What Goes Through a Photographers Mind? Todays photographer is Alan McBride

Today's photographer is one that I am happy I came across on Facebook... I often see his images and admire them from afar as Alan lives in France, and ALWAYS does the subject justice with his photographic talents.

Take it away Alan...

Apart from other forms of photography, what really rattles my chain is bird and wildlife photography. It's a little different than being in a studio or setting up for portrait work in that the birds and beasts don't like to be directed and hang around too long.

Not always but often the shot you get will need cropping too, so for that and the rough and ready nature of shooting birds I shoot RAW. I find that I am nearly always ready with a fast exposure in Manual mode and then depending on whether the bird is flying, walking, sitting against a background or whatever, the most I need is a little tweak of one of the dials. Preferring mostly to tweak the shutter speed. I also invariably have the aperture just below wide open as I feel I get better results than fully open and still with a bit of a blurred background.

With the new Canon 1Dx I am usually at a higher ISO than with the 5d Mk ll too. This delightful lady House Sparrow was shot on the shore at Peyriac-sur-Mer in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France at f6.3 and 1/2500. Using the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS at it's full length of 400mm. She also shows the beauty available in such great colours as browns and greys!

Some other shots are on

https://www.facebook.com/AlanMcBridePhotographerWriter/photos_stream and https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/113281442378027142435/posts?cfem=1 but make sure you see the ones I have shot as I often share other great images and I'd hate to be confused with some of the better guys out there!

I'm available in France for money too;-)