Jacob Lyon’s birdwatching test shots

This is a goldfinch sitting in the trees behind my flat in Leeds. This was a photo which showed how the lense performed worse at an increased zoom for finer details. While there is detail it is very soft and almost distorted. It was also a photo that showed me that staying steady was key. A shame that I couldn’t include a goldfinch.

This photo was taken of a song thrush using the Proshot app on my google pixel 3a while also shooting in RAW. This was difficult to take as it was using the periscope where the slightest movement sent the camera shaking. I had to try using the periscope as I had heard of attaching phones to them and so this was the end result. The actual lense itself of the periscope I think adds to the aesthetic and I wish I had gone with this pic in another timeline.

While not relevant to birdwatching, this was a photo where me and my flatmate explored what low lighting was like using the dslr on auto focus mode.

This is again when we changed the colouring and adjust the ISO of the camera to change how much light it lets in. And the lamp shade was myself playing with the shutter speed and iso. From these and others I really struggled to get to grips with manual, while I understand the different reasoning behind each run which make up the exposure triangle I struggled myself to understand what I wanted from each run and how best to combine them for different situations.

Ultimately with birdwatching as well, I favoured the auto setting since I did not have the confidence to quickly adjust on the fly to different situations, sometimes the birds where in the shade, sometimes they where in the bright blue sky or surrounded by greens in mixed lighting, so I settled for auto.