Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

I was trying to photograph an Inchworm moth caterpillar sitting on a blade of grass. Breeze was blowing the grass blade so much that I was unable to focus correctly. I wanted the breeze to subside so that I could get the caterpillar in good focus. As I got up to explore other photographic opportunity nearby in that area, corner of my eye caught a curious small bird hopping behind my back. What I saw was the Plain Prinia (Prinia inornata). The bird was watching me focusing on the caterpillar. As soon as I got away it jumped on the blade of grass and plucked that caterpillar, flew to a nearest termite ridden bamboo post. Sitting on that post bird started to eat the caterpillar.

I was shocked with the sudden turn of events. My subject was being eaten in front of my very own eyes. But that turn of events by itself was a good photo opportunity. I was on that day using my usual rig for closeup photography consisting of Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM with Canon EF 1.4x III Extender. This rig had another advantage that it was perfectly suitable for photographing birds too. So my dual purpose setup came very handy as I had only seconds to focus on the bird and take picture before the caterpillar vanished into the beak of the bird. As you can see I didn’t even had time to change my aperture which was at f/10 as everything happened so sudden.

Inchworm Moth Caterpillar

As I clicked away a feeling of guilt came over me as I was feeling that it was me, who is responsible for the death of caterpillar. If I had not stalked that caterpillar, bird would not have found it. Inadvertently I have been responsible for the death of the caterpillar. Many a times consequences of our action will result in harm even if we do not intend to. That lead me to other thoughts of how photographer due to their actions affect their subjects and surroundings.

I want to go through few of the ethical dilemma faced by nature photographers. When we photograph we might influence our surrounding. It should be in such a way that it does not harm the nature. What commonly comes to mind is the nest photography indulged by several bird photographers. I have seen crows watching these photographers, which later attack those very nests which were being photographed. Several photographers denude the nest so that chicks are visible without any obstruction for their photography. This blows away the natural camouflage created by the chick’s parents and exposes them to predators. Handling young chicks will surely jeopardize their life. Using harsh flash very close to young ones will surely cause harm to their eyes.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

I have seen many insect photographers who catch their subjects and put them in refrigerators so that their activity slows down and insects become immobile. These are all unethical practices which needs to be condemned. Baiting animals which habituates these animals to artificial human food is another unethical practice. Using sound as bait (done mainly in bird photography) is likely to cause unnecessary stress if done for very long.

Photographing in a zoo takes the ‘wild’ out of ‘wildlife photography’. If you shoot captive animals label your photograph that they are taken in captivity. There is vast difference in the photograph where photographer spent weeks sleeping rough in a mosquito-infested forest to get the shot, or merely an afternoon stroll at the local safari park.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

Modern digital photography allows easy manipulation of photograph. Last week someone asked me this question that is relevant to all the modern day photographers. He asked me “when we have such great tools like Adobe Photoshop to manipulate photos as we want, why spend lot of effort get photograph right in the camera?” Photographers have been manipulating their images right the earliest days of their art. The first recorded case of photo manipulation was in the early 1860s, when a photo of Abraham Lincoln was altered using the body from a portrait of John C. Calhoun and the head of Lincoln from a famous seated portrait by Mathew Brady – the same portrait which was the basis for the original Lincoln Five-dollar bill.

People have attempted to pass off heavily manipulated images as genuine. At the very least these photographers could admit that their pictures have been faked by disclosing in the captions that they are digital art and not authentic photographs. But they don’t. The camera itself may never lie but, sadly, some photographers do. Creative computer skills can produce quite beautiful results. And one might also argue that photography is an art, after all, so its aim should be to make pictures as appealing and eye-catching as possible. I do not manipulate any of my photos. My post processing only involves regular raw conversion with brightness, contrast enhancement, sharpness and cropping along with noise removal as these are all necessary steps for any raw file which needs to be processed properly. I try my best to get maximum result out of the camera during shooting itself than achieving it in post production.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

These deceitful photographers steal the trust that should be inherent in wildlife images. Once fake photographs have shaken your confidence, you begin to doubt everything you see. Digitally manipulated images raise the bar in wildlife photography to an unnaturally high level. Sooner or later the photographers will get caught manipulating their images. Lincoln’s photograph I mentioned earlier was discovered as fake due to Lincoln’s famous mole. The trickery which was attributed to Thomas Hicks, the President’s famous mole would appear on the wrong side of his face. It was only years later that Stefan Lorant, the art director for the London Picture Post magazine, noticed that the photo was a fake.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

I think as nature photographers we should adhere to a certain Code of Ethics. Here is what I practice.

• View wildlife from a safe distance for both you and them. Respect and maintain their space. If the animal interrupts its behavior (resting, feeding, etc.), then you are too close and must distance yourself.
• Never force an action. Be patient! The most beautiful photographs result from natural action.
• Never come between a parent and its offspring.
• Never crowd, pursue, prevent escape, make deliberate noises to distract, startle or harass wildlife.
• Never feed or leave food (baiting) for wildlife. Habituation due to handouts can result in disease or even death of that animal and injury to you.
• Never encroach on nests or dens as certain species will abandon their young.
• Never interfere with animals engaged in breeding, nesting, or caring for young.
• Learn to recognize wildlife alarm signals and never forget that these animals are wild no matter how docile or cuddly they appear.
• Do not damage or remove any plant, life form or natural object. Do not litter and pack your trash for safe disposal elsewhere.
• Acquaint yourself with and respect the behaviors and ecosystems of the wildlife you may encounter.
• Remember that the welfare of the subject and habitat are irrefutably more important than the photograph.

Plain Prinia Feeding on Caterpillar

Here is an Ethics Declaration for wildlife photographers which has been formulated by WildPhotos in 2010. Read it and sign up at the WildPhotos Ethics Declaration website as I have done.

Prinia On the Fence

After shooting the babblers I posted last week I was returning back i spotted this The Ashy Prinia or Ashy Wren-Warbler (Prinia socialis), searching for insects on a dry bamboo fence. It was just before sunset. I had to use ISO 1600 to get a decent speed of 1/350th of a second to get the photo of this hyperactive bird. I was using Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM + Canon EF 1.4x II Extender.

Searching

The bird was very active and was prancing around searching for food, but used to land back again on the same fence. This gave me ample opportunity to pre-focus the fence as shoot as soon as the bird arrived there.

Blurry Wings

Ashy Prinia is a small warbler. It is slightly smaller than a sparrow. It is ashy slate-colored above and fulvous white below. The loose, longish, graduated, black-and-white tipped tail is carried partially erect and constantly shaken up and down. Both sexes are alike. Its winter plumage is less slaty, more brown, than in summer.

It is seen in pairs in gardens and well-watered scrub country. Frequenting shrubbery in gardens, reeds bordering streams, and moist grassland and scrub, it hops about quietly among bushes, shaking its tail loosely up and down and uttering a sharp call from time to time. It is a familiar bird of urban gardens and its small size, distinctive colors and upright tail make it easy to identify.

Ashy Prinia

Its nesting season is from March to September, mainly after the onset of the monsoon. It builds two types of nests – 1) Like a Tailor Bird’s, in a funnel of stitched leaves, and 2) an oblong purse of woven fibres tacked and bound with cobweb to the supporting leaves of a low bush.

The song is a repetitive tchup, tchup, tchup or zeet-zeet-zeet. It also makes a sound like “electric sparks” which is said to be produced by either the wings or by the beak.

Looking Back

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens

After returning from Lakshadweep I received my new Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM which i had ordered almost 2 moths prior to my departure to Lakshadweep Islands. Here is my short review on that. I find Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is an ideal walkabout lens. Lens really isn’t too heavy (only 2.5Kg ) and when combined with a good neoprene strap, there is no hardship on a good hike/walk and the performance and potential rewards are well worth the effort. In reality, you really won’t be holding the camera up to the eye for prolonged lengths of time. I also purchased an Indian made Gimbal tripod head via eBay for mounting this lens which I will review later.

The lens arrived in the CS30028 case, looked a bit feminine if truth be told (reminds of a vanity/make-up case). Also supplied is the obligatory slip-on lens cover, the E-145 in this case. This is a non-elasticated cover but quite awkward to remove and put back. I have found a 120mm plastic can lid which fits perfectly as a lens cap. It is easier than slip-on lens cover. The Canon EF300mm f2.8 is also supplied with the ET-120 lens hood. The lens hood is pain to slip on and off but is a life saver for all the glares as well as in preventing damage to front of the lens.

As with other Canon IS lenses, there is a comprehensive control panel to the side of the lens body. Uppermost on the switch control panel of the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is the focus limit control. 3 options here, the 2.5 metres – infinity (full) setting allows the lens to focus from minimum distance to infinity. Then the 2.5 metres – 6.4 metres and finally 6.4 metres to infinity. Basically, if you’re target is expected within a known distance from you, it speeds up autofocus if the lens isn’t hunting through it’s entire range to get a lock-on.

Next we have the AF/MF switch. Says it all really, though you can always operate the camera in manual focus even if it’s set to AF, being FTM (full time manual) design. Personally I would have prefered the option of totally disabling the focus ring, as it’s can shift if you’re working from something like a beanbag.

Next we have the IS switch, Image stabilization on or off. It has confusing 1 & 0 setting which originates from binary, I is on and 0 is off. IS is of older 2-3 stop range but is very useful. The drive is also queit as compared to my Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM lens.

Underneath the IS switch is the Image stabilization mode switch. Mode 1 controls movement vertically and horizontally, mode 2 just counteracts vertical movement so as to allow you to pan along with a subject without the IS system trying to compensate.

Lastly in this panel is the focus preset functions. Basically, you can set a focus distance on the lens, press ‘set’ and you can recall this distance at any time via the twist ring (the ring with the serrated edge) just in front of the focus ring. It’s handy feature if you’re likely to be shooting at 2 vastly different distances. I would prefer it if focus recall was an option on the 4 focus lock buttons and in a really ideal world, a focus recall button would be situated far closer to the camera body, or indeed controlled via the camera itself. I need to find out how to use them effectively.

The tripod collar can be simply removed from the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM, and this is my choice for use as a walk around lens.
To be honest, I haven’t had this lens very long, so this is just a first impression after 2 weeks or so, of some pretty grim weather. My main use for this lens is with tele-converters, so most of my initial use has been with the Canon EFII 1.4x and EFII 2x tele-converters attached, and quite frankly we all know what these flagship Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lenses are capable of used bare.

With the Canon EFII 2x Tele-converter auto focus speed does drop slightly, it’s fast and reliable but not exceptional as it is with a 1.4x tele-converter. As the whole combination is giving f5.6, all focus points on the Canon DSLR are available. Stopping down to f8 does reap the rewards over having the aperture wide open.

Minimum focus distance of Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens is a relatively long 8.2′ (2.5m) for a maximum magnification of .13x. An extension tube can resolve this issue, but more assembly is required and infinity focus is lost. Maximum magnification is extended to .18x and .25x with 12mm and 25mm extension tubes respectively. Extenders do not affect the MFD (Minimum Focus Distance) of the lens they are mounted behind, thus the MM (Maximum Magnification) of the lens is also multiplied.

Over all results are fantastic, The Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens is probably most-noted for being extremely sharp. Results at f/2.8 are very sharp from the center right into the full frame corners and only a very slight improvement is noticed when stopped down. This lens is very usable at f/2.8 (I primarily use this lens at f/2.8) – if the super-thin DOF (Depth of Field) is adequate of course.

I am still getting my biceps ready to use these beast of a lens so wait for more photos soon. As you can see the samples of the pictures below I am using this lens as both macro & tele lens shootings birds and butterflies together (not in the same frame though ). Below are few early samples of House sparrow(Passer domesticus), Ashy Prinia (Prinia socialis) and Plain Tiger butterfly(Danaus chrysippus).

Male House Sparrow

Plain Tiger Butterfly

Ashy Prinia