Dead eyed Starling

[Trevoreast]

Testing a new lens, I don't think I've snapped a bird in years, thought I'd give it a go as I saw some colourful ones in the garden this morning.

After waiting for nearly half an hour this Starling turned up just as I was going to give up

F4, 1/125 ISO 200, 40D, 70-200 2.8L, overcast dull - I was going to set up a flash but I didn't want birds perching on it



Trev

[Trevoreast]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

Here's a bit of my cheating setup. :-)
Made a perch from branches and placed bread below it.
Setup a perch about 5 or 6 foot from my open door, drew the curtains and used clothes pegs so the lens was poking out of the cutains.



Trev

[Muscat]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

Nout wrong with the cheeting or the lens by the looks of things

[Trevoreast]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

Thanks Muscat, I was hoping for one of those yellow tits - I was outta luck :-)

Trev

[colin C]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

You've done all the right things Trev and thanks for posting your set-up.

A small flash at an angle would probalby have bounced some of the iridescence back to the camera.

Colin

[Trevoreast]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

Cheers Colin, I got actually got this idea from pics of a red squirrel in Scotland on the old forum.
Do you remember "the default liken covered tree stump" they used to stage their wild red squirrel pics on ?? :-)

I will try the flash next time.
I was utilising the high speed shooting on the 40D, this was the best of a burst, I think was close enough so the birds could hear the camera.

Trev

[Pinkeez]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

looks a very nice sharp image trev, nice tip on the set-up too.

[Muscat]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

Trev, I have tried a similar technique with the camera near to the birds and found that if I put the Canon thick waterproof cover I have over the camera this killed a lot of the shutter slam, I also found that if I keep the camera rig where it is and fire off a couple of shots each time the birds came they simply got used to it and pretty much ignored the noise. Didn't help me get any really good pictures but I will try again when it gets brighter

[Trevoreast]

Re: Dead eyed Starling

Trev, I have tried a similar technique with the camera near to the birds and found that if I put the Canon thick waterproof cover

The 7D is louder than the 40D so I was only getting on shot, before they took off.

Caught this small brown bird with a creepy crawly of some sort.
Nearly the same setup as last time. This time I had 2 speedlights about 5 foot either side of my perch.

This was taken with a 7D rther than the 40D - ISO 200, F4, 1/160
To get a real sharp image I think I'd need a faster shutter speed.



Trev