More Bird Photography

This afternoon when I got home from running errands from downtown I created a quick set up. I used a fall colored background and a beautiful bright red sunflower. I placed the sunflower next to the bird feeder for the birds to land on. The birds coming into the bird feeder went from zero to sixty as soon as I climbed into the photoblind. There were Steller's Jays mixed with Red Breasted Nuthatches and Chestnut Backed Chickadees. There were a few Dark Eyed Juncos hanging around but they were't coming to the feeder. It was pretty dark in the shade which made for some difficult lighting. I ended up using an ISO of 3200 which is pretty high to bring up the shutter speeds to something fast enough to stop the action. Even so I was still down to some pretty slow shutter speeds. To help with that I set up a fill flash with a Canon 550 EX speedlight at minus 1 1/3rd stops. After uploading the images I found a dozen of them that I really liked. There were two that ended up being my favorites. One of a Red Breasted Nuthatch and one of a Chestnut Backed Chickadee. Not bad for a short afternoon in challenging light.God's love and blessings to all, chris Both of the images were created with a Canon 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400 IS V. 1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550EX Speedlight. #teamcanon, #teamcanonusa

Knothole Feeders

I built two new knothole bird feeders this last week and I have been trying them out in the yard. I just have to remember to take them in each time I use them or the Gray Squirrels will tear them apart to get to the seed. On Friday the birds were using them non stop. They love that black sunflower seed. Here are a few sample images from the feeders. All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Canon 100-400IS V.1 lens.The camera settings varied. #teamcanonusa, #teamcanon God's love and blessings to all, chris

Split Rail Fence or What's Up There?

This image was my favorite image from a series of images that I did this last week. I found a mossy covered section of split rail fence to use as a perch. I set it up right next to the bird feeder for the birds to land on. Right now there is very little variety of birds coming to my feeder though that will change soon. Right now there are pretty much only two species of birds visiting the feeder on a regular basis. Chestnut Backed Chickadees and Red Breasted Nuthatches. This was my favorite Nuthatch image. God's tender love and blessings upon your week, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at 1/200th of a sec. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Simple Lichen Perch

I'm always searching for new perches to use for my bird photography. The best ones are usually found when I'm either driving or walking to our gate and back after a windy night. Saturday I found a really nice lichen covered one on a walk with Lenore and Badger to the gate. After our walk I set it aside for future use. I ended up using it yesterday afternoon and early this morning by clamping it up next to the bird feeder for the birds to land on when they came to feed. There was a mix of Chestnut Backed Chickadees and Red Breasted Nuthatches coming in with the stray Gray Squirrel or two that I yelled at to go away whenever they tried to climb up to the bird feeder. Here are three of my favorite images after editing this morning. God's blessings upon you, chris All of the images were created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Crazy Weather

Yesterday I felt like I was living in Colorado and not California. I awoke to the low rumble of thunder. It hailed for about twenty minutes covering the driveway in almost half an inch of pea sized hail. Not done yet it poured big rain drops really hard off and on for the next couple of hours. Then it totally surprised me by snowing in fits and starts for the rest of the afternoon. There were some really big snowflakes too. Some were close to an inch across. It was just crazy. This morning we awoke to a pink pastel sunrise and it was was overcast for most of the day with a few patches of blue sneaking in. The overcast made for some good photography and I photographed some Red Breasted Nuthatches in the backyard. Have a blessed weekend,chris All of the images were created with Canon cameras. The snowy Redwoods were created with a Canon 7D MkII camera with a Canon EFS 17-85mm lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX flash. The sunrise was captured with a Canon T1i camera and a Canon 50mm f 1.8 lens. All of the bird images were captured with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX flash set to minus 1-1/3rd stops. #TeamCanon, #TakenWithMyTamron

Lichen and a Splash of Color

Yesterday morning I wanted to create a simple image with a splash of color. I thought about it a little bit and grabbed a lichen covered branch and clamped it up beside the bird feeder to use as a perch for the birds to land on. For a splash of color I added a fall covered backdrop about eight feet back behind the perch. Next I went back and forth between our back bedroom and the set up adjusting things so that they looked just right when I was looking through the camera's view finder. For the camera settings I put the camera in AV mode so I could choose the F stop. I used an F stop of 8.0 so the background would be out of focus. For my ISO I set it at 800 a it was fairly cloudy out. I waited for a bit until the birds found the feeder and started using it and i could start photographing them. Three or four times I had to yell at the squirrels to chase them away as I didn't give them their own feeder. After creating over a hundred images. I went upstairs to my computer to edit them. It didn't take very long to eliminate the ones with chopped off tails and heads. After that I got rid of the ones that were way too soft or out of focus. Fairly quickly I was down to just one image. Here is my favorite from the morning a Red Breasted Nuthatch. I love how the bird's plumage matches up with the background colors. God's blessings upon your week, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens at 600mm. The camera was placed on a ground pod on our back bedroom window ledge with a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Mellow Yellow

Off and on over the last week I have been photographing birds with a yellow color theme. I created a several different set ups using yellow flowers in my backyard. I had a lot of Chestnut Backed Chickadees and Red Breasted Nuthatches come in to feed. This time of the year I'm pretty limited on the number of species that I can photograph in our yard. Here are my favorites from the week. God's love and blessings to all, chris All of the following images were created using a Canon 7D MkII camera with a Canon 100-400 L IS USM lens. They were supported with a Manfrotto 055 XPROB Pro tripod with a Bogen heavy duty ballhead. Camera settings varied. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX flash. #TeamCanon Please follow me on Instagram. My user name is Christhephotog .

Working the Set Up

Yesterday afternoon I worked on changing the background for the sunflower set up I have been using in the backyard. I thought a fall color background would go very nicely with the sunflower. This morning with a new sunflower in hand I went out into the backyard to photograph the birds. Upon arrival I discovered that the squirrels had devastated the feeder. So the first order of the day was to put up a new bird feeder. I have a love/strong dislike relationship with the squirrels. They can be a lot of fun to photograph but they do take a toll on my bird feeders by chewing them apart. I spent less than half an hour photographing birds almost non stop as they kept coming into the perch one right after the other.It sure kept my eye glues to the viewfinder of the camera! After editing the images this morning this Red Breasted Nuthatch ended up being my overall favorite. God's light and love to all, chrisThe nuthach image was created with my Canon 7D MkII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens at 350mm on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB Pro tripod. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at 1/200th of a sec. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550EX flash set to -2 stops. #TeamCanon

Let the Sunshine In

Yesterday morning I was up and out into the backyard as the sun was coming up. I was looking forward to creating some images with some sunflowers. I picked them up from the grocery store when I was shopping earlier this week and I wanted to use them before they got too droopy and dried out. With a little bit of fussing about I got everything set up and I settled myself into the photoblind or at least that's what I thought. I ended up making four or five more trips outside the blind to get everything looking the way that I wanted. After that the Red Breasted Nuthatchs and Chestnut Backed Chickadees started dropping in like crazy. They were hungry for little black sunflower seeds from the bird feeder. I had a really good time photographing them and they had a good time eating. Here are four of my favorite images from about an hour of photography. God's love and blessings to all, chrisAll of these images were created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens supported by a Manfrotto 055 XPROB pro tripod with a Bogen ballhead. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0, shutter speeds varied. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron, Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography

Jays and a Nuthatch From Yesterday Morning

As I stated in yesterday's photoblog the birds coming into the bird feeder were non stop. After that most of my morning was spent editing images from an hour of photography which ended up being just under four hundred images which were fairly quickly edited down to about thirty images to go through with a little more intensity. They were mostly Chestnut Backed Chickadees, Steller's Jays and a couple of Red Breasted Nuthatches. Here are some of the Steller's Jays and one Nuthatch.All images were created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB tripod. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Potpourri of Pictures

Here is a mixture of images from the past few days in my backyard in Mendocino County, Northern California. All of these images were photographed from my photoblind on our back patio. The perch used was an old rotten and mossy corral board. There was a nice showing of birds that came to the bird feeder. There were Red Breasted Nuthatches, Steller's Jays, Band-tailed Pigeons and Chestnut Backed Chickadees. I had a separate feeder set up for the squirrels to use but one Western Gray Squirrel came for desert after it had finished eating the other food. God's love and blessings to everyone, chris All of these images were created with a Canon 7D MkII and a Canon 100-400IS v. 1 lens along with a Tamron 150-600mm lens. The camera was supported on a 190 XPROB Manfrotto Tripod with a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead. The camera was set in AV mode, ISO 800. Shutter speeds and F stops varied. A Canon 550EX was used for fill flash set at -2 stops.#TeamCanon #withmytamron

Pinks, Purples and Pastels

Lenore's Lilac is starting to bloom in the backyard. Yesterday afternoon and this morning I put it to use for some bird photography. It's a beautiful bush with a range of colors in the blossoms from pink to purple. I wanted to capture an image of a Chestnut Backed Chickadee but they were uncooperative so I settled for the Steller's Jays, Dark Eyed Juncos and a Red Breasted Nuthatch instead. There were very few clouds in the sky this morning so my time for photography was very limited before it got too bright. I hope that you had a blessed Easter, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM. The camera was on our bedroom window sill supported with a ground pod and a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 . Shutter speeds varied.

Miscellaneous Morning

I used the same mossy Redwood perch yesterday morning for photographing a variety of subjects. I photographed Steller's Jays, Douglas Tree Squirrels, Red Breasted Nuthatches and Western Gray Squirrels. Afterwards as I was heading back into the house I noticed the fog filtering through the trees in the valley down below and I photographed that as well.I had quite the morning. God's love and blessings upon your day, chrisAll images photographed with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600 mm lens. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 shutter speeds varied. #TeamCanon

"Lichen" Red Breasted Nuthatch

This morning after dropping the car off for repairs and working out I came home and created a quick set up. I placed a lichen covered branch right next to the bird feeder for the birds to land on. Within a about twenty minutes or so the birds were landing on the branch before diving to the bird feeder. I photographed birds for about a half an hour and this Red Breasted Nuthatch was my favorite. God's blessings upon your day, chris This image was created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm F5-6.3 Di VC USD at 375mm,The camera was supported on a ground pod with a Bogen ballhead placed on our bedroom window. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 1600, F 8.0 at 1/5o0th of a sec. Conditions were cloudy.