Wednesday Morning Blues

Wednesday morning I added another image to my "Blues Collection" of Steller's Jay images.  Late Tuesday afternoon I went out into the backyard and set up a lichen covered brach about twelve feet out from our back bedroom window. I clanped it at an angle between to up right perch supports at a nice angle for the birds to land on. Just above it and out of camera view I hung a single port bird feeder filled with black sunflower seed. Then I went back inside the bedroom and pulled the window screen out and put the window hide/ blind in it's place. On Wednesday morning I was up bright and early waiting for the birds to come. I waited and waited and nothing came. What's a fella to do but go make some breakfast. While I was preparing breakfast I heard the distinctive call of the Jays. I grabbed my breakfast bowl and hurried down the hall into the bedroom. Looking out from the blind i watched the Jays feed looking to see where they were landing. Once I figured that out I prefocused my Tamron 150-600 mm lens on the spot. I was alarmed to see my shutter speed on my Canon E|OS 7D was quite low! I took about thirty exposures and all but four had some kind of motion blur in them. One however looked pretty nice. Late after uploading the images to the computer I was very happy to see it was pretty sharp. I had the image i was looking for. Great over the shoulder pose on a beautiful perch. Later on I set up my camera again and Got a really nice Western Gray Squirrel in the same spot. They have the most awesome tails. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Knothole Bird Feeder

I set up a knothole bird feeder in the yard to try and capture some close up images of the Black-headed Grosbeaks. I put it right next to my platform bird feeder . Then I cleared out all of the bird seed from the platform feeder forcing them to look for food close by. After settling into the photoblind the birds started coming in. They were looking all over the place until a Steller's Jay discovered the small hole. It looked at it quizzically for a bit and then dove right in grabbing a few seeds and flying off. The jays really got into it. After they left the grosbeaks gave it a try. They were actually easier to photograph because when one of them would land on the feeder they would park themselves and keep feeding for quite awhile. Here are three of my favorite images. God's blessings upon your weekend. To all of you Americans out there, Happy Fourth of July! All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens. #teamcanonusa

Ahh, My Sweet Little Chickadee

This morning I worked on a set up that I wanted to call the, Steller's Jay Blues. First I set up a mixed blue background. In front of the background I put up a perch that I had found earlier in the week from the firewood pile. For the crowning glory I surrounded the perch with three purple and white Iris from the garden. I climbed into the photoblind with great expectations. I waited and I waited. One Steller's Jay came but there wasn't enough light to photograph it so I upped the ISO on my camera. Then the bully boys the Western Gray Squirrels showed up. I had to scare them away by rapping on the photoblind wall and telling them to go away. Instead they went up into the trees and began yelling at me. Finally another Jay stopped by. It hopped up onto the perch and I hit the shutter. The flash overexposed the image as I had upped the ISO after seeing the first Jay in low light thereby cancelling the flash settings I had inputted into the camera. I went back to the waiting game. A Raven stopped by and had a couple of peanuts. It never got into a position I could photograph it from before it left. My last visitor as the light was beginning to burn out was a little Chestnut Backed chickadee that was almost overwhelmed by the size of the set up I had created. Some days you have to just take what you can get. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris This image was created by a Canon EOS 7DMKII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight set to - 1 1/3rd stops. The Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 8.0 at 1/50th of a sec. #teamcanonusa

More Shelter in Place Photography

I love photographing birds and squirrels in my yard. It's a quiet time to think and see wildlife up close and unobserved. This afternoon I got to watch a deer walk across our driveway all the way up to my blind until she scented me and then made a hasty retreat the way she had come. I watched several squirrels came and go as well as a chipmunk that grabbed a few sunflower seeds and ran off between visits by the much bigger squirrels. The main thing is it gets me out of doors and in a safe place. Here is a sampling of images from the past two and a half days. All these images were photographed using simple set up created by leaning mossy log over some cinder blocks under my bird feeder. From a photoblind in my yard in Mendocino county, Northern California.God's love and blessings to all, chris All of these images were created with a Canon 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS V.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight. #teamcanonusa

Shelter in Place Photography or Simple Set Up

Yesterday I created a super simple set up for photographing birds in my yard. The chances are that if you have a bird feeder in your yard you can set up something similar. I stacked up two piles of some old cinder blocks underneath our bird feeder and put a branch across between them. You don't have to use cinder blocks you could use trash cans or sawhorses. Just something that would be close to eye level when you are sitting in a chair looking at it. I made one stack higher on one side than the other. Then I removed the perch off of the bird feeder so that the birds would have to land on the branch before they could fly up to grab food from the feeder. I set up my photoblind with an old office chair inside roughly eight feet from the branch. I used a pop up blind from Ameristep. You could use an appliance box or a camping tent for a blind. I had no shortage of birds coming to the feeder! I photographed Steller's Jays, Juncos and Black Headed Grosbeaks along with some squirrels.If you are interested give it a try. For more ways to photograph birds check out my book ,Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography. It is available on most online book sellers including Amazon. God's light and love to all, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens with a Canon 550 EX Speedlight set to - 1 1/3 rd stops. #teamcanonusa

Fall Portrait

This morning I went out to the photoblind to create some more images for the, "Off the Hook", series of images I'm working on. I set up a separate feeder for the squirrels off to the side of the pond so they wouldn't bother me when I was photographing birds. After sitting in the blind for about fifteen minutes the birds started pouring in. At first there were a lot of Steller's Jays. No other birds would show up when they were around! Later the chickadees and some nuthatches stopped by. The lighting started to get too bright around ten and I was thinking about packing it up when a Western Gray Squirrel showed up. I sat watching the squirrel when it hit me that with the bright fall background this would make a great fall portrait. I zoomed in tight on the squirrel waiting for it to lift its head to look around and take a break from feeding. After a couple of tries I got it. Fall is almost upon us and this is a great image that shows off the fall colors. God's light and love to all, chris This image was created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens at 400mm. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight set to -1 2/3rds stops. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 8.0 at 1/2,500th of a sec. #teamcanonusa, #teamcanon

Band, Cast, Party and Scold

There was a scold of Steller's Jays at the bird feeder in the back yard this morning. Who makes up these odd names for groups of birds anyway? A cast of Steller's Jays. Sounds more like casting a spell. Shaking of fists and pointed finger. "I cast a Steller's Jay on you!" There were only Jays coming to the bird feeder so I made the best of it and made quite a few images of them. I even got a few over the shoulder looks. One of my favorite bird poses as it really shows off their plumage. They are quite the fun and vocal group of birds to watch. I hope your week is going well. God bless, chris #teamcanon All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7DMKII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens. The camera settings used were, AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at a variety of shutter speeds. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX speedlight set to minus 1-2/3rds stops. #teamcanon

Summer Vacation

Since late spring and early summer I've been really busy and I've been neglecting my photoblog. I went to my niece's wedding in Toronto which was unbelievable! Many thanks to the Sheerazi family for your incredible hospitality and a beautiful wedding. This morning I created a quick B.O.A.S. (Bird On A Stick) set up next to a new bird feeder made from a water bottle in the back yard. There were a lot of Black Headed Grosbeaks and a few Steller's Jays that immediately came to the feeder and started feeding. Here are a few of my favorite images. God's blessings to one and all, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon Speedlite 550 EX. Shutter speeds varied but my camera was set to AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0. #teamcanon

Snowy Day Backyard Birds

At the beginning of this week the snow came floating down. By the end of the storm we had just under six inches of snow on the ground. I set up a bird feeder and a perch about eight feet from our back bedroom window. Immediately after I filled the feeder the birds began coming in. Because it's winter I managed to capture all of the most common birds from our backyard. Dark Eyed Juncos, Chestnut Backed Chickadees, Red Breasted Nuthatches and Steller's Jays. I had a great session and the birds enjoyed the free food. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera with a Canon EOS 100-400 IS v.1 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX flash.#TeamCanon

Mellow Yellow

This last week I was working on set ups in the backyard with the color theme of yellow. I was using a yellow and green back drop with bright yellow and orange sunflowers. It really made the birds especially the Steller's Jays pop in the images. Camera wise I was using my Canon EOS 7D MkII camera body. For my choice of lens I was using both my Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 and my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM v.1 lenses. They are both excellent for this type of photography with the ability to zoom in or out for composing an image in the frame without changing your camera position. This is especially beneficial when working from a photoblind where you can't very easily just pick up and move. I hope that all of you are having a great week. God's love and blessings to all, chris #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron Fill flash was provided in some images by a Canon 550 EX flash set to -1 stops. All images were created on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 Heavy duty ballhead.

Working an Image

Last week I set up a lichen covered fir branch in the backyard. I placed it just above a small platform feeder so that the birds would land on it when they were coming to the feeder. About twelve feet back from the feeder I set up a grayish nondescript hand painted gray background. I photographed the birds landing on the perch like that for awhile and then I added in some ferns to give it a little bit of color.Next I I changed the background to one with an off color yellow so that the Jays would stand out a little more. Following that I draped some fall colored vines over the background to really make the colors pop. With the ferns and the fall colors it looked great. It always pays as a photographer to really work an image. The birds featured are Steller's Jays and Band-tailed Pigeons. God's love and blessings to all, chris All of the above images were created with Canon EOS cameras. The last image was made with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600 mm G2 lens. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX flash set to -1- 2/3rds stops. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron

Silver Lining

The smoke from the wildfires has been really bad this past week. Normally the coastal breeze blowing off the ocean kept our air fairly clear. It stayed that way until this last week when it shifted and we awoke to a red sun and smoky skies most of the week. There was one small silver lining to the smoky air. It made for the most wonderful, diffuse, soft red light for bird photography. Some days I could photograph birds all day long. The lighting on those days just never got harsh. The downside to all of this bird photography was that I had hundreds of bird images to edit. This evening I finished editing and there were a lot of fine images to choose from. Much to my surprise the only two species of birds that came to our bird feeder for the whole week were Band-tailed Pigeons and Steller's Jays. I selected four of each from the final edit. Enjoy the images and God bless, chris All of the images were created with a Canon EOS Rebel T1i and a TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 lens. #TeamCanon, #WithMyTamron