World Heritage Listed Lamington National Park, in Queensland, Australia, is an approximate two-hour drive from Brisbane or a one-hour fifteen-minute drive from the Gold Coast. Habitats within the park vary from subtropical and remnant rainforest, ancient Antarctic Beech forest, as well as some sclerophyll and eucalyptus forests. The variety of bird species, therefore, is quite numerous. Many of the birds are used to the presence of people, so they can often be photographed at close range. There are around 245 or so species of birds found within the park, so it is easy to see why so many bird photographers travel there with their cameras from across Australia and the world and why I run my bird photography workshop in Lamington National Park.

Where To Find Different Bird Species in Lamington National Park

Ground Dwelling Birds

It is a good idea to pick up a track map of the national park from the local Parks and Wildlife Service office and familiarise yourself with the different tracks within Lamington National Park. Once you choose a track, I suggest spending a bit of time there, letting the birds get used to you being there. The Border track, which has its starts right across the road from O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat entrance, is a perfect place to begin. Here you will find a number of ground-dwelling birds, including the Bassian and Russet-tailed Thrush, Australian Logrunners and the elusive Whipbird. These birds spend most of their time on the ground, searching for food and interacting with each other. By keeping still and silent, you will be surprised how close the birds will come to you.

Two ground-dwelling species which are high on the list for bird photographers to try and photograph in Lamington N.P. are the Albert’s Lyrebird and the Noisy Pitta. The Albert’s Lyrebird is only found within an approximate 100-kilometre radius of the park. There are none in captivity, and they aren’t found anywhere else in the world. The males of the species, once they mature, produce an incredible array of sounds. They are quite proficient at mimicking many of the different bird species in their territory and do so with amazing accuracy. By walking along the boardwalk that takes you towards the tree-top walk, you will sometimes see a lyrebird scratching the leaf litter, searching for insects. This is the time to take a few shots – while the bird is ‘preoccupied’.

The second species mentioned, the Noisy Pitta, is one of the most beautifully-coloured birds in Lamington National Park. They hop along the ground and are rarely seen flying. They will often land on the large buttress roots of trees, making for a perfect background. Their call is quite distinct – it sounds like ‘walk to work’ but in a high pitch, which they repeat over and over.

Identifying Birds in Lamington National Park

It can be quite daunting to turn up to a new area such as Lamington National Park and to know where to find birds. I recommend photographers purchase one of a number of Australian bird identification Apps that are available for download. Personally, I am a fan of ‘Michael Morecombe’s Birds of Australia (iOS / Android)’. This app has every Australian bird featured as paintings (male, female and juvenile), the regions where they are found, the nest and eggs, as well as the various calls each species of bird makes. I wouldn’t be without it!

Best Way To Photograph Birds in Lamington National Park

Monopod or Tree

Quite a number of the birds in Lamington National Park can be seen around the edges of the rainforest or along the rainforest tracks. Some of these tracks include the Border, Elabana Falls, Python Rock, and Moran’s Falls tracks. As it can be relatively dark in these areas, the issue you may encounter is your camera’s shutter speed will be too low. Sure, you can raise your camera’s ISO to a much higher setting, but that inevitably leads to images with too much noise. What I have been recommending to my photography workshop participants for many years is to look at how you can stabilise your camera and lens in low-light situations. I am quite a fan of using a monopod and specifically designed monopod head to help minimise movement that is caused by hand-holding a camera with a larger lens in low-light environments. The monopod allows you to swivel your camera and lens around from left to right (or vice versa), while the monopod head allows you to swivel the camera and lens back and forth. If you don’t own a monopod and are out and about shooting, you can also rest your lens against one of the many trees that grow along the various tracks within the park. This alone will greatly reduce any camera shake.

Suggested Metering For Rainforest Bird Photography

If it’s overcast and you are in a rainforest such as Lamington N.P., I suggest using Evaluative Metering (for Canon users), Matrix Metering (for Nikon users) and Multi-pattern or Multi-segment Metering for all other brands. This metering is recommended as your ‘general’ metering for bird photography, especially in overcast rainforest conditions. If, however, there is bright light behind the bird, Spot Metering (all brands) is recommended. By using Spot Metering, you are metering on the bird itself rather than the whole scene, therefore greatly reducing the chance of the bird ending up as a silhouette.

Practice Your Bird In Flight Techniques

Once a day, O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat (situated within Lamington National Park) offers a ‘Free Flight Bird Show’. With a backdrop of trees, a stunning valley below and photogenic mountains in the distance, you have an incredibly beautiful backdrop to shoot the birds against! Some of the birds on display in the show include the Barn and Barking Owl, Nankeen Kestrel, Black Kite and Wedge-tailed Eagle. Being such a large and fairly slow-flying bird, the Wedge-tailed Eagle (for example) is the perfect species to practise your birds-in-flight techniques. By using the Continuous Focus setting on your camera, coupled with burst shutter mode, your chances of success in capturing that split-second moment are much greater. Species such as the Barn and Barking Owl will happily sit in one spot, so you have plenty of time to properly compose your image and adjust your camera’s exposure settings.

Best Time To Visit

The best time to visit Lamington National Park for optimum bird photography opportunities is spring (September, October, November here in Australia). There is so much activity going on – birds are calling for mates, displaying regularly or raising chicks. It is no wonder that this park is one of my favourite places to visit in Australia for bird photography. Other times of the year are quite decent for photographing birds, but it’s spring where you will find the most number of birds.

Other Species To Look Out For

Satin and Regent Bowerbirds

Both of these stunning birds frequent the area in front of reception at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. The males take approximately 6-7 years to colour up, and once they do, their plumage is quite striking! The native grevilleas that grow on either side of the reception entrance are favourite ‘landing sites’ for the bowerbirds. This means you are close to eye level with the birds and it makes for the perfect angle to photograph them. As there is a building where the birds land, care needs to be taken to not to include this distraction in your photo. By simply moving a metre or two to the left or right, you can end up with foliage in the background, that makes for a much more pleasing image.

Eastern Spinebills

While you are our front of the reception area photographing the Satin and Regent Bowerbirds, you will regularly see the Eastern Spinebill hovering like a Hummingbird, feeding on the nectar of the native grevillea bushes. You need to make sure you use a shutter speed of at least 2000th of a second (or higher) especially if you wish to ‘freeze’ the Eastern Spinebill’s wings while it is hovering over the flowers.

Eastern Yellow Robins

The Eastern Yellow Robin is a common bird in Lamington N.P. and can be easily photographed along the various tracks within Lamington National Park, including the Border track, Python Rock track as well as around O’Reillty’s Retreat. The key thing to look out for with these birds is that they will regularly land vertically on the side of a tree, rather than horizontally on a branch. By turning your camera to portrait, you should be able to get some decent images of these birds, often with a blurred-out background.

If you have a passion for wildlife, nature or travel photography and would love to go on a small-number, professional photography adventure, please get in touch with Michael Snedic at WildNature Photo Expeditions. You can call him on 0408 941 965 or fill in this Contact Form and he will get back to you ASAP.

Over the last 20 years of presenting photography workshops, I have been asked many, many times to this same question: ‘What is the best lens for wildlife photography?’. This question has come from total beginners to more experienced photographers, looking to upgrade lenses. Below, I have itemised what things to consider before you start shopping for a new wildlife photography lens.

• What is your budget?
• Are you able to physically hold the lens due to its weight?
• Does the lens cause ‘shake’ when you hold it?
• How big in size is the lens?
• Are you after a fixed focal length lens or a zoom?
• What is the minimum aperture the lens goes to when zoomed out fully?

Budget

This obviously has a bearing on what you can buy. If you can afford it, I recommend you always pay a bit more for a lens that’s sharper and is quicker to focus on moving wildlife. If you are on a budget, do your research and look carefully at the lenses in your price range and look carefully at the specifications.

Weight

I recommend you look up the weight of a particular lens you are looking at possibly buying. If possible, try and visit an actual photographic store that has the lens in stock and physically pick it up, attached to your camera. You will instantly know if the lens is too heavy for you.

Shake

When picking up the lens (or lenses) you are looking at possibly buying, hold the camera/lens combo up to your eye for a few minutes and see if you get the ‘shakes’. If so, it maybe too heavy although there are a few things you can do to stabilise the heavy camera/lens combo.You can use a tripod and gimbal, a monopod with a monopod head or even use a photographer’s beanbag in certain circumstances.

Size

Is the lens too big to fit in your camera bag? This point is important to remember.

Fixed focal length or zoom (plus what is the minimum aperture when zoomed out?)

A fixed focal length lens such as a 300mm f2.8, 400mm f2.8, 500mm f4 or 600mm f4 are very sharp and extremely fast to focus. Many pro wildlife photographers own fixed focal length lenses. The thing is, they are way more expensive, usually much heavier and you can’t zoom in or our to compose your shot. You can sometimes physically move but in many cases, such as photographing wildlife from a safari vehicle in Africa or shooting from a zodiac in Antarctica, you can’t always move and may even be too close! Also, the wider focal length allows more light in, which makes it easier to hand hold due to the faster shutter speed.

A zoom lens, however, is usually lighter to hold, cheaper in price and you can zoom in or out, but they are generally not as sharp as a fixed focal length lens. They may also be slower to focus on a moving animal and some lenses only open up to f6.3 or f7.1 at the longest focal length. If you are photographing birds, using one example, in a low light rainforest then smaller (in size) minimum apertures can let you down. You will potentially need to increase your ISO excessively high, which in turn creates too much noise in your image.

Giving you names and models of specific lenses is too tricky, as it depends on what brand of camera you own, whether its a mirrorless, four thirds or digital SLR, what your budget is and what your physical capabilities are. What I hope you take from this article is to read through the pros and cons and whittle it down to a few lenses, then do thorough research on those lenses.

Best of luck researching : – ))

If you have a passion for wildlife, nature or travel photography and would love to go on a small-number, professional photography adventure, please get in touch with Michael Snedic at WildNature Photo Expeditions. You can call him on 0408 941 965 or fill in this Contact Form and he will get back to you ASAP.

A two-hour drive from Brisbane or a one-hour fifteen-minute drive from the Gold Coast, Lamington National Park is World Heritage listed for good reason. Habitats vary from subtropical and remnant rainforests, ancient Antarctic Beech forests, sclerophyll and eucalyptus forest. The variety of wildlife species, therefore, is incredibly varied. Birds and other wildlife are used to visitors, so they can also often be photographed at close range. Some of the species of birds that frequent the Lamington National Park include the rare Albert’s Lyrebird, the Regent and Satin Bowerbird, the Noisy Pitta and the Eastern Spinebill (amongst 245 or so species of birds found in Lamington National Park). Mammal species include the cute macropod called the Red-necked Pademelon, which often frequents the visitor areas, as well as the nocturnal Brush-tailed and Ring-tailed possums which are regular visitors. Two of the many reptile species that can be seen and photographed include the Leaf-tailed Gecko and the pure black Land Mullet, Australia’s largest skink.

Wildlife photography in Lamington National Park is quite easy, as there are plenty of walking tracks where many of the wildlife frequent, so with such an abundance of wildlife that is readily accessible – though admittedly some do require patience – it is one of the best locations in Australia for wildlife photography, regardless of your skill level.

If you have a passion for wildlife, nature or travel photography and would love to go on a small-number, professional photography adventure, please get in touch with Michael Snedic at WildNature Photo Expeditions. You can call him on 0408 941 965 or fill in this Contact Form and he will get back to you ASAP.

Crouching behind the enormous buttress root of a black booyong in World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park. 80 kilometres south of Brisbane, I waited in anticipation.

Working as a guide for O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, in the heart of the national park, I joined wildlife-documentary maker Glen Threlfo in search of a male Albert’s lyrebird. We’d tracked the elusive rufous­ coloured bird, nicknamed “George”, to his display platform by following his echoing call. Unlike the better-known superb lyrebird, which performs its courtship display atop a meticulously maintained earth mound, the smaller Albert’s lyrebird uses a concealed platform of interlaced vines.

Approximate distribution of the Albert’s Lyrebird. Source.

As we sat still and silent, concealed behind some bushes, George began singing his heart out. His smooth territorial call resounded through the rainforest, quickly interspersed with note-perfect renditions of other birds’ calls including the laughing kookaburra, satin bowerbird, eastern whipbird and crimson rosella. As he sang, he inverted his 50-centimetre tail over his head and body to form a silvery­white dome that almost cocooned him. Plucking at the vines with each foot, he held us spellbound.

This performance lasted 20 minutes. Then he stopped, ruffled his feathers and dissolved into the dense undergrowth. In the ensuing silence, Glen turned to me and said, “Why don’t you try to photograph his display? There’s only ever been a few successful photographs.” I decided to take on the challenge, but because the mating season was almost over, I had to wait nine months for an opportunity.

Albert’s lyrebird is found in the undergrowth of dense subtropical rainforest straddling the New South Wales-Queensland border. It spends its days foraging for insects, roosting at night in a tall tree and working its way down at sunrise. A poor flier, it’s extremely shy and when disturbed, runs quickly away.

I’d anticipated that my project would take up to two weeks. It took almost two months. I didn’t sight George for weeks, and when he did appear, it took several attempts to get a good shot of him. Finally, luck was with me. George was back on his vines and his courtship display was even more energetic than usual. He was in a frenzy as he danced, called and mimicked – even making the sounds of a crackling bonfire. He tugged the vines so ferociously that the surrounding palm lilies and lilly-pillies shook with him.

The three-month mating season was drawing to an end, and George was going all out to let any nearby females know where to find him. I wondered how they could resist.

Capturing the perfect photograph of birds and other wildlife can take a lot of patience and perseverance as highlighted by my experience with Albert’s lyrebird and many of my other iconic wildlife photos. However, there are a lof of skills you can learn to help you get the shot just right when the opportunity finally arises.

If you are interested in learning more about how to photograph birds in Lamington National Park from experienced nature photographer Michael Snedic, you might like to join his next photography workshop at Lamington National Park.

First published in Australian Geographic magazine.

If you have a passion for wildlife, nature or travel photography and would love to go on a small-number, professional photography adventure, please get in touch with Michael Snedic at WildNature Photo Expeditions. You can call him on 0408 941 965 or fill in this Contact Form and he will get back to you ASAP.

A little tip for your wildlife photography composition:

This juvenile Australian Sea Lion was photographed on the beach at Seal Bay, Kangaroo Island, in South Australia.  I was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to photograph this amazing species.  I was with a qualified ranger/guide and a small group of other people, watching some Sea Lions interacting around me, while others slept peacefully. They seemed totally unconcerned that there was a group of humans standing nearby.  Before I even took a photo, I observed their behaviour closely, watching out for any interesting behaviour to happen.  Nothing out of the ordinary did happen for a while until this juvenile came towards me and seemed quite “bouncy” and energetic….

Patience is one of the keys while you watch out for interesting behaviours and patterns. I’ve seen it time and time again and have written about it before.

I immediately focused my camera on the juvenile sea lion and composed my shot, waiting for something to happen.  After a few minutes of playing around, the Sea Lion finally turned in my direction and started to scratch.  This was my moment!  I recomposed my shot, focused on its eye and took several shots using the continuous shutter mode on my camera.  I ensured there was room in the direction the Sea Lion was facing, an important part of wildlife photography composition.  Fortunately for me, light grey clouds in the sky made for perfect, diffused light.  This type of lighting is preferred to sunny conditions, which tend to cause annoying highlights that blow out any light areas on your subject, as well as create harsh background shadows. Even when these lights are manageable, they can cause distraction from your subject. Diffused lighting is more consistent, ensuring that your subject stays the focus and not the light.

The Australian Sea Lion is Australia’s only endemic Sea Lion and is listed as a threatened (vulnerable) under the Federal Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.   It is Australia’s only endemic Sea Lion and their population is thought to be between 10 000 – 12 000.

It was a real joy to be able to spend time photographing this beautiful mammal, and an experience I thoroughly recommend to anyone.

Happy photography!

If you have a passion for wildlife, nature or travel photography and would love to go on a small-number, professional photography adventure, please get in touch with Michael Snedic at WildNature Photo Expeditions. You can call him on 0408 941 965 or fill in this Contact Form and he will get back to you ASAP.

Observing the individual beforehand is a major part of getting great photos of wildlife behaviour. Animals often behave in similar ways or have a pattern they follow, making it much easier to predict where they might go or what they might do. You can have the settings on your camera set, with your finger on the shutter button, ready to take the shot.

If you have an idea of what kind of animal you plan to photograph, you can read up on common behaviours in advance, which is helpful. However, there is no substitute for observing them at the moment.

In this example of a Leopard Seal in Antarctica, I had been observing it closely as I tracked it with my camera while it was swimming. It would swim for a while, then open its huge jaw briefly before closing it and swimming on. It repeated this pattern a few times, so I knew the chances of the seal opening its jaws again were quite high.

My camera was set up with a single focus point and continuous focus mode (or AI Servo for Canon users). I focused on the seal’s head, then half-depressed the shutter button while tracking the moving subject. When it opened its jaws, I hit the shutter button, which was set to ‘burst’ mode, making sure I captured all of the action.

Of course, it’s always prudent to maintain a safe distance from the animals you are photographing, especially if the animal is a wild predatory animal like a leopard seal. These magnificent creatures of the Antarctic only have two known predators, orcas and sharks, and they tend to be intrigued by humans. However, while you might not be much threat to them, they certainly are to you, so always be alert, minimise your presence (and disturbance) and stay safe.

If you have a passion for wildlife, nature or travel photography and would love to go on a small-number, professional photography adventure, please get in touch with Michael Snedic at WildNature Photo Expeditions. You can call him on 0408 941 965 or fill in this Contact Form and he will get back to you ASAP.