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Any body out there who can give me some tips on bird photography ? I'm fortunate enough to have a bird feeding station next to my living room window which is visited regularly by a wide selection of bird life,I can set my camera up on the windowsill and use the curtains as a makeshift hide,trouble is they don't seem to perch for long before heading for the feeders and as I'd like to capture them with as natural a background as possible it's getting rather frustrating. Yesterday I impaled some peanuts on the rose thorns thinking that would do the trick but the clever ( and quick ) little blighters had the peanuts away before I managed to get even one shot !!! So....I'm calling on you birders out there to help......please !!!
Many thanks,
Jane
Try to set some natural looking perches near to the feeders - a few fresh cut/harvested twigs and short branches should do the trick. You can also cheat on backgrounds if you have a busy garden and setup a sheet of something neutral in colour (eg a sheet of green or a few shades of green) behind the feeding station so that when you shoot the background is already a blurred simple subject and thus easy to hide away.
As for speed make sure you've got the window open when you shoot and watch the birds; often they will revisit the same perch and same area of the perch over and over so its a case of wait - see and shoot.
When you're not there try to keep the window open and the curtains in position - an empty jamjar sticking with its bottom out also helps since it simulates your camera being present in that area.
Definitely worth using your home as a hide, so open the window and put some camouflaged netting up. Put some natural looking perches up around the feeder and depending on how far away this is determines the zoom you need. Having a Aperture around F5.6 to 8 is perfect for getting all the background out of focus.
Luke
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