Photographing Feathered Friends

As a small chicken farmer in the "Age of Technology", there are many reasons to have good pictures of your birds.  In this day and age, you can sell your birds from many venues online.  Choices include - but are not limited to - websites, social media (which includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to name a few), blogs, and online sales sites such as Craigslist.  All of the above are much more successful with pictures.  I must admit that I do not always have pictures with my ads.  This is due in part to the trouble I go through each time I try to photograph my feathered friends.

In the case of the Serama, who are known for posing, the minute they see the camera there will be NO POSING!  Chickens are like children.  When you need them to cooperate, invariably they will not.  I carefully choose the chickens to photograph based on the type and form they show while free.  I can set them up and pose them, UNTIL I pull out the camera and then the games begin.  Normally, I have to involve my son and my husband to herd and pose them.  The minute I get ready to snap the photo, they squat, fly or turn their back giving me a rear view.  For each twenty pictures I take, maybe three are worth keeping.  I am ALWAYS thankful for the good ones.  I have beautiful birds, but none like to be photographed.  Well I have to take that back.  We have one Belgian Maline hen that is different from the other Malines in that she does not appreciate their company and chooses to live among the Seramas and Silkies.  She is part of my camera crew.  She gets upset when they get upset and tries to show them how it's done.  She is a chicken diva!

Part of the Camera Crew

The larger chickens are ironically easier to photograph.  I try to get them in their natural settings.  I can use a telephoto lens to get good pictures of their usual antics without disturbing them too much.

The main thing I have learned is that "perfect" pictures present themselves when I don't have a camera handy.  I try to have a camera of some description with me at all times.  I might just have my phone with me, but I try to have a way to catch the "perfect" shots.