Creative Bird Photography: Essential Tips and Techniques

by Bill Coster

Bill Coster carved out a niche taking photographs of birds in flight and has become one of the U.K.'s top wildlife photographers. In this inspirational guide, Coster shares the secrets of creating memorable images of the birds one meets, going about their often complex and fascinating lives. Creative Bird Photography shows how to photograph specific aspects of birds’ lives, such as eating and drinking, courtship and flight. The author gives examples, demonstrating approaches for taking great shots of these daily bird activities as well as taking "mood" photographs at dawn and dusk. Each shot comes with detailed technical data, information about locations, and advice about overcoming challenges to achieve the perfect shot. Coster also shares fascinating anecdotes about his encounters with the birds featured and provides up-to-date sections on bird photography basics, including equipment and storage of digital images.

Genres: Photography, Birds, Art

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2009

Reviews

[Florence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A colorful reference book with selective bird shots taken in many countries of the world!
The table of contents makes for an easy summary: A world renown photographer, Bill Coster, discusses important basics for excellence in bird photography, his choice of equipment, educational requirement on topics such as the flight, life cycle, food and drink, action and behavior of various birds, and the best time of day for such captures. Typically we are informed how his photos were achieved and why he thinks they were successful!
It is refreshing to read his references to guidelines used by judges in nature competitions and some of his contrary opinions. He refers to creativity as being the most important element. I couldn't agree more!

[Artemis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photographs were rather beautiful and the author has a reasonable sense of humor.

That being said I feel more like it was a discussion of his photography, rather than a discussion of what you do to get those great shots. Vague statements such as took a long time leave me confused. What is a long time to Bill Coster - 5 minutes? 5 hours? What should I be expecting.

It's a fast read, there are gorgeous photos, if you want to see some lovely shots and have a nice narrative in an afternoon and evening of reading - this is the book for you.

If you want to improve as a photographer, it might be better to go outside with the camera.

[Darren Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few good tips. Nothing groundbreaking. Amazing photographs, that's for sure.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book feels like a bunch of blog post strung together detailing things like how it feels to sit for hours in a blind anticipating a shot. Perhaps the best lesson I re-learned was that one needs to have an idea of what you want before going out and to be prepared to implement that idea.