The stage is set!

[jbird]

My winter window feeder is back up. The birds are all over it! Once they get comfortable, I'll set up my blind and camera and start shooting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwXdaZmic4


Couple shots from last year.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_3742_zps84ccc572.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_3742_zps84ccc572.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_1637_zpsf06bd3e8.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_1637_zpsf06bd3e8.jpg.html)

[rubberguy]

Steve, if you're going to post self portraits, shouldn't you change your login to mtn-jbird?? lol

[jbird]

Shot with the 35mm prime

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_7971_zps634d94e0.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_7971_zps634d94e0.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_7970_zps6b3a1236.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_7970_zps6b3a1236.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_8014_zps832dfaf4.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_8014_zps832dfaf4.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_8008_zpsee0def88.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_8008_zpsee0def88.jpg.html)

[Bluegrass Bill]

Those are great shots Jay!

[jbird]

He finally found it! Ive been waiting for a good Red Belly to find my window feeder since last winter. Today, this magnificent specimen posed for me for about 100 shots! Male Red Bellied Woodpecker

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_8211_zps5b42b461.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_8211_zps5b42b461.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_8188_zps4bbbce48.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_8188_zps4bbbce48.jpg.html)

[DLJeff]

Beauty, eh. We have a ton of northern flickers if you need a shot of one.

[jbird]

Is that an invitation Doug ;) we had an invasion of the flickers all summer. They just dont come to feeders when theres natural forage and they are just very unapproachable here. They leave this place in the winter, tho last winter, I was shooting out of my blind and out of nowhere, this lost traveler made a quick stop.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_9848d_zpsbbbc7887.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_9848d_zpsbbbc7887.jpg.html)

[jbird]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_8325_zpsd25c7958.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_8325_zpsd25c7958.jpg.html)

[Tony Buzolich]

Jay,
Those are really beautiful shots. You mention about setting up your feeder and blind. Are you actually shooting through window glass or do you have your blind and camera set outside for such clear shots?

Last Christmas I bought my wife a new 70-300 lens so she could hopefully duplicate some of your shots with critters out here. No such luck yet :) So I bought her a 40mm micro lens thinking that would do it but still no luck :) She likes to shoot in RAW so she can clean up the pictures later and has really gotten into this digital stuff and likes it but I don't know if I'm up to buying here a blind yet :)

Any suggestions for getting these great close ups?

Thanks ahead, Tony

[jbird]

Thank you Tony.

Yep. Im shooting thru glass. I do believe I would get more quality images if I wasnt, but it works pretty well. it is a double pain window too. The feeder is actually hooked to the window sill outside and its a homemade wood seed tray with a screen bottom so moisture can pass thru. I also have small branches screwed to the feeder so the birds have some natural perches. You could use cable ties or whatever to fasten them. I have mine on an east facing window. the biggest issue for any set up like this is sun angle. I have about 3 hrs between 9am and noon that gives me really good light.
I clean the glass well every morning I think I might shoot. Those birds are messy! Spots on the glass just ruin pictures. My window has curtains so I just clip my black blind cloth to the curtain with alligator clips. The cloth has a hole cut for my camera lens and a hole just above that for me to see out. The camera is on a high quality tripod and I use a remote trigger. That way I have one hand on the tripod panning handle and my free hand has the remote.
I like to leave my camera in position all morning so the birds get used to seeing my lense popping thru the black cloth. Also, you never know when youre gonna check on the feeder and see that bird youve been waiting for. When I do start shooting, I have to pan the lens VERY smooth and slow to try not to spook the birds. Some birds are way spookier than others.

As for camera settings, for someone not super familiar with the camera, I would recommend shooting in Aperture priority with an Aperture of f8 or less. Birds require a pretty fast shutter speed so play with your ISO and Ap to keep your ss over 1/200s

I like to shoot in manual mode so I can purposely underexpose every shot. Not only does it look better to my eye, but you can always pump up the exposure in photoshop. If you overexpose at all, those overexposed pixels are fried and cant be recovered.

Hope all that blather makes sense :/

PS The black blind cloth is just some bulk fabric I picked up at walmart for a few bucks.

[Tony Buzolich]

Great stuff Jay. I passed this on to my wife and she knew exactly what you were talking about.

Thanks for the good ideas, Tony

[gitt]

Jay, by how much are you under exposing those shots?

[jbird]

Between 2 to 4 stops according to my light meter

One from today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/JDS_8394a_zps44fa4e52.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jbird35/media/JDS_8394a_zps44fa4e52.jpg.html)