFF! you do not want to burn out your objective lens
  
• If you still have a little bit of vignetting, then adjust your objective lens's zoom to remove this. Using your telescope's zoom on the lowest magnification will give you the brightest image (biggest aperture), making it easier to take sharp photos. If you need to zoom in more, then rather use the spotting scope's zoom than the camera zoom (the quality of the former is likely to be higher than the latter)
• now that your camera is set up physically, you can use your normal camera settings to go digiscoping (Aperture priority, smallest f number, suitable ISO, count down timer...)
  
• For tips on taking sharp digiscoping photos, see this video
  

watch in HD!

Remember, there is a general rule in photography:

In order to get a sharp photo, use a shutter speed greater than the focal length

i.e. if the focal length is 50mm, use 1/60s shutter speed or faster
if the focal length is 1000mm (as is typical in digiscoping), use 1/1000sec or faster

This rule can be bent a bit, but the more you bend it, the harder it will be to get sharp digiscoping photos. This is where understanding ISO and choosing an appropriate ISO will really make a difference.

Happy digiscoping,
Dale Forbes

The Alpine Accentor digiscoped

The Alpine Accentor is one of my absolute favorite birds for a good number of reasons. First of all they have a very kooky social arrangement (polygamy involving multiple males and multiple females). They are cute (at least I find them so).

But they also live in some of the most stunning landscape the Alps has to offer. Think Heidi: high up in the mountains, above the treeline. The landscape is a stunning open wilderness, a place I find a spiritual peace hard to emulate elsewhere in here. no cars. no people. just me and the mountains...

Here are some of my favorite images of this wonderful bird:

All photos were taken with a little Canon A590IS point and shoot and a Swarovski Optik spotting scope.

Happy digiscoping,

Dale Forbes

Be sure to check out Eddie Birdfreak's Bird Photography Weekly!