Bird Photography - Back-light!!

Today, on the way to drop my boy at school, I passed a field and was stopped in my tracks by the beautiful scene in the second photo!.
Red-billed Quelea were flitting around in the most stunning light and I took a few decent shots.
The typical light a photographer looks for is with the sun behind you and the subject is nicely lit. This can be great light for wildlife photography, especially in the late afternoons or early mornings when the colour temperatures are a little warmer. The image below is one such image (also taken this morning). It is a Ruff and you can't fault it as a decent representative shot.

Ruff in perfect light!

 But......if you are looking for something more artistic and dramatic in your photography then I cannot over emphasize the beauty of "back-light". Back-light does what it says on the tin and when the light is coming straight at you and your camera. For subjects like birds wings, grass heads and the long hair of a lion's mane......this is what you want and it is dead simple to achieve.

for best results set your metering to "spot", meter off the brightest part of the frame like the grass below these birds and then use your exposure slider to go -1 or -2 stops in the under-exposure direction. A fast shutter speed for freezing action (in this case 1/2500sec)

Back-lit Red-billed Quelea. 

 If I had to sacrifice photographic situations.....this is the type I would keep.

Good luck and get back-lit!

                                                              The Hwange Birder