The Green Bee Eater: A Bird Photographer’s Perfect Starting Point

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by Avanish Dureha

A bird flying in the air AI-generated content may be incorrect.

If you’re just stepping into the world of bird photography, the Green Bee-Eater (Merops orientalis) might just be the perfect subject to start with. Vibrant, agile, and delightfully photogenic, this little gem taught me essential lessons about bird behavior, camera techniques, and the joy of being out with nature. Whether you’re holding a camera for the first time or honing your skills, here’s why the Green Bee-Eater deserves a spot on your photography bucket list.

Why Green Bee Eaters Are Photography Gold

Easy to Find, Hard to Ignore

Finding Green Bee Eaters isn’t a challenge—they’re abundant across Asia and Africa, thriving everywhere from open grasslands and scrublands to suburban edges. What I love most is their preference for exposed perches: telephone wires (Less photogenic), slender branches, fence posts, and rocky outcrops. No need to crawl through dense undergrowth or wait hours in a hide!

A bird on a branch AI-generated content may be incorrect.

(Pro tip: While they love telephone wires, I usually avoid photographing them there for aesthetic reasons.)

Natural Models

These birds are inherently photogenic. Their plumage showcases a stunning palette of emerald greens and turquoise blues, complemented by warm chestnut tones on the head and throat. Those distinctive elongated tail streamers and piercing ruby-red eyes create natural focal points that make every frame compelling, regardless of the background.

Predictable Yet Dynamic

Green Bee Eaters strike the perfect balance between activity and predictability. They’re constantly in motion—diving for insects, socializing with their flock, or engaging in aerial displays—yet they consistently return to favorite perches after each hunting expedition. This behavior gives photographers multiple opportunities to capture action sequences, feeding behaviors, and social interactions.

Understanding Their World

Two birds on a branch AI-generated content may be incorrect.

The secret to exceptional bird photography lies in understanding your subject’s behavior. Green Bee Eaters have taught me invaluable lessons about patience and observation.

Hunting Patterns: These skilled aerial hunters primarily target bees, wasps, dragonflies, and other flying insects. They employ a “sit-and-wait” strategy, launching from their perch with remarkable precision to snatch prey mid-flight before returning to process their catch—beating larger insects against their perch to remove stingers.

A couple of birds flying in the air AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Social Dynamics: Bee Eaters are inherently gregarious. You’ll often observe them engaged in mutual preening, communal sunbathing, or simply roosting together in tight formations. These social behaviors provide excellent opportunities for storytelling through your lens.

Seasonal Behaviors: During breeding season (typically coinciding with the onset of monsoons), these birds excavate tunnel nests in sandy banks or earthen walls. Witnessing their courtship rituals, nest construction, and chick-rearing activities offers photographers a complete behavioral narrative to document.

Technical Approach: Camera Settings and Techniques

1. The Art of Approach

Successful bee eater photography requires a blend of stealth and patience. I approach slowly and deliberately, avoiding sudden movements that might startle the birds. Often, I’ll establish a position and simply wait. Once they recognize you’re not a threat, they resume natural behaviors, allowing for intimate, unstaged photographs.

2. Mastering Light

The “golden hours” shortly after sunrise and before sunset transform these already colorful birds into living jewels. During these times, their iridescent plumage catches and reflects warm light beautifully. I also experiment with:

  • Side lighting to emphasize feather textures and depth
  • Backlighting for dramatic silhouettes
  • Overcast conditions for evenly diffused lighting that renders colors accurately without harsh shadows

3. My Equipment Setup and Camera Configuration

My Go-To Gear: I shoot with an OM System OM-1 paired with a 300mm f/4 (Effective focal length 600mm due crop factor) lens or a 100-400 (200-800) f5-6.3—a combination that’s become my trusted companion for bee eater photography. The OM-1’s lightweight body makes handheld shooting comfortable during long sessions, while the 300mm f/4 provides excellent reach with outstanding optical quality.

Focus System: The OM-1’s AI Subject Detection set to “Bird” mode with eye focus priority is a game-changer. This system locks onto bee eaters with remarkable accuracy, even tracking them through complex flight patterns. The eye detection ensures tack-sharp focus on the most critical part of the bird, and it rarely misses—even when the birds are moving quickly between perches.

Pro Capture Mode: This is my secret weapon for capturing perfect takeoff shots. Pro Capture starts recording images before you fully press the shutter, storing them in a buffer. When a bee eater launches from its perch—which happens in a split second—I already have those crucial pre-takeoff moments captured. It’s revolutionized my ability to get those explosive departure shots that would otherwise be impossible to time.

Shutter Speed:

  • Flight photography: Minimum 1/1600s (often pushing to 1/2000s for sharp wing detail)
  • Perched subjects: 1/500s to 1/800s to freeze small movements
  • Pro Capture allows me to use slightly slower speeds since I’m capturing the entire sequence

Aperture:

  • I typically shoot wide open at f/4 with my 300mm, which provides beautiful background separation while maintaining excellent sharpness
  • The lens performs exceptionally well at maximum aperture, so there’s no need to stop down unless I specifically need more depth of field

ISO Philosophy: I prioritize getting the shot over pixel-peeping perfection. The OM-1 handles noise exceptionally well, so I don’t get carried away worrying about ISO settings. I’d rather capture a compelling moment at ISO 1600 than miss it entirely trying to keep ISO low. A great image with some noise beats a perfectly clean image of nothing!

4. Compositional Strategies

A bird on a branch AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Strong composition elevates good bird photos to great ones:  

  • Rule of thirds: Position the bird off-center for dynamic balance
  • Environmental context: Include habitat elements that tell the bird’s story 
  • Negative space: Use clean backgrounds (blue sky, blurred vegetation) to isolate your subject
  • Action and interaction: Capture behavioral moments—feeding, preening, territorial displays, parent-chick interactions

5. Ethical Photography Practices

A bird flying over a plant AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Respect for your subjects is paramount:

  • Maintain safe distances, especially near nests
  • Never use flash photography with wild birds
  • If birds show signs of stress, retreat immediately
  • Avoid disturbing natural behaviors for the sake of a photograph

Overcoming Common Challenges

Size Limitations: Use the longest focal length available (300mm minimum recommended). When working with shorter lenses, focus on environmental portraits that showcase the bird within its habitat.

Flight Photography: This skill develops with practice. Use continuous autofocus, anticipate flight paths, and shoot in burst mode to increase your success rate. Practice panning techniques to keep moving subjects sharp against blurred backgrounds.

Busy Backgrounds: 

Change your shooting angle or use wider apertures to achieve better subject separation. Sometimes waiting for the bird to move to a cleaner perch is more effective than trying to fix a cluttered composition.

What I Learned Beyond Photography 

A bird sitting on a branch AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Photographing Green Bee Eaters taught me more than just camera skills. These birds improved my patience, observation abilities, and respect for wildlife. I learned to read their behavior, predict their movements, and understand how light and weather affect both the birds and my photos.

Perfect for Beginners 

Many bird photographers start with common, accessible species like Green Bee Eaters. These birds are forgiving when you make mistakes and very rewarding when you get it right. As your skills grow, you’ll move on to more challenging projects like capturing action shots or detailed feather patterns.

Your photography will evolve from simple documentation to artistic storytelling that shows both the birds and your own growth as a photographer.

Every photo teaches you something new. Let Green Bee Eaters guide you into bird photography and see where your passion takes you.

The Dhole: India’s Forgotten Apex Predator

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A Personal Journey Beyond the Big Cats

– Avanish Dureha

I’ll admit it—I might be a bit judgmental, but I’ve noticed something about India’s wildlife photography community: we’re absolutely obsessed with tigers and leopards. Don’t get me wrong, I love every moment I spend in our jungles, national parks, and on safaris. But my heart lies with the countless other magnificent creatures that call these forests home—the ones that often get overlooked in our quest for the perfect big cat shot.

Last year, I joined a wildlife expedition to Kabini in Karnataka. As expected, the entire group was tiger-crazy, and all anyone could talk about was “Blackie”—the famous melanistic leopard (black panther) who calls Kabini’s Nagarhole National Park home. While they were all focused on this elusive cat, I had my sights set on a different apex predator entirely: the dhole (Cuon alpinus), also known as the Indian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, whistling dog, or red dog.

Meeting the Real Rulers of Nagarhole

The dhole is truly one of nature’s most remarkable predators, yet it remains largely unknown to most wildlife enthusiasts. These incredible animals are about the size of a German Shepherd but carry themselves with a distinctly fox-like grace. The Kabini dholes I encountered sport a beautiful rust-red coat—likely adapted to their specific habitat—with striking lighter patches of white or yellowish tones adorning their throats, chests, bellies, and upper limbs.

What immediately struck me about dholes is how perfectly designed they are for their role as hypercarnivores. Their broad, domed skulls house shorter muzzles than most canids, and here’s a fascinating detail: they have only two molars per side of their lower jaw, unlike the three found in other canids. This specialized dental structure makes them incredibly efficient meat-eaters. Their rounded ears and piercing amber eyes, combined with their slender, almost cat-like limbs, create a unique appearance that seems to blend the best traits of gray wolves and red foxes.

Ancient Legends and Modern Misconceptions

India’s rich mythology embraces every creature, and the dhole holds a particularly dramatic place in our folklore. Unfortunately, it’s not always flattering. These remarkable animals have earned fearsome nicknames like “red devil,” “devil dog,” “jungle devil,” and “hound of Kali.” Their reputation as relentless hunters has deep historical roots—you can find dhole-like creatures depicted in the Bharhut stupa from as early as 100 BC, shown chasing spirits or people up trees.

This fearsome reputation has persisted through the centuries, with several ethnic groups in India viewing dholes with superstition or outright fear. Even Rudyard Kipling contributed to this image in his “Red Dog” story from The Jungle Book, portraying them as aggressive creatures feared throughout the jungle.

But here’s what I’ve learned from my time observing these animals: their reputation is both deserved and misunderstood. Yes, they’re incredibly effective predators, but they’re also highly social, cooperative, and surprisingly gentle with their own kind.

The Social Fabric of Dhole Society

Watching a dhole pack in action is like witnessing a masterclass in cooperation. These animals live in packs ranging from 2 to 20 individuals, sometimes even more. What fascinated me most was discovering that dholes don’t follow the strict dominance hierarchies we see in other pack animals. Instead, their society is built on cooperation and genuine affection—I’ve watched them play together, nuzzle each other, and engage in face-licking sessions that seem more like family bonding than dominance displays.

Unlike many other canids, multiple females in a dhole pack can breed, which speaks to their remarkably egalitarian social structure.

The Language of the Pack

One of the most captivating aspects of dholes is their complex communication system. These are incredibly vocal animals, and spending time with them is like listening to an ongoing conversation in a language you almost understand. They use whistles, chattering, clucking, and various other sounds to coordinate hunts and maintain pack cohesion in dense forests. Their distinctive whistling call is so characteristic that “whistling dogs” has become one of their common names.

Masters of the Hunt

Dholes are diurnal hunters, meaning they’re active during the day—perfect for wildlife photographers like me who prefer not to stumble around in the dark! I’ve been privileged to observe their hunting strategies, and it’s absolutely mesmerizing. They target medium to large-sized ungulates like deer and wild boar, and occasionally take on even larger prey like gaur calves.

What sets dhole hunts apart is their incredible coordination. The pack works like a well-trained tactical unit, encircling and harassing their prey, often driving it toward water to exhaust it. During one memorable observation, I watched the pack leader communicate orders through whistling sounds, and the entire pack responded like a synchronized fighting unit—no chaos, no confusion, just pure efficiency.

Once they make a kill, the feeding process is remarkably organized. They begin eating quickly, sometimes even before the prey is fully subdued, but what impressed me most was their approach to food sharing. This is truly communal dining at its finest: pups get priority access to kills, adults regurgitate food for both pups and nursing females, and infighting at kills is extremely rare. The tolerance they show each other during feeding is something that would make many human families envious.

A Voice Unlike Any Other

Here’s something that really distinguishes dholes from their canid cousins: I have never heard a dhole bark or howl. This silence sets them apart dramatically from domestic dogs and wolves, making their whistling communication system even more remarkable and unique.

The Conservation Challenge

As I reflect on my experiences with these incredible animals, I can’t help but feel a sense of urgency. Dholes are classified as endangered, and their populations continue to decline across Central, South, and Southeast Asia. While everyone’s attention remains focused on tigers and leopards—both important conservation priorities—we’re overlooking one of nature’s most sophisticated social predators.

My time in Kabini taught me that there’s so much more to discover in our forests beyond the big cats that dominate our wildlife photography feeds. The dhole represents everything I love about wildlife observation: complex behavior, intricate social structures, and adaptation strategies honed over millennia.

Perhaps it’s time for India’s wildlife community to expand our definition of “apex predator” photography. The dholes are waiting, whistling their ancient songs in the forests, ready to share their stories with anyone willing to listen.

The author is a wildlife photographer and naturalist with a passion for documenting the world around him as also lesser-known predators and their complex social behaviors.

The Rule of Thirds vs. The Fibonacci Spiral for Composition

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In the art of photography, it’s the harmony of visual elements that creates a memorable photo. Two fundamental techniques often discussed to achieve this are the Rule of Thirds and the Fibonacci Spiral. Both of these techniques serve as powerful tools to guide composition, leading viewers’ eyes to a specific point in an image. However, they vary in usage, execution, and situations where they can be applied effectively. Let’s take a detailed look at both of these techniques and see how they compare.

The Rule of Thirds: Simplicity in Action

The Rule of Thirds is one of the most recognized composition principles in photography and visual arts. This technique divides the frame into a 3×3 grid, with two equally spaced horizontal and vertical lines. The idea is to position the important elements along these lines, or at the points where they intersect, to achieve balance and engage the viewer more effectively.

The Rule of Thirds is easy to understand and apply. Many modern cameras and smartphones even come with a grid overlay feature that helps with this technique. By moving away from the center, the photograph gains more depth and interest, which generally provides a more pleasing result. The Rule of Thirds is especially effective in landscapes, portraiture, and still life photography.

However, as with any rule, there are exceptions and instances where breaking the Rule of Thirds can result in a more compelling composition, such as symmetrical scenes or those where a centered composition provides more impact.

The Fibonacci Spiral: Nature’s Rule

The Fibonacci Spiral (also known as the Golden Ratio or Golden Spiral) is a more mathematically derived method for composition based on the Fibonacci Sequence, a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. When applied to visual arts, a spiral is created, starting small and growing larger in a counter-clockwise direction following the Fibonacci sequence.

This spiral gives photographers a tool for aligning the composition to draw the viewer’s eye through the image in a natural flow, often leading to the image’s primary subject. It’s seen as a ‘natural’ composition rule because the Fibonacci sequence is found throughout nature, from the spiral of galaxies to the patterns in flowers and shells.

The Fibonacci Spiral is often used in more complex scenes where the elements lead the viewer’s eye in a spiral to the point of interest. This can often create a more dynamic, engaging image. The technique is highly beneficial in landscape photography, street photography, and instances where there are natural lines or curves in the scene.

The Rule of Thirds vs. The Fibonacci Spiral

So, how do these two composition principles stack up against each other?

Ease of Use: The Rule of Thirds is undoubtedly simpler to use, especially for beginners. The Fibonacci Spiral, with its more complex pattern, can take a bit more effort to apply correctly. The Rule of Thirds is straightforward to visualize, and many cameras provide support for it with an optional grid overlay.

Flexibility: While the Rule of Thirds can be used in virtually any photograph to improve its aesthetic appeal, the Fibonacci Spiral provides a unique perspective that can offer an additional layer of visual interest to a photograph. However, not all scenes lend themselves to the Fibonacci Spiral, making it less universally applicable than the Rule of Thirds.

Nature vs. Structure: The Fibonacci Spiral is a pattern frequently seen in nature, making it a perfect match for photos aiming to replicate natural growth or movement. On the other hand, the Rule of Thirds, with its straight lines and intersections, lends itself well to more structured, balanced images.

Conclusion

In summary, both the Rule of Thirds and the Fibonacci Spiral offer valuable guidance for composing photographs. Neither is objectively better than the other; rather, their effectiveness depends on the specific context and the photographer’s creative intent. The beauty of photography lies in the freedom to experiment and explore, so don’t be afraid to use both rules, break them, or even combine them to create your unique vision. As the saying goes in photography, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Creating Depth of Field in your photos

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One the most fundamental techniques necessary to really to master creative photography is depth of field. It was always a bit of a mystery to me because of the link to aperture and understanding all those back to front f-numbers. I think it was more of a mental block, though, because it’s actually quite easy to grasp.

Creatively you are able to do more with your photography and as you learn digital photography you will find using depth of field key to great images. You can use it to blur out backgrounds while the subject remains pin sharp or to create an image perfectly in focus from front to back, as in great landscape photos.

1. What is depth of field?

It’s quite simple. It’s the amount of a scene that is in focus in front of your point of focus or behind it. Depth of field is more simply understood as depth of focus: how much of the image is in focus. A lens can only focus at one point which is the sharpest, most in focus point in the photo. But what you can do by using depth of field is to control the perceived zone of focus. This will differ when shooting different subjects or scenes.

Now, there are three main factors that affect depth of field. Firstly, the aperture you are using, secondly the focal length of the lens, and thirdly the focusing distance. All of these will impact the depth of field. Each of these will affect depth of field, so in order to control it effectively it’s necessary to master each one of them.

2. Focal length

When shooting an image using a 28mm wide angle lens at, say, f/5.6 you will see a much greater depth of field as compared to a 400mm at the same aperture. When using different lenses understand what the impact will be so that you can creatively use the resulting depth of field.

3. Aperture

On a lens you have possible apertures ranging from f/1.2 all the way up to f/32, and each of these lens openings will have an effect on depth of field. If shooting on the extremes, like f/32, you’ll find that it results in quite a considerable difference than when you shoot at f/2.8. Then when shooting using the mid-range numbers the depth of field will again be different. An aperture of f/2.8 will have a very shallow depth of field while f/32 will show sharp focus throughout the whole image.

4. Focusing distance

How far you are to the point of focus is another factor to consider. When using any lens, the depth of field will increase the further the focusing distance. If you focus on an object three meters away, and if you focus on something 300 meters in the distance, the depth of field will be greater. So in other words, when the subject is far away from the camera there will be a greater depth of field and more of the image will be in focus.

5. When to use depth of field

Most of us have taken landscape images where most of the scene is in focus. This is true when you’re shooting scenes of fields and trees and boats on the sea. The way in which this is achieved is by setting your aperture to a higher number, e.g. f/11 and above, which means a smaller aperture opening. Virtually the whole scene from foreground to background is in focus. But this changes when choosing a wider aperture opening or a small f-number on the lens. Here you would only use this setting to shoot something you want to isolate such as a face in a portrait. The background gets blurred out and the face is in crisp focus. You would also use this when shooting close-ups of flowers or animals in a zoo where you don’t want to see the background or the bars or fence in the foreground.

So, as you can see, depth of field is really quite simple. Blurred out backgrounds use a large aperture and landscapes that need to be in focus from foreground all the way through to the background use a small aperture. The key as you learn digital photography is to experiment with all settings and then practice, practice, practice!

The Golden Ratio Applied to Photographic Composition

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If you have been using The Rule of Thirds in your photographic compositions, you may have discovered an inherent shortcoming. Composing for the Rule of Thirds involves lining up a subject with one of the recommended intersections or lines. This can sometimes result in the subject being crowded too close to the edge of the frame.

The problem can be minimized, if not eliminated using the Golden Ratio Grid, rather than the standard equally spaced Rule of Thirds grid.

What is the Golden Ratio?

It is worth while taking a look at what the Golden Ratio is before applying it. The concept was discussed as far back as 300BC as being mathematically interesting, and in addition to being called the Golden Ratio it is also referred to as the Golden Mean or Divine Proportion.

In simple terms, it refers to two measurements where the ratio of the sum of both measurements and the largest measurement is the same as the ratio of the largest and the smallest. In other words a + b / a is the same as a / b. This ratio is 1 to 1.618 and is often quoted to be found in nature, architecture, art and music amongst other things.

The mathematics of the Golden Ratio was further explored by a man called Fibonacci to deliver the Fibonacci Sequence of numbers. Start with 0 and 1 then progressively add the previous two numbers together to obtain the next. The sequence would progress as 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and so on. The interesting thing is that the further the progression advances, the closer to the golden ratio becomes the result of dividing the next to the last number in sequence by the last number in sequence. For example, 55/34 is 1.617647…, and the result of 233/144 is 1.618055…

This sequence is used to generate another composition variation called the Golden Spiral. There are opinions that this spiral can be seen in a Nautilus shell, the seeds on a pine cone, and even the arms of the milky way. Such is the interest in the Golden Ratio that many regard it as the universal constant that all things in life relate to in one way or another.

How Do You Apply the Golden Ratio to Your Photos?

One simple way to apply the Golden Ratio is to apply it to a rule of thirds grid. But, instead of the three columns and rows being of equal width and height, the center column and row is 0.618 the measurement of the other two. If you place a subject at a row/column intersection now, you effectively move the subject further from the edge of the image frame, giving the subject more space.

You can also employ the Golden Spiral to place the main point of interest within the inside of the spiral. The spiral is created from the Fibonacci sequence, which when plotted as a series of Golden Rectangles with a series of arcs drawn within the rectangles, results in the spiral overlay. You can see this graphically represented on my website.  Adobe Lightroom provides composition overlays for the Golden Ratio grid and for the Golden Spiral.