HIDE & SEEK

We pair a keen amateur wildlife photographer with pro Sean Weekly for tips on shooting birds, both in flight and on the ground

THE PRO

SEAN WEEKLY

CAMERA: CANON EOS 5D MKIV

Sean lives in rural mid-Wales, and works as a professional wildlife photographer and as a guide for travel company Wildlife Worldwide, leading photography trips. He also runs his own photography workshops and 1-to-1 sessions. We met with him at the Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding Station, where he has his own wildlife hide, and where up to 600 red kites feed every day. Check out Sean's work on Instagram @seanweekly, and visit his website to see more images, and for information on workshops https://bit.ly/35Jsh9D

THE APPRENTICE

RAJU MISRA

CAMERA: CANON EOS 77D

Raju is a retired police sergeant who loves nothing more than getting out and about with his camera. He has a particular passion for wildlife photography, and managed to go on two safaris in Africa before the pandemic hit. Raju is looking for some help with bird photography, as he's unsure of the right settings to use to get the best out of his Canon EOS 77D and Sigma 150600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens.

TECHNIQUE ASSESSMENT

Sean set up his and Raju's cameras in Manual mode, and selected the optimum settings for photograhing birds

MANUAL MODE

Raju mostly shoots in the semi-automatic Shutter Priority mode, so Sean was keen to bring him out of his comfort zone and get him shooting in Manual mode, where he'd be able to take more control of his camera settings. In Manual mode you can independently set the three exposure parameters: shutter speed, aperture and ISO value. Sean also set Raju's camera to shoot raw, as raw files capture more detail and exposure information than JPEGs, making it much easier to adjust the exposure, white balance and more when editing images later.