Valerie Ann Phillips: Photos taken on 3rd December using wireless remote cable system.

The morning of Saturday 3rd December proved to be bright and sunny, but very cold and windy. I hoped to take photos of birds at one or more of the feeding stations in my garden. Since the light was bright I could use a low ISO number - choosing ISO 200. I also chose a wide aperture, which meant that I could use a fast shutter speed. I felt this was necessary since

the feeders themselves were constantly swinging in the strong wind
by this means I would maximise my chances of catching the movement of the birds still in focus.

I fixed the camera on my tripod about 5 feet from the feeder:

to give the camera stability in the wind
to enable all the settings - manual focus, aperture, shutter speed and focal length to be fixed

Initially I used the view finder to compose the picture, but as explained in my previous blog this proved to be very unwieldy and ineffective. Hence I used live view on the camera:

to enable me to compose the picture
to enable me to accurately use manual focus on the specific area I hoped to photograph

I used manual focus rather than auto focus:

so that the photo would be taken instantly (rather than recalibrate with auto focus) - or the birds would literally have flown!
because the high winds made the feeders swing considerably - making auto focus impossible to use

I used the wireless remote control to fire the shutter:

so that I remained out of the sight of the birds and they could behave naturally
and I remained warm - an important factor as it was very cold.

The results are shown below:

f/4.5; ISO 200; 1/200 sec; focal length 50 mm

These 3 photos showed that using a remote wireless cable release was an effective means of taking action photographs of the birds. By having a fast shutter speed I captured the wing movement and was pleased with the effect. I did feel that I could get a closer image by increasing the magnification of the lens. To position the tripod closer was not easy.

f/5.0; ISO 200; 1/800 sec; focal length 98 mm

With this image I wanted to see if I could capture the birds waiting on nearby branches. Indeed I could and the composition of the photo was potentially interesting. Unfortunately, the focus was not as accurate as required and also the bird sat behind a small twig (how could it?!)

Lessons: