When I saw a bird alight on the woodpecker feeder, I managed to repositioin and get two shots before it flew off. My wife looked at them and didn't think it was the Downy (or the Hairy) Woodpecker she'd spotted earlier:
Here's our array of feeders:
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Thursday morning's backyard birds
My wife thought she had spotted a Downy Woodpecker on our woodpecker feeder (later she allowed that it might have been a Hairy), so I set up my digiscoping equipment and waited.
When I saw a bird alight on the woodpecker feeder, I managed to repositioin and get two shots before it flew off. My wife looked at them and didn't think it was the Downy (or the Hairy) Woodpecker she'd spotted earlier:
Here's our array of feeders:
When I saw a bird alight on the woodpecker feeder, I managed to repositioin and get two shots before it flew off. My wife looked at them and didn't think it was the Downy (or the Hairy) Woodpecker she'd spotted earlier:
Here's our array of feeders:
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The black and white bird is a chickadee. I saw the downy woodpecker again this morning, but it was on the Japanese maple this time.
ReplyDeleteAs if I was not amazed and impressed enough that you could actually focus that scope for still photos, now you are doing it in video? I hope others who have not tried this can appreciate the accomplishment. I fought with a scope for a few months and gave up. The lack of depth of field was more than I could deal with, but you seem to have somehow mastered it. Excellent!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, thanks for the ID. I hope to "capture" that Downy soon—and other species of bird as well. I saw a stunning male Cardinal a few weeks ago and watched him for several minutes, probably enough time to have set up my equipment (if I hadn't doubted it so much that I didn't even try).
ReplyDeleteMotomynd, I really appreciate the comment. I imagine that you were attempting more ambitious shots than of stationary birds or virtually stationary, hanging bird feeders. My rig would be quite incapable of filming or even still-shooting a running lion or gazelle. The best I could do for a movie would be of a subject that was moving in an arc with respect to me (i.e., always the same distance away), and its quality would depend on my ability to operate the tripod lever....
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of action images, does your camera have a setting that allows you to leave it turned on and set so that it takes a photo automatically anytime something crosses a preselected point of focus? If so you could aim your scope in the general flight path of birds coming to the feeder or leaving, and you could in theory freeze them in flight. I don't know the exact term for this camera feature but I have read that some modern digital cameras have it.
ReplyDeleteMotomynd, interesting suggestion! None of my digital cameras has motion-activated shutter release, but it would indeed be advantageous for my purposes to have such a camera (that I could mount to my fieldscope using my current setup). I've spent a while googling but so far I haven't identified a camera with this feature, although I've found some (fairly old) discussion about downloading a macro to a computer which is somehow connected to the camera...that, of course, sounds pretty hi-tech. Maybe this feature is not incorporated in affordable cameras yet?
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