Low Angle Bird Photography Hack with a Bin Lid

Bird Photography  •  Photography Tips

Bird photography has to be one of the most challenging photography genres out there. The subjects are usually pretty small, and they’re extremely fast and get scared very easily. Photographers thus have to work in stealth mode. You can usually find these photographers in awkward places working in the most unusual ways. One of the most common methods is to lay flat on the ground. When in this pose, carrying the camera around can be really difficult. But as wildlife photographer Espen Helland shares in this video, you can use a very simple tool to make life easier when photographing birds:

Helland takes along with him the most unexpected everyday item to help him with bird photography. When laying flat on the ground, sometimes you may need to crawl on all fours to get closer to your subject. And with a telephoto lens attached to the camera, carrying the camera setup can be very difficult. Hellad thus takes a bin lid along with him as a solution.

As you can see in the video, he puts a small bean bag on the tin lid and then places his camera on the bean bag. This way, whenever he needs to crawl closer to the bird, he can simply push the lid. Moving the camera is thus a lot quicker, safer, and required minimal energy. How neat is that?

What other hacks do you know for bird photography? Let us know in the comments.