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Tim Laman Enroll now

A bird photography course by Tim Laman · Beginner to intermediate

Trusted by 1,800+ bird photographers

Finally come home with keepers, not soft shots.

Right now the camera sits on Auto and half the morning comes home soft, blurred or one second too late. Eight short lessons to know exactly what to do when a bird appears. Tim's exact settings, on the camera you already own.

$99 $64.35 35% off

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8 lessons, about 2 hours Less than 1% refund rate 14-day money-back guarantee Lifetime access Rated 5/5 by our students
A scarlet macaw in flight, a still from the course trailer

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"I especially enjoyed Tim explaining his camera settings for many of his iconic shots."

SScott Rauland · verified student

Dear Friends,

You get home from a morning out, put the card in the computer, and start clicking through.

Soft. Soft again. An empty branch where the bird had been a second earlier. The one frame where something actually happened is blurred.

I know that feeling. It's not talent. It's a camera that was never set up for birds.

My name is Tim Laman. I photograph birds for National Geographic, where I've shot 25 feature stories, and in 2016 I was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

None of that started at a photography school. I was a biology student. I first went to Borneo in 1987 as a field assistant. Later, doing my PhD fieldwork there, I learned to climb rainforest trees on ropes, and I came back down with pictures from the canopy that almost nobody else had.

Tim Laman on a platform high in the rainforest canopy with a large telephoto lens
On a platform in the canopy, waiting for a King Bird-of-Paradise.

What I worked out along the way is that most people who struggle with bird photos are stuck on the wrong problem.

They think it's the gear.

Or they decide it's themselves, that they're just not any good at this.

But neither of those things is true. It's nearly always the settings, and nobody has ever handed them a set that works.

Years ago I tested that idea on the least experienced photographer I could find. My son Russell was about seven. I took him to the Everglades in Florida for a few days and handed him my old Canon 20D with a 100 to 300mm kit lens.

Then I set the camera up for him: five settings, the same five I still put on my own camera before I walk out the door. They're the first thing I show you in lesson one.

After that I gave him three instructions. Get the bird in the frame. Push this button on the back with your thumb to focus. When it looks sharp, push this other one on the front.

He had no idea what a shutter speed was, or an aperture, or an ISO. He didn't need to know.

He went out and took thousands of pictures over those days and had a blast. He got close enough to the black vultures that one of his frames needed no cropping at all. He even came back with a few flight shots of white pelicans.

Two white pelicans in flight against a clear blue sky, photographed by Russell Laman
Russell's white pelicans, taken on those days in the Everglades. He was seven, and he had no idea what a shutter speed was.

A seven-year-old. A camera I had stopped using. A kit lens.

That's the experiment the course grew out of. Not a lecture about exposure. The actual settings I put on my own camera in the field, in the order you need them.

So I put the whole system into eight lessons and called it

Birds, Camera,Action

You start with the same ready-for-action settings I gave Russell, so you can go out this weekend and come home with keepers before you fully understand why they work. Then we build from there, one lesson at a time, until you can walk up to almost any bird situation and know what to do.

A pileated woodpecker coming in to land at its nest hole, wings spread, with a chick looking out
A pileated woodpecker coming in to the nest hole. The whole thing comes down to one split second, and the settings decide whether you get it.

It runs about two hours in total. Watch one lesson, take it straight outside, and see the difference for yourself.

See you in lesson one,

Tim Laman in the field with a telephoto lens
Tim Laman PhD, Harvard University
National Geographic photographer

"I was able to watch a video then take your lessons straight out into the field and notice a big difference to the quality of photos I was getting."

MMatt Nicklin · verified student

"I had been looking for a course to help me graduate from Auto to Manual and this was it."

KKathy West · verified student
The eight lessons

So here's what you'll learn:

A toco toucan perched on a bare branch, sharp against a clear sky
Nothing exotic about the technique. The same eight lessons work on a toucan and on the chickadee at your feeder.
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What students say

Does it actually work?

Here are reviews written by people who took the course. Every one is on the course platform under their own name.

The offer

Birds, Camera,Action

Eight lessons, about two hours, with National Geographic photographer Tim Laman. Here's what you get when you enroll today.

Eight video lessons, about two hours

  • The ready-for-action settings, so you can shoot birds properly the same day you start
  • Two full lessons on focus, including back button focus and which focus area to use when
  • Two full lessons on exposure, including what to do when the light fools your camera
  • A flight lesson and a bonus lesson on deliberate motion blur

My own settings, behind my own pictures

  • I walk you through my own photographs and the exact settings behind each one
  • Everyday birds as well as famous ones, so the lessons work at your own feeder
  • Key takeaways at the end of each lesson, so you can find a setting again later

Watch it anywhere, and keep it

  • Instant access on your computer, tablet or phone, wherever you are
  • Yours to keep for good, so you can come back to a lesson before a trip
  • Start tonight and go at your own pace, nothing expires

You don't have to say yes today. You only have to say maybe.

  • Go through the whole course first. If it's not for you, email us and get your money back
  • No form to fill in and no questions asked
A scarlet macaw in flight through the rainforest Save 35% · ends July 26

Birds, Camera, Action

Regular price: $99

Right now

$64.35one-time payment
  • 8 practical lessons
  • About 2 hours of video in total
  • Access anywhere, on any device
  • Unlimited lifetime access
  • 14-day money-back guarantee
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Still in the field

I'm still out there doing it.

Everything in this course comes from work I'm still doing. Here's some of it.

And when I'm home in Massachusetts I photograph chickadees, blue jays and woodpeckers in my own backyard. Those pictures sit in my book Bird Planet next to the birds-of-paradise.

A bird-of-paradise displaying at dawn above the rainforest canopy
A bird-of-paradise at dawn in the Aru Islands. Getting this one meant rigging ropes, climbing the tree in the dark every morning for a week, and waiting in a blind built out of poles and palm leaves.
Get the course for $64.35

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Questions

What people ask before they enroll

Ready when you are

Your next morning out could go rather differently.

Start with lesson one tonight. It's about fifteen minutes, and it ends with a set of settings you can use at the feeder tomorrow.

Birds, Camera, Action

Regular price: $99

Right now

$64.35one-time payment
  • 8 practical lessons
  • About 2 hours of video in total
  • Unlimited lifetime access
  • 14-day money-back guarantee
Get Access Right Now!

Secure checkout · 14-day risk-free guarantee

$64.35 $9914-day guarantee
Enroll now