Bird Photography in Cloudy Conditions (1 Viewer)

Hello there, fellow members.
I'll be travelling to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast for several days. It's home to a wintering flock of whooping cranes, as well as many other bird species. The weather forecast is for clouds and more clouds.

I've become spoiled by our sunny days in New Mexico and have never learned to make the best of opportunities that occur on days with poor weather. When it's grey here, my images are usually......terrible.

Can anyone make suggestions for technique that could help me to make photos that are at least acceptable? I know that many of you come from lands of rain and clouds and deal with this every day!

Thank you, all!
Ingrid

First of all, what are you doing now? It might help those of us who live in lands of rain and clouds if we can see what you are doing wrong. BTW, yes, they call florida the sunshine state but it is quite frequently overcast and stormy when I have the chance to go take pictures. It rains ALOT here (during the summer).

Come over to the UK and get loads of practice.............

nigelblake said:

Come over to the UK and get loads of practice.............

Click to expand...

After 30+ years in New Mexico, I start climbing the walls if it's cloudy for three days straight! Where I live we get an average of six inches of rain annually. That's one of the reasons we have the "magic light" that photographers like to dream about. But it's made me very lazy in learning to deal with anything but ideal conditions. Now I need to improve my technique in a matter of three days!
Ingrid

I don't know exactly what your problem is. If you're having technical problems due to low light then a higher ISO should help, as well as a faster lens of course. Also don't forget a tripod o at very least a monopod. Hand holding a long lens in relatively slow speeds is a sure way to get a blurry pic.

If your problem is not technical, but rather how your pictures look... well, a picture of a jay in cloudy weather will never be as good as a pic of a jay in that "magic light" of the afternoon.

However look at the other side: with cloudy weather you get at least a couple more hours of soft light comparing to a sunny day, where you have for most of the day harsh light conditions, which is worst than cloudy conditions and pretty much useless for photography.

Also remember that a lot of great dramatic pictures are also made in very bad weather, such as drizzling, raining or even snowing! Just make sure to protect your gear.

Cloudy weather is often considered the BEST weather for photography - you don't get the harsh shadows caused by direct sunlight, you don't have to worry about facing into the sun, etc. Of course, sometimes you want shadows, but generally, overcast is a good thing, except for the need for slower shutter speeds, of course.