House Wrens Nesting II

Shooting these guys is very frustrating. The day was sunny, but they are in a shaded spot in the woods, so I either have to use fill flash, which I guess I still haven't figured out yet, or higher ISO with slower shutter speeds so they come out all grainy with the 30D. They must be sitting on eggs now cause I saw no more materials going into the nest yesterday and one or the other of the two would go into the nest and stay quite awile before being relieved by the other.

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Yeah, that's it... they're sitting on eggs... that's the plan...for shure...
They are so cute...

I like the legs in # one, three and four, and the colors and gray zones in # two and three... The head shot in # 5 is special and the last one has great colors and patterns too..

The BG bokeh is real nice in all of these pics... The green is great as are the gray zones...

I like that one peeking out of the tree!
Karen

Thanks John and Karen. It's going to rain here today, dark and gray, and the popup hide I ordered last week will be here tomorrow. So today, I practice on my poor yard birds, trying to figure out how to make "Fill Flash" work. These images are OK, but a bit grainy due to the lighting at this spot and I'd dearly love to be able to use the new Better Beamer to good effect with lower ISO to conquer the grain. Only the last shot is with the Beamer, and it was luck it came out. You don't get this kind of chance with this bird very often.

Considering the obstacles this is a nice attempt Mitch .You have already pointed out some of the issues. Depending on where you situate the blind, I doubt very much you would need the better beamer. If close enough then your 550EX should be more than adequate. I don't know the ins and outs of the 550 but I suspect it can be set up on the flash for high speed sync and telephoto ( 580EX has a 105mm telephoto setting). The 30D allows you to change the intensity right on the camera with the first button on top in conjunction with the wheel, You can see the intensty in the viewfinder go from -1/3 to-2 ( the other directionas well) much like you can use the wheel to increase and decrease exposure comp. Just remember to use the flash to assist or fill and not as the main source of light. This means that you may still have to lower shutter speeds and increase ISO's otherwise you could get the "Flash look"

Thanks Gary. Due to my limitations of only being able to be there from about 9am to maybe 2pm, and the layout of this place, I have to either shoot into the sun, or the sun is directly overhead. This means the dark side of the bird is towards me. There is simply no other way to set up because of the orientation of the nest hole. The last shot above was with flash and beamer and still needed a fair amount of PP.

The intensity of what? The flash? Your saying I can control flash compensation from the camera? The 550ex is much like the 580ex, as far as I know and I know I can set it on the back of the flash, which of course takes time and means lost opportunity. Being able to set it from the camera would be a huge bonus.

canonloader wrote in post #3236162
Thanks Gary. Due to my limitations of only being able to be there from about 9am to maybe 2pm, and the layout of this place, I have to either shoot into the sun, or the sun is directly overhead. This means the dark side of the bird is towards me. There is simply no other way to set up because of the orientation of the nest hole. The last shot above was with flash and beamer and still needed a fair amount of PP.

The intensity of what? The flash? Your saying I can control flash compensation from the camera? The 550ex is much like the 580ex, as far as I know and I know I can set it on the back of the flash, which of course takes time and means lost opportunity. Being able to set it from the camera would be a huge bonus.

If its anything like the 580 then yes...I control the exposure compensation on the flash from the camera...never have to take my eye off the viewfinder. Index finger on the first button on top ( metering and flash button) and thumb rotates the wheel while you view the change in the viewfinder. Same deal as when you change the exposure comp and all this providing the wheel is in change mode (on). I pre set the flash to high speed comp and set it to 105 telephoto...I have not yet used the better beamer.

Thanks again Gary. I just got everything set up and gave it a try and your right on. Now I can control both from the wheel. But, flash compensation seems to do very little out at 30 feet or so. I see a very small difference anyway in RAW.

So I put the Beamer on and now I can get good lit shots out to 30 feet, which may be what I need. I haven't actually measured the distance from where I can set up to the wren nest, as I don't want to stress the birds, so I was just guessing. I'm going to spend the day here, [raining now], practicing until I get this down in memory. Thanks for the tip, I just never conected with FC and the wheel before.