BRING EXTRA BATTERIES
Make sure that the batteries you bring are charged the night before. When I was
LQ6RXWK7DLZDQ,PLVVHGVRPHPDJQL¿FHQWVSHFLHVEHFDXVHP\EDWWHU\GLHG
and I didn’t have a backup. Don’t let it happen to you.
BRING EXTRA MEMORY CARDS
0HPRU\FDUGVDUHWKH¿OPRIWKHGLJLWDOSKRWRJUDSK\DJH)LOPFRXOGJHWVSRLOHG
with light leaks, and memory cards have been known to fail or malfunction. I
once had a card that produced only bands of color rather than my photos. Just
DV¿OPZRXOGUXQRXWDIWHU\RX¶GEHHQVKRRWLQJDZKLOHFDUGVFDQJHW¿OOHGXS
with images, preventing you from taking more. Have a couple of extra
formatted cards handy when you go out.
USE PHOTO SOFTWARE
It’s miraculous when a bird photo looks perfect on your computer screen when
\RX¿UVWORDGLWIURPWKHFDUG,W¶VGH¿QLWHO\DQH[FHSWLRQWRWKHUXOH$WWKHYHU\
minimum, you’ll need to crop most bird shots using photo editing software,
XQOHVV\RXUVXEMHFWZDVMXVWDFRXSOHPHWHUVDZD\/LJKWURRPLVWKHJRWRSKRWR
ZRUNÀRZDQGHGLWLQJVRIWZDUHEXWVRPHWLPHVLI,¶PLQDUXVK,VLPSO\XVH
:LQGRZV¶LQFOXGHG3KRWRVDSSZKLFKFDQKDQGOHUDZ¿OHV)RUPRVWVKRWV
you’ll also need to adjust the exposure and shadows, which the macOS and
Windows Photos apps can do. To get the best results, however, you’ll want
Lightroom, Capture One, or DxO PhotoLab, which excels at noise reduction.
Photo^ credit:^ Zhuk^ Roman/Shutterstock.com