Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #18927958
I like to get shots of birds in snowstorms
Me too!
Birds and wildlife in the snow and ice are some of the most beautiful nature photos one can get! . Each year, when the snow and ice melt away, and spring moves in, is a sad time for me because I will have to wait so long for a chance to get snow and ice shots again.
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Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #18927958..... unless you run electric out there and an electric adapter for the camera battery life can be in the minutes, cold kills batteries and it will be Zero to 10 above (F) many days.
Something seems off about this. What camera are you using?
I spend a lot of time with my camera in blinds, out in winter temperatures that are down in the single digits. . Hours on end. . None of my cameras have had battery life "in the minutes", as you suggest. . Even little prosumer cameras with their pathetic little batteries last for three to five hours, unless I'm shooting hundreds of shots per hour. . But it doesn't seem like you are shooting all that much, as you have said that sometimes you have to wait hours for a bird to come in and present a favorable opportunity.
If your battery life is really as bad as you say, then I suspect that the battery you are using is near the end of its life. . Getting a new battery should give you two to four hours of shooting in zero degree fahrenheit. . In such temperatures, with a good battery, battery life is in the hours, not in the minutes. . This is based on lots and lots of personal experience out in sub-freezing temperatures with lots of different camera models.
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Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #18928264I am going to try several different approaches. Last year I bought a two way mirror to shoot through, since any movement inside is seen by the birds, but found it lost at least 4 stops, way too much.
If your window is double-hung, then just a piece of 1 1/2 inch thick foam insulation with a hole in it should work quite well. . Make the hole a couple inches bigger around than you need to fit the lens through; the extra space will provide room to move the lens around at different angles and also give you space to see through, so that you can see where the birds are. . Fitting the panel to the window dimensions and installing it in the window opening is similar to putting an air conditioner in the window; it's easy and only takes a minute or three to get everything set just right.
I've done this many times (shoot through a panel of insulation with a hole in it), although I have not done it through a window yet. . When I've shot through the insulation panel, it has been part of a blind, not in a window, but it will work the same way.
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Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #18928264one thing I need is a wide range of movement in the camera, some of the best shots have been on the snow on the ground, others on the feeder and new branch and others high in the bushes in the back.
"High in the bushes in the back" sounds less than ideal for high quality bird photos. . You could set things up in a way that gets the birds to land in more predictable spots. . In fact, you can make it so that you actually "tell" the bird which branch to land on, and they will land just where you direct them to.
The basic trick is to figure out where, ideally, you would like the birds to land. . What place will be close enough to you for frame-filling closeups? . What place would align the birds with the most pleasing background? . Which spot has the light falling on it from the most favorable angle? . Once you identify this place, put a nice, attractive perch branch there. . You can go out in the woods and search for the "perfect" branch, one that has character, is relatively thin (small diameter), and one that is complementary in color to the birds you want to photograph.
The perch can be held up in place with rebar stakes or affixed to a cheap tripod that you leave out there ...... anything, really. . Just take measures that ensure that the birds land on the perch itself instead of on thing that is holding the perch up - that looks ugly.
Once you have the perfect perch in place, in the perfect location, then set your bird feed about 18" below the branch, and two to three feet in front of it. . By "in front of it", I mean toward the camera. . Most birds will land on the perch prior to feeding. . They will alight on the perch, look this way and that for a moment or three, then hop down to the feed.
The few moments when they are on the perch, before they feed, is when you can effectively photograph them. . They may hop back on the perch after they grab some food, but in these instances they usually have a piece of bird seed in their bill, which does not make for a very pleasing or natural looking photograph. . So try to get them on their approach, not on their departure.
You can gather a variety of perches and then switch them out on a daily, or hourly, basis. . This will ensure that your photos look fresh and new and that you don't end up with a bunch of photos of the birds on the same stick, day after day. Friends of mine that do this type of set-up shooting have a wonderful array of perches that they have gathered over the course of years. .. You can even cut fresh perches in season, for added interest, such as a Bluebird on blooming Eastern Redbud, or a Song Sparrow on newly blooming moss, or an Oriole perched amongst peach blossoms.
Likewise with the birds landing on the ground in the snow; don't let them land just anywhere - "tell" them what area of the ground to land on by the way you arrange your feeding station. . You can make a shallow trench in the surface of the snow, about an inch deep and no more than an inch across. . Make the trenches perpendicular to the camera/subject axis. . Then put bird seed in the bottom of the shallow trench. . Make sure that your footprints are not near the trench - when making the trench, reach over away from your body so that your footprints are at least two feet away. . When done correctly, neither the trench nor the seed will be seen by the camera.
Typically, once the birds discover the seed in the trench, they will land on the snow a few feet behind the trench, then walk or hop atop the snow toward the trench to feed. . This gives you an opportunity to get pics of the birds before they have a seed in their bill (which is unsightly).
You will probably find that shooting from the window at a downward angle toward the ground is not ideal. . So there is something you can do about that. . Before the snow falls, get a folding table from your garage and set it up where you want the birds to land - preferably close enough to the window to give frame-filling photos. . After the snow falls, and covers the table top, go out and make a trench in the snow on the table top, in the way I suggested earlier. . Now you will be able to get the birds in the snow up at a height nearer that of the window, so that you don't have that nasty downward angle to deal with. . Eye level to the birds is usually most preferable, so if the table isn't high enough you can just add two by fours as leg extensions to get that table top up as high as the window.
This is the great thing about backyard feeding stations - you can pretty much control everything, including where the birds land, perch material, backgrounds, light, etc. . YOU, the photographer, are in control of everything!
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"Your" and "you're" are different words with completely different meanings - please use the correct one.
"They're", "their", and "there" are different words with completely different meanings - please use the correct one.
"Fare" and "fair" are different words with completely different meanings - please use the correct one. The proper expression is "moot point", NOT "mute point".
