Birds in the backyard this morning

[Back288]

Still trying to get the hang of fill flash...didn't work at all this morning for me again, so here are some that sort of turned out without flash. I know, the backgrounds suck, but the garden's not bird friendly yet so I gotta take what I can get for now. All taken with the XTi, 100-400, handheld. Comments and advice always welcome, thanks for looking!

My favorite Robin shot so far
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/IMG_1538cs.jpg
Juvenile Robin, I liked the expression...it looked like he was telling the one on top of the power pole "you want me to come way up there!?!?!?!?"
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/IMG_1546cs.jpg
Family argument?
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/IMG_1541cs.jpg
Puffy Sparrow?
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/IMG_1557cs.jpg
Party of four...I kept waiting for the odd one to turn around, but it never did
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/IMG_1574cs.jpg
Finally got a Goldfinch, we've got a bunch of them but boy are they camera shy
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/Back288/IMG_1558cs.jpg

[canonloader]

That's not a family arguement, the baby wants to be fed, so he flutters his wings and opens his beak, and the ones below that are all sparrows. Cute, I've got about 5 pounds of baby sparrows here in my yard this year. :)

Great Robin shots too.

Fill flash is only good when there is enough light for regular shooting, but you want to shoot a bird in the shade or one in the sun but the shaded side is towards you. Set the camera to Av Mode and Custom Function 3, the one that sets flash to 1/250 [Fixed] or Auto, set it to Auto. Then set the flash to high speed sync. When you take the shot, you go with what Av Mode gives you, it could be more or less than 1/250. When you push the button, the camera will tell the flash how much light to put out to just lighten the shaded side and not blow out the BG. If it worked good, there should be no shadow like a flash in low light would give. :)

[Back288]

Thanks for the ID help, an hour or so before the shot with the 4 Sparrows (while I had the dog out), there were seriously about 40 of them all on the wires and poles. Thank you very much Mitch for the fill flash tips, I'll definitely try that next time out. When I first went out this morning, it was heavy overcast and I was trying to use TV (had been trying only manual "M", but read on the forum that AV and TV worked better for fill flash). Got frustrated and put the flash away for the rest of the morning. From your tips, it sounds like the overcast early on would've killed the shots anyway, but with the sun later it would've worked.

[canonloader]

It took me forever to figure out fill flash, then it all fell into place for me. Fill Flash means just that, just enough light to "fill" in the shadows. It works particularly well for back lit subjects, like a bird between you and the sun. If you took the shot, the camera would meter for the bright day and the bird would look like a silhouette. But with fill flash, the camera still meters for the ambient light and the flash puts out just enough light to bring the shadows up to the rest of the light levels.

So, once it gets dark, fill flash won't work, cause the camera would meter for dark and the shutter speeds would be like 1/25sec. That's no good unless your on a tripod and the subject isn't moving, flash or not. Once you need to use flash in dark conditions, take it off high speed sync and set Custom Fucntion 3 back to 1/250 [Fixed].

But, even a cloudy day should keep your shutter speeds up high enough to use by adjusting ISO higher. Say from 200 on a bright day to 400 or 640 or even 800 for a dark day and it depends on the lens too and the F/stop you use. But fill flash should work OK.