Magical murmurations

Julie O’Byrne uses her phone to capture a natural phenomenon on the North Yorkshire moors

Julie lives in North Yorkshire and these photos were taken just outside Catterick. She enjoys photographing many different subjects, including the countryside, waterfalls, insects and flowers, as well as her pets.

For these shots, Julie rested against a fence post for stability to avoid camera shake on her phone, as the images were shot at 1/60 sec. She chose a low ISO and a wideopen aperture to let in as much light as possible and to avoid grain.

Phones can be great for point-and-shoot images when you don’t have your regular camera with you, and are good for research in case you want to head back to a location. www.facebook.com/groups/starlinginfo

Super shapes

Murmurations constantly change, so it is a good idea to take as many photographs as you can, then look through them to find the hidden gems when you get home. If you can, use a continuous burst mode to fire off a series of shots. You will find you end up with a fantastic selection of photos, with many different formations.

Convey a sense of scale

In this shot, Julie included the foreground to give a sense of scale to the flock of birds. Doing this and cropping to a panorama shape really shows the size of the flock. Check out murmuration websites and groups to see which local nature reserves may give you the opportunity to find something similar to photograph.