Say Cheese... I Mean, Nuts.

So the plan I outlined yesterday had mixed success. However, I did managed to figure out some technical issues for next time. The two biggest drawbacks to using a close up camera was to do with the shutter noise and the fixed position of the camera.

The shutter noise would startle the birds and make them fly for cover in the nearest bush or tree. The interesting thing is how quickly they seem to react. In a lot of my initial shots I just have a blur of wings. I seemed that birds reacted quickly enough to the mirror slap so that when the shutter actually opens they are in motion. After that I used mirror lockup and got much better results. Seems impossible for them to react that quickly. I must have been doing something wrong.

The fixed position of the camera was a bit of a pain. There are four or so perches on the feeder but each bird seemed to have a preference and so I ended up getting a lot of shots of the same bird and missing others.

All good fun though. I also want to get a good shot of our local (fat) squirrel as he does his Mission Impossible harness act (a la Tom Cruise) to raid the feeder.

In other news: Today I joined Facebook....oh boy.