Why I'm Shooting In RAW Again

There are several reasons I stopped shooting in RAW.

This might surprise some of you but mostly, I simply don't care enough about my shots to go to the extra effort of processing RAW photos (just keeping it real) but there are practical reasons too. Such as my pathetic excuse for a computing device , a.k.a. net-book, struggles with doing too much at once (my mobile phone has more computing power). Working with RAW images creates more admin and filing work and then there is the whole software side of the equation too. We have RAW editors but my computer only has PICASA.

Then last week these shots happened. And I was sad. I wished I'd had RAW turned on. I was totally unprepared to take these shots, they just happened when I was outside with the intention of trying to shoot a blossom or two. As it is I've cropped them down to where they don't get too blurry and that's pretty much all I could do with the JPEG's.

These small birds are white-cheeked honeyeaters and are often mistaken for the New Holland honeyeater which has white eyes instead of brown. The white patches on the cheeks also differ. The new Holland honeyeater's white cheek patches are simply markings, however on the white-cheeked honeyeater the patches get longer and more dramatic as the bird ages giving them these lovely sweeping 'moustachio's'.

These little birds move super fast and hide in the depths of tree branches a lot so an opportunity to get clear in-flight shots is a rare thing.

This sweet little fan tail also decided to hop around and prove the point a few moments later.

I went inside and showed my husband and the first thing he asked was 'Did you have RAW turned on?'

So if we're going to have a pair of white-cheeks hanging out in the garden regularly I thought I really should turn RAW back on so as not to miss another opportunity to get some wonderful bird in flight shots.