Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Ok here's my tips for getting a great photo of your poultry. I'm definitely NOT an expert but it is a hobby of mine.

#1- Try to position yourself close to their level
For me this is the single biggest step.
So if they're standing on the ground try to sit down on something so that your viewpoint is more on the side of the bird than on the top of the bird. The closer you can get to holding the camera at the height of the bird the better. Alternatively hold your phone upside down and just drop your arm down and click click click away! I do this sometimes to get a shot that is actually looking up at the bird. It's not a way that we ever really see them so it's interesting.

#2-don't worry about how many bad pictures you take! I took a photography elective in college and I wasted A LOT of film. For every good picture I got there was probably 30 or more that were garbage. For a broke college student burning through film it was a concern.
In our digital word...who cares! It's easy to delete. I will typically take my phone out to the coop and if I see anything picture worthy I point my phone and I start snapping. I just keep hitting the button with one finger while I slghtly move the phone around to different angles. Then when I go inside I look at what I've got...choose the best few (I usually favorite them on my phone so if you have that option do that so you don't delete the good ones by accident) and just delete the rest. It's nothing for me to take 30 or more pictures to get one good one.i have deleted millions of blurry birds, half out of the shot birds, no idea what they were doing birds, inner eyelids closed poltergeist looking birds....plain old bad shots.

#3- Crop! I don't have a new phone. In fact my phone is considered OLD and crappy now. It's an iPhone 5s and needs replaced badly. But it still has SOME editing options and cropping is easy and I use it often. It can make an ok picture awesome.

#4-pay attention to lighting. You don't want to take a picture of your subject with a bright window behind them. Your subject will look like a dark blob. Always try to have the main light source either behind you or above you.

That's it!
Now I challenge all of you to try it. And post one pic on this thread. I need shiny objects!!!

Since all our birds are prima-donnas and nobody is going out util next April, and I use a camera to take pics, rather then a phone,
Can I post a picture I already took, not of my bird, that turned out accidentally good?

Ontario Chick wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:57 am

Since all our birds are prima-donnas and nobody is going out util next April, and I use a camera to take pics, rather then a phone,
Can I post a picture I already took, not of my bird, that turned out accidentally good?

Fine by me OC

Me too? Like OC, I have a photo, but not of any of the poultry, that turned out accidentally good. Well, okay. Not technically horrible. Could be improved. See? This is why I talk myself out of posting pictures almost all the time. Also, I rarely remember to bring my phone out to the coops these days, unless I have a specific reason for a shot. I really have to get into the habit of bringing it along again.

Ok so last week I remembered a very good reason to always have my phone with me. I locked myself into the attached run. There’s a string attached to the latch and strung inside just for this reason but the string was tangled and wrapped around the snap lock so wouldn’t release it. I eyeballed the chicken door into the coop. I’ve crawled through it before but this old non-smoking body just isn’t the same lol. Never the less it was my only choice. I squeezed and wiggled and grunted and was very proud of myself for making it in. Only to realize that I was still locked in. I changed out the solid door (with a doorknob) between my two seperate areas to a welded wire door with a hook latch on both sides. And the hook was closed on the other side. I debated destroying the door in a fit of claustrophobia. I tested pushing on the welded wire to see if I could pop some staples out. I stretched my fingers through to try to will that hook up and out of its loop. Finally I spotted a bamboo stick in the window sill used to prop windows open. I managed to squeeze it through and pop the hook. Hubby had a great laugh when I came in coated with shavings and .
Mental note - always always always have your phone!

I probably have over a 2000 photos of chickens on my phone...I'm not kidding either!! The other 4000 are my horses, and probably another 1000 for family (wow, does that ever sound bad! lol). Ill get off my PC and come back and post a recent phone pic...

@Happy
Reminded me of when HD retired 15 years ago and we were still doing the "togernes thing" and did the barn chores together, since he is a point A to point B sort of guy and I am Commune with the chickens sort of person, he locked me in the barn and I had to climb over the top of the Dutch doors to get out, it was funny the first time, second time not so much, that was the end of doing chores together thing

KB's turkey, no cropping needed, pretty pleased with that one.

One of my young guys, Friendly

Sun was a little too bright for this one, but I like the contrast

Penny wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:35 pm

I probably have over a 2000 photos of chickens on my phone...I'm not kidding either!! The other 4000 are my horses, and probably another 1000 for family (wow, does that ever sound bad! lol). Ill get off my PC and come back and post a recent phone pic...

Penny I am no different! A few weeks ago a coworker asked if I had any pictures of my chickens. Two other co-workers groaned like "Oh GAAAAWWWWD why did you have to ask her that!?"
Love me...love my chickens

Awesome pics Penny!