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I see some fabulous bird shots here and on flickr, but generally they are taken with lenses I would like to own, rather than ones I actually do own.

So, I've decided to see how nice a bird portrait I can get with the minimum amount of expenditure. Today was day one of my experiment.

I used:

1 x K-7 in TAv mode (ISO 100 - 1600, f6.7, 1/125 - you have to start somewhere. I gave it quite a lot of ISO leeway because the sun was barely up when I put the camera out)

1 x 18-55 WR kit lens

1 x flimsy, cheap tripod (the only kind I have, although for reasons I can't remember I have two of them)

1 x Infrared remote (the remote control for my home cinema - if any of you have a Yamaha YSP-800, press the power button and then the left arrow will fire your camera)

I put the camera pointing to my bird table, and retired to the kitchen to have a coffee. The birds were very wary of it at first; it's a shame the flashing red light has to be on in IR mode; but after a while a few came to the table. With time they will get used to it.

I managed to get a few shots before I had to leave for work. Nothing very satisfactory, but I'm going to keep trying.

I can't really rotate the camera so that the support for the bird table roof isn't showing because I need a straight line between the IR remote and the camera, and unfortunately the camera has focussed on it rather than the bird. I'll have to think about that. It also underexposed quite badly, perhaps because I didn't cover the viewfinder.

Today though I was just happy to get something - it shows the birds weren't completely terrified. Robins are all bold, though. I'll update as I make progress - I'm already thinking of making some sort of cable remote so I can turn the camera. Here's what I got this morning - wrong focus point and exposure rescued as it is - so I have a reference point to work from.

Oh, and I also learned how much condensation you get on a camera when you bring it straight from outside in to a warm kitchen!

[Cee Cee]

on the up side, the background is nice and sharp! maybe you could manually pre focus to the center of the feed box and try to shoot with a greater DOF. (depending on your light) I'll follow your progress with interest as I'm also thinking of a feeder to lure some birds in. I also have a flimsy tripod and have made myself a cable remote.... good luck!

cheers,
CC.

[baro-nite]

I'd say this is a very promising start. Have you considered a focus trap? I've never tried it but this seems to be a good situation for it.

[Northern Soul]

on the up side, the background is nice and sharp! maybe you could manually pre focus to the center of the feed box and try to shoot with a greater DOF. (depending on your light) I'll follow your progress with interest as I'm also thinking of a feeder to lure some birds in. I also have a flimsy tripod and have made myself a cable remote.... good luck!

cheers,
CC.

Thank you - I was pleased with the background. I think my kit lens might be front focussing a bit though; I'm going to test it tonight.

I may try pre-focussing tomorrow. I went for f6.7 to get a bit of DoF, it was the smallest aperture the light would stand when I put the camera out, although it was much brighter by the time the birds came out of "the messy tree" as my daughter calls it - the one a few gardens down where they go to roost so I will also try f8 next time.

I also have in my arsenal of cheap photography things, a Tamron Adaptall 80-210 with a temperamental PK/A mount. I may also try using that, with the camera a bit nearer the house in the hope that the IR setup might be a bit more tolerant of a more acute angle between the camera and the remote if they are closer together. Using the Tamron instead of the FA would allow me to try ....

I'd say this is a very promising start. Have you considered a focus trap? I've never tried it but this seems to be a good situation for it.

Focus trap doesn't seem to work the way I want on the K-7 (or k10d) - I would like a mode where it takes a picture whenever something comes into focus, but I *think* it can only take a picture when something is in focus *and* you press the shutter? With the distance from bird table to kitchen, it'd be hard for me to tell if the bird is in focus enough for it to fire. As it is I have to keep an eye on the orange 'write to card' light to see if it's worked at all!

However, I suspect there is some way to rig up one of those cheap cabled remotes from eBay so that it constantly sends a 'fire' signal to the camera, which would mean I could leave it unattended and have my coffee on the sofa instead

[crewl1]

Nice work! Some tips if I may:
Rig up a bird-grip sized, natural looking branch with the bend to the top ( sort of hump up.)
Place it just above the feeder off to side a slightly so that birds will use it as as a landing spot before hitting the seed.
Pre-focus your camera on the logical landing spot and face it toward a nice background preferably farther away.
Use an aperture that will blur the background but keeps a bird sized focused area.
If you can face the camera so you are controlling it with the rear Ir port you can put black tape over the blinky light.
If needed move the feeder to a better vantage point to let you do this and stay in your warm blind ( house.)
Moving the feeder away from natural cover will also encourage them to use your landing spot and may provide better lighting.
Get a five dollar broken camera deal from eBay and leave it in the spot you want to shoot from all season long to let the birds become accustomed to the device.

[baro-nite]

Focus trap doesn't seem to work the way I want on the K-7 (or k10d) - I would like a mode where it takes a picture whenever something comes into focus, but I *think* it can only take a picture when something is in focus *and* you press the shutter? With the distance from bird table to kitchen, it'd be hard for me to tell if the bird is in focus enough for it to fire. As it is I have to keep an eye on the orange 'write to card' light to see if it's worked at all!

However, I suspect there is some way to rig up one of those cheap cabled remotes from eBay so that it constantly sends a 'fire' signal to the camera, which would mean I could leave it unattended and have my coffee on the sofa instead

Exactly. As I understand it, you need a cable release with lock. You also need an A-series or earlier lens, or else cover the AF contacts as described in the focus trap thread I linked (post #3). I think this would work especially well with crewl1's suggested perch.

[Northern Soul]

Excellent advice - thank you. I'm not sure this bird table would stand for being moved as the cover seems to be holding it up to a large extent - it has one missing 'foot' so even if I disentangled it, it'd fall over in the middle of the lawn. It was in the garden when we moved in. I think falling over is especially likely as the aforementioned toddler would doubtless knock it over with a salvo of her footballs (she has eleven it seems; we counted them yesterday - she seems to have a ball-magnetism)

I will see if I can rig up a perch though - that sounds fab.

We also have a hedge with small-bird sized holes in it where they flee too when the cat comes. I've set up a brick opposite some of these, which I put seed in. I'm hoping I can catch them peeping out of the hedge before they feed there (they're quite wary of it as it's new, it's near the kitchen door, and it has no cover, but the do feed there) I think the hedge might ultimately provide a more natural shot, but the bird table gets a bigger variety of birds.

Here's the baited brick - with no birds. I think me setting up here will take them a bit longer to get used to:




And here is a Dunnock in the hedge-hole (this taken through the glass of the kitchen door, using trap focus with the Tamron)

[crewl1]

I've successfully used a cable remote like this one http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=180555991103&cmd=VIDESC
I found that I had better results by watching and shooting when I wanted with the Ir remote.
My subjects are hummingbirds so maybe due to size they are not good candidates for trap focus where larger birds will have better success.

[crewl1]

Oh didn't see your post as I was typing. That peeking out shot is cool!

[Northern Soul]

Squirrels, cats and a toddler have combined to give no results today -yet!

[Northern Soul]

Quite a lot of this today:




I moved the camera to be nearer the kitchen, and thus further from the birdtable, so I pointed it at a well used hedge hole. Nothing. Always tomorrow!

[Northern Soul]

I've left the birds be for a while now, and have added another feeder - they seem to be getting more used to me, and love is definitely in the air so they are getting bolder. I'm going to have another go at this at the weekend if I get chance.

[Northern Soul]

I've not updated this for ages, and nor have I tried anything new yet; I seem to have been busy whenever there has been light this year!

However, I grabbed 20 minutes this afternoon when I just sat still outside the house, and got this.

I still need to work on getting the camera closer to the birds and getting a nicer background though.

[westmill]

It wont be the lens back or front focusing it will be the fact the focus points are huge.
If your using the centre spot, the size of the actual focus zone coresponds with those two semicircles surounding the focus conformation square in the centre
of your veiwfinder.

[Northern Soul]

Thanks westmill - this was taken with the F 80-200 which isn't the sharpest lens in the box, and my copy isn't exactly clean at the moment either as I couldn't find my lens cleaning stuff. That said I've just looked in the settings and I'd left the focus adjust on +3 for this lens last time I was fiddling about. I should calibrate them properly really!