Backyard Bird Watching & Photography

[RickB]

Very nice photos ! Well done. But to be honest the only one I would waste the time cooking was the duck 

[Smokin Don]

Thanks all. For those who ask about camera info etc. My first digital SLR camera was an Olympus E410 that came with two lenses, a 14-42 mm and a 70 to 150 mm. I wanted a Canon but a comparable one was twice what I paid for the Oly. With the Oly’s four thirds sensor the lens focal length is effectively doubled.

Not quite satisfied with the 70-150 mm lens I bought a 70-300 mm 1:4-5.6 ED lens. That’s the lens I use for my bird and butterfly photos. A few years ago I updated to the Olympus E620 camera.

I shoot all the bird and butterfly photos in the sports mode, the camera decides all the settings and I use the burst mode. It’s supposed to do 4+frames a second. I have tried manual settings but the camera does a lot better job than I can.

With the E410 I shot in the raw mode and came out with better photos, but the E620 gives me great photos in the largest jpeg setting. The files are about 10X13 inches and 34MB.

The first photo of the Male Ruby throat was shot with the E410, camera settings were IS0 400, F4.5, 1/640 sec.  speed and FL was 125 MM.

The 3 goldfinch photos were done with the E620, camera settings were ISO 800, F5.6, 1/400 sec. speed and FL was 300 MM.

What post processing I do with Photoshop elements and usually I just adjust the lighting with levels and do an unsharp mask, that is a built in action. I like it better than sharpen. For those who use PSE; settings I got from online class to use for the 3 settings you can change are Amount 85 %, Radius 3.0 pixels and Threshold 4 levels. I use this for birds and butterflies; for people photos I use a Radius of 1.0 pixels.

I hope this answers everyone’s questions. You can PM me if you like and I will help if I can. Don

[mikecorn.1]

Wow! Pics look great.


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[drbiggles]

Hey Don!

  Nailed it.  Capturing birds well is an art form in itself, you nailed it.  Do you have any of your work on your walls?

  It ain't his camera that takes those shots, it's Don.  I have a "better" camera and there's no way it hell I could reproduce his shots, not even once.  I have a gaggle of cameras, both film and digital.  No matter what camera I'm using, you can tell it's me.  All come out looking the same.

  Carry on my good man!

xo, Biggles

[Sailor1]

Great Photos Don......I'm not a camera guy and I am completely lost when you describe the lens, camera and settings.  It shows that you really enjoy the hobby.

[drholly]

DocBiggles brings up a point

I'm a pro photographer and for many years produced my serious prints in my darkroom
I also owned a wedding portrait studio and had a pro lab produce my customer's prints

when I went digital I went looking for a good digital lab to upload my files to
I used my local Sams for a number of years until they stopped keeping their Fuji printer up to speed

Costcos have high quality Fuji Frontier printers
most can print up to 12x18 (photo silver print) in house on their printer, $2.99
they also have in-house high quality inkjet printers and can usually print in-house to 20x30, mounted

I can order on online 20x30 silver photo print for less than $10
delivered to my door

I am NOT a pro, but a very dedicated amateur. I travel and take 3000 - 5000 shots a year. I've done most of my printing at home - I use an Epson photo printer. But your comments re: Costco, etc. are enticing. Thank you!

David

[Smokin Don]

Hey Don!

  Nailed it.  Capturing birds well is an art form in itself, you nailed it.  Do you have any of your work on your walls?

  It ain't his camera that takes those shots, it's Don.  I have a "better" camera and there's no way it hell I could reproduce his shots, not even once.  I have a gaggle of cameras, both film and digital.  No matter what camera I'm using, you can tell it's me.  All come out looking the same.

  Carry on my good man!

Thanks Biggles for the kind words, I think you are being a little modest about your abilities. The one example you gave in Food Photography using existing and bounced lighting was pretty darned good. Knowing lighting is a knack in it's own. That's one area I am not very good at. Don

xo, Biggles

[Smokin Don]

Beautiful photos Don, thanks for sharing. We feed the birds year round and hummers in season. I have seen up to 5 Golden Eagles in the air at one time in our neighborhood and my wife saw 2 Bald Eagles this year already. She is an accomplished bird watcher, I am just a beginner but she is trying to teach me.

Ken you and the wife have some nice birds to watch! I get Coppers Hawks in my yard all the time looking for a meal. They have been coming in quite a few years and I only have one good shot of one. I did get one shot of one in the air and could see it was carrying a squirrel. We have a lot of Blue Herons around and I tried several yrs. to get a good shot of one, no luck. They are too alert and usually gone before I can get a shot. Don

[Smokin Don]

For any of you beginner to pro, if you want to learn and improve there are two sites that are about learning photography through the world. treklens.com and treknature.com I started posting in treknature but they were too strict on photo content so I switched to treklens where you can post about anything. You will get critiqued by others and they will help you improve. I posted over 600 photos there before I stopped and they are still there, if you want see just search deains. You will see bad and good! I think I learned a lot from there and still e-mail a friend in Canada I met there. Don

[Smokin Don]

Remote bird photos

Back when I was still using point and shoot digital cameras. I bought a Canon Power Shot and one of the programs that came with the camera for a PC was for shooting photos from the PC. It came with a USB cable to connect and you had the ability to see what was in the view finder control the zoom and snap pictures. I thought this is what I need to shoot bird photos. The USB cable was only 4 or 5 foot long. I tried an extension but it wouldn’t work.

Not giving up I did some research and found some USB repeater cables 20 foot long and said you could add as many cables as you wanted. I called and ask if I could order one & if it didn’t work return it & they said sure. I ordered one.

The cable came and I set it all up, I had a PC on my back porch, ran the cable through the window to my camera set on a tri-pod. I needed at least 50 ft. to reach close to the bird feeder so I ordered two more cables. I think they were about $15 to $20 each.

When the cables came it was a nice sunny day so I got it all set up. I had the camera focused on the bird feeder. I sat at my PC waiting for birds to show up. Getting restless I stood up and looked out the window. There was a male Cardinal perched on my camera!
If I would have had another camera handy that would have made a great photo!

Not only did I almost get bird doo on my camera it never worked out well. The time delay from the PC to the camera was too long and the bird had moved or was gone by the time it snapped the picture. Oh well back to the drawing board for better bird photos.

Don

[drholly]

Don, your bird on the camera story reminded me of the difficulty my brother in law was having trying to photograph some monkeys in Peru...



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[Smokin Don]

That is a priceless photo to have! Don

[Smokin Don]

Bird seed has really gone up the past few years. Black oil sunflower seeds are about $1 a pound and niger thistle seed is $2 a pound. I did find the niger seed at Tractor Supply at just over $1 a pound. I quit feeding the sunflower seeds for my regular birds, mostly because they were starting to use my Smokin Deck as a roost at night and making a mess. I miss them already, every evening I would have 30 to 100 feeding, mostly sparrows and house finches but a few others.

I miss mostly seeing the cardinals, in winter months I always had 4 or 5 pair in feeding but mating season usually just a pair, but I would see them everyday. I am still feeding the goldfinches, niger thistle seed in a mesh sock feeder. I am going to order an upside down feeder soon so that will save on seeds.

The hummers will be here soon my cousin about 60 miles south saw her first one so they will be here soon. I'll get some feeders up tomorrow. At least sugar water is fairly cheap.

Smokin Don

[sliding_billy]

Will be visiting Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge this weekend for BirdFest Texoma.  Hope to get some nice shots (not just of the birds).

[Smokin Don]

I have a ton of things to do but sometimes you just have to take time to watch the birds! Her are some shots of my Goldfinches.
Don