January High Pressure (2) More Birds

As mentioned in a previous blog 15^th January was a day of clear blue skies, but very cold.  I decided to use the wireless remote control with my camera on the tripod to take photographs of visitors to the hanging fat ball feeder.  This feeder hangs on a very spiky hawthorn tree, and visitors can include small birds, woodpeckers and thrushes, and squirrels. I decided to cover a very wide area for the image, so that any possible visitors could be recorded. If only small birds arrived I hoped to obtain a collective image so that the social nature of these birds could be captured.

In making this decision I realised that the images would probably need quite drastic cropping, however with the light being of a good quality I could use ISO 200 so the problem of noise was reduced. Accurate manual focusing was essential, and I felt far more confident in this area having used the system several times previously.

The time was about midday, so there was a maximum amount of light. The camera settings were:

f/4.7; ISO 200; 1/125 second; focal length 76mm.

Unfortunately no squirrels or woodpeckers appeared, but of small birds there were several.

This image shows 3 birds, all within reasonable focus, but none really interacting. The background is quite distracting and as it stands the image is clear, but uninspiring.

The comments about the background are still relevant. The birds are in focus, and their eyes are making contact with the camera. Possibly cropping might make this a useful image.

This is the cropped image. The background is no longer a distraction; the birds are in focus. The blue tit is making eye contact with the camera whereas the tree sparrow appears to be looking straight at you – and he/she is not impressed by your presence. The image needs brightening, but it is certainly interesting and worth extra effort in Photoshop.