Photographing Birds
Due to a combination of factors I'm semi-housebound right now, so I've
taken to photograph the birds I can lure to my back deck.
My results have been kind of hit or miss (actually A LOT of miss, but
it's not like I'm burning through film at an unsustainable rate)
I have always been an F/8 & be there; LOW ISO (ASA) kind of photographer
and it's not working for this case.
I've been taking photography classes - more for the social interaction
than anything else. But I am still learning.
I was showing the instructor some of my "hits" the other day and she had
some valuable criticism.
She suggested I switch to shutter priority & keep the shutter speed at
1/250 or even 1/500. Just let the camera do its own thing with the aperture.
I'm really not comfortable with that, so I opted for TAV mode, shutter
1/500 & aperture f/8 and let the ISO float.
I've got a set-up on my back deck where I can put food out on the
railing & I've got part of a tree screwed to the outside of the deck,
creating a perch just above where the food is so the birds can land,
take a look around and then hop down to feed.
I have the camera & lens mounted on a sturdy tripod. I'm zone focused on
the branch & f/8 gives me enough DoF to have the birds sharp on the
branch & on the deck railing.
I've only been doing it a couple of days, but my observations so far ...
The glass in the window has no more effect on the image than a skylight
filter.
I can't use the remote trigger (wired). I'm too slow. Even holding it in
my hand I just can't get the shot off in time. I have to use the shutter
button on the camera.
Live View has a lot of lag. And on the K-1 it seems to constrain the
buffer so that you can't get as many shots in a burst as you can without
Live View.
I'm getting my subjects backlit a lot. I just rigged a $1.98 Home Depot
clamp light to a table I have out on the deck. I'll see how that works
to add a bit of fill.
I HOPE I'll have some results I think are worth sharing.
Anyway, I hope y'all are getting to do some photography that satisfies
you. Maybe in the fall when the temperatures get down a little I'll be
able to go a bit farther afield.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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F8 @ 1/500th. Birds twitch. Long lenses like shutter speed ! Shoot TVS.
Paul
On Jul 31, 2026, at 4:24 PM, John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com wrote:
Due to a combination of factors I'm semi-housebound right now, so I've taken to photograph the birds I can lure to my back deck.
My results have been kind of hit or miss (actually A LOT of miss, but it's not like I'm burning through film at an unsustainable rate)
I have always been an F/8 & be there; LOW ISO (ASA) kind of photographer and it's not working for this case.
I've been taking photography classes - more for the social interaction than anything else. But I am still learning.
I was showing the instructor some of my "hits" the other day and she had some valuable criticism.
She suggested I switch to shutter priority & keep the shutter speed at 1/250 or even 1/500. Just let the camera do its own thing with the aperture.
I'm really not comfortable with that, so I opted for TAV mode, shutter 1/500 & aperture f/8 and let the ISO float.
I've got a set-up on my back deck where I can put food out on the railing & I've got part of a tree screwed to the outside of the deck, creating a perch just above where the food is so the birds can land, take a look around and then hop down to feed.
I have the camera & lens mounted on a sturdy tripod. I'm zone focused on the branch & f/8 gives me enough DoF to have the birds sharp on the branch & on the deck railing.
I've only been doing it a couple of days, but my observations so far ...
The glass in the window has no more effect on the image than a skylight filter.
I can't use the remote trigger (wired). I'm too slow. Even holding it in my hand I just can't get the shot off in time. I have to use the shutter button on the camera.
Live View has a lot of lag. And on the K-1 it seems to constrain the buffer so that you can't get as many shots in a burst as you can without Live View.
I'm getting my subjects backlit a lot. I just rigged a $1.98 Home Depot clamp light to a table I have out on the deck. I'll see how that works to add a bit of fill.
I HOPE I'll have some results I think are worth sharing.
Anyway, I hope y'all are getting to do some photography that satisfies you. Maybe in the fall when the temperatures get down a little I'll be able to go a bit farther afield.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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TAV
Paul
On Jul 31, 2026, at 4:58 PM, Paul Stenquist pnstenquist@mac.com wrote:
F8 @ 1/500th. Birds twitch. Long lenses like shutter speed ! Shoot TVS.
Paul
On Jul 31, 2026, at 4:24 PM, John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com wrote:
Due to a combination of factors I'm semi-housebound right now, so I've taken to photograph the birds I can lure to my back deck.
My results have been kind of hit or miss (actually A LOT of miss, but it's not like I'm burning through film at an unsustainable rate)
I have always been an F/8 & be there; LOW ISO (ASA) kind of photographer and it's not working for this case.
I've been taking photography classes - more for the social interaction than anything else. But I am still learning.
I was showing the instructor some of my "hits" the other day and she had some valuable criticism.
She suggested I switch to shutter priority & keep the shutter speed at 1/250 or even 1/500. Just let the camera do its own thing with the aperture.
I'm really not comfortable with that, so I opted for TAV mode, shutter 1/500 & aperture f/8 and let the ISO float.
I've got a set-up on my back deck where I can put food out on the railing & I've got part of a tree screwed to the outside of the deck, creating a perch just above where the food is so the birds can land, take a look around and then hop down to feed.
I have the camera & lens mounted on a sturdy tripod. I'm zone focused on the branch & f/8 gives me enough DoF to have the birds sharp on the branch & on the deck railing.
I've only been doing it a couple of days, but my observations so far ...
The glass in the window has no more effect on the image than a skylight filter.
I can't use the remote trigger (wired). I'm too slow. Even holding it in my hand I just can't get the shot off in time. I have to use the shutter button on the camera.
Live View has a lot of lag. And on the K-1 it seems to constrain the buffer so that you can't get as many shots in a burst as you can without Live View.
I'm getting my subjects backlit a lot. I just rigged a $1.98 Home Depot clamp light to a table I have out on the deck. I'll see how that works to add a bit of fill.
I HOPE I'll have some results I think are worth sharing.
Anyway, I hope y'all are getting to do some photography that satisfies you. Maybe in the fall when the temperatures get down a little I'll be able to go a bit farther afield.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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Yep. That's what I'm working on right now. Trying to get comfortable
with it.
On 7/31/2026 4:58 PM, Comcast wrote:
TAV
Paul
On Jul 31, 2026, at 4:58 PM, Paul Stenquist pnstenquist@mac.com wrote:
F8 @ 1/500th. Birds twitch. Long lenses like shutter speed ! Shoot TVS.
Paul
On Jul 31, 2026, at 4:24 PM, John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com wrote:
Due to a combination of factors I'm semi-housebound right now, so I've taken to photograph the birds I can lure to my back deck.
My results have been kind of hit or miss (actually A LOT of miss, but it's not like I'm burning through film at an unsustainable rate)
I have always been an F/8 & be there; LOW ISO (ASA) kind of photographer and it's not working for this case.
I've been taking photography classes - more for the social interaction than anything else. But I am still learning.
I was showing the instructor some of my "hits" the other day and she had some valuable criticism.
She suggested I switch to shutter priority & keep the shutter speed at 1/250 or even 1/500. Just let the camera do its own thing with the aperture.
I'm really not comfortable with that, so I opted for TAV mode, shutter 1/500 & aperture f/8 and let the ISO float.
I've got a set-up on my back deck where I can put food out on the railing & I've got part of a tree screwed to the outside of the deck, creating a perch just above where the food is so the birds can land, take a look around and then hop down to feed.
I have the camera & lens mounted on a sturdy tripod. I'm zone focused on the branch & f/8 gives me enough DoF to have the birds sharp on the branch & on the deck railing.
I've only been doing it a couple of days, but my observations so far ...
The glass in the window has no more effect on the image than a skylight filter.
I can't use the remote trigger (wired). I'm too slow. Even holding it in my hand I just can't get the shot off in time. I have to use the shutter button on the camera.
Live View has a lot of lag. And on the K-1 it seems to constrain the buffer so that you can't get as many shots in a burst as you can without Live View.
I'm getting my subjects backlit a lot. I just rigged a $1.98 Home Depot clamp light to a table I have out on the deck. I'll see how that works to add a bit of fill.
I HOPE I'll have some results I think are worth sharing.
Anyway, I hope y'all are getting to do some photography that satisfies you. Maybe in the fall when the temperatures get down a little I'll be able to go a bit farther afield.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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On 2026-07-31 14:21, John Sessoms wrote:
Yep. That's what I'm working on right now. Trying to get comfortable
with it.
TaV mode is what I use anytime I am shooting in a situation when I don't
know for a fact that I can get all of the shutter speed and depth of
field I want at a specific ISO. I have lost many more photos to too
slow of a shutter, or potentially too little depth of field (the camera
didn't quite focus on the eye) than I have from too high of an ISO. I
do remember one time I was processing photos of some friends playing at
a show, noticed that one photo was a little noiser than ideal, and found
out that it was at 25,600.
I've also been able to go back and reprocess raw files years later with
much better noise reduction software and clean up noisy files.
So yea, TAV is the way to go. I'll also point out that you could set up
a hot light aimed at the feeder and alleviate a lot of those problems.
Birds don't seem to care about stationary lights.
--
Larry Colen LRC@red4est.com http://red4est.com/lrc
On 7/31/2026 6:36 PM, Larry Colen wrote:
On 2026-07-31 14:21, John Sessoms wrote:
Yep. That's what I'm working on right now. Trying to get comfortable
with it.
TaV mode is what I use anytime I am shooting in a situation when I don't
know for a fact that I can get all of the shutter speed and depth of
field I want at a specific ISO. I have lost many more photos to too
slow of a shutter, or potentially too little depth of field (the camera
didn't quite focus on the eye) than I have from too high of an ISO. I
do remember one time I was processing photos of some friends playing at
a show, noticed that one photo was a little noiser than ideal, and found
out that it was at 25,600.
I've also been able to go back and reprocess raw files years later with
much better noise reduction software and clean up noisy files.
So yea, TAV is the way to go. I'll also point out that you could set up
a hot light aimed at the feeder and alleviate a lot of those problems.
Birds don't seem to care about stationary lights.
I noticed that a lot of my images were backlit almost to the point of
becoming silhouettes, so I set up a 75W PAR Flood Lamp in one of those
$1.98 clamp-on holders from Lowe's to give me fill at the feeder.
I'm shooting with the K-1, K-3 and K10D; leave the tripod & lens set up
all the time & just swap bodies from time to time. Using center point
focus to set the "zone" & burst to get several frames at a time.
I might look for a brighter flood light. The 75W was what I had laying
around.
I want it to be lit without looking lit.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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John, I find that an important secret to making introduced light look
natural is matching the ambient colour temperature. And the easiest way to
do that is with a COB LED continuously variable bi-colour light. A have a
couple of Amran's to do this (300C, 150C) but they are a pricey option and
there are a number of pretty good less expensive choices around now, like
Godox, or a less well known brand Colbor. I have two Colbor CL60's that are
small and light and can be run off batteries for an hour or two.
I really like the Amran though because I can set it to 7500K CT and use it
in open shade to look super natural. I shot portraits under a cherry tree
on Saturday using a 24" octabox on the 300 watt Amran and you cannot easily
tell from the shots that there's any added light.
On Sun, Aug 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com wrote:
I noticed that a lot of my images were backlit almost to the point of
becoming silhouettes, so I set up a 75W PAR Flood Lamp in one of those
$1.98 clamp-on holders from Lowe's to give me fill at the feeder.
I'm shooting with the K-1, K-3 and K10D; leave the tripod & lens set up
all the time & just swap bodies from time to time. Using center point
focus to set the "zone" & burst to get several frames at a time.
I might look for a brighter flood light. The 75W was what I had laying
around.
I want it to be lit without looking lit.
--
-bmw
Thanks.
I already "can't easily tell" which shots of the birds have added light ...
Two photos of the same chickadee. Left photo has the fill light ON,
right photo has the fill light OFF.
Taken at around 7:30pm local time seconds apart - the time it took to
reach over & pull the plug on the extension cord.
The ISO jumped from 6400 to 8000.
Matching color temperature with the background doesn't seem to be really
critical here.
I didn't have time yet to shoot a comparison in full daylight, but all
the fill seems to do is reduce contrast with the background.
On 8/2/2026 9:04 PM, Bruce Walker wrote:
John, I find that an important secret to making introduced light look
natural is matching the ambient colour temperature. And the easiest way to
do that is with a COB LED continuously variable bi-colour light. A have a
couple of Amran's to do this (300C, 150C) but they are a pricey option and
there are a number of pretty good less expensive choices around now, like
Godox, or a less well known brand Colbor. I have two Colbor CL60's that are
small and light and can be run off batteries for an hour or two.
I really like the Amran though because I can set it to 7500K CT and use it
in open shade to look super natural. I shot portraits under a cherry tree
on Saturday using a 24" octabox on the 300 watt Amran and you cannot easily
tell from the shots that there's any added light.
On Sun, Aug 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com wrote:
I noticed that a lot of my images were backlit almost to the point of
becoming silhouettes, so I set up a 75W PAR Flood Lamp in one of those
$1.98 clamp-on holders from Lowe's to give me fill at the feeder.
I'm shooting with the K-1, K-3 and K10D; leave the tripod & lens set up
all the time & just swap bodies from time to time. Using center point
focus to set the "zone" & burst to get several frames at a time.
I might look for a brighter flood light. The 75W was what I had laying
around.
I want it to be lit without looking lit.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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I don't think you'll see a lot of obvious difference between 6400 and
8000, that's like 1/3 of a stop.
On 2026-08-04 17:36, John Sessoms wrote:
Thanks.
I already "can't easily tell" which shots of the birds have added light
...
Two photos of the same chickadee. Left photo has the fill light ON,
right photo has the fill light OFF.
Taken at around 7:30pm local time seconds apart - the time it took to
reach over & pull the plug on the extension cord.
The ISO jumped from 6400 to 8000.
Matching color temperature with the background doesn't seem to be
really critical here.
I didn't have time yet to shoot a comparison in full daylight, but all
the fill seems to do is reduce contrast with the background.
On 8/2/2026 9:04 PM, Bruce Walker wrote:
John, I find that an important secret to making introduced light look
natural is matching the ambient colour temperature. And the easiest
way to
do that is with a COB LED continuously variable bi-colour light. A
have a
couple of Amran's to do this (300C, 150C) but they are a pricey option
and
there are a number of pretty good less expensive choices around now,
like
Godox, or a less well known brand Colbor. I have two Colbor CL60's
that are
small and light and can be run off batteries for an hour or two.
I really like the Amran though because I can set it to 7500K CT and
use it
in open shade to look super natural. I shot portraits under a cherry
tree
on Saturday using a 24" octabox on the 300 watt Amran and you cannot
easily
tell from the shots that there's any added light.
On Sun, Aug 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com
wrote:
I noticed that a lot of my images were backlit almost to the point of
becoming silhouettes, so I set up a 75W PAR Flood Lamp in one of
those
$1.98 clamp-on holders from Lowe's to give me fill at the feeder.
I'm shooting with the K-1, K-3 and K10D; leave the tripod & lens set
up
all the time & just swap bodies from time to time. Using center point
focus to set the "zone" & burst to get several frames at a time.
I might look for a brighter flood light. The 75W was what I had
laying
around.
I want it to be lit without looking lit.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
Larry Colen LRC@red4est.com http://red4est.com/lrc
I don't think you can either. But that's not what we were looking for.
Does the fill light introduce UN-natural looking color into the image?
Does the image WITH the fill light have obvious artificiality that is
absent from the comparison image taken without the fill light?
On 8/4/2026 9:01 PM, Larry Colen wrote:
I don't think you'll see a lot of obvious difference between 6400 and
8000, that's like 1/3 of a stop.
On 2026-08-04 17:36, John Sessoms wrote:
Thanks.
I already "can't easily tell" which shots of the birds have added
light ...
Two photos of the same chickadee. Left photo has the fill light ON,
right photo has the fill light OFF.
Taken at around 7:30pm local time seconds apart - the time it took to
reach over & pull the plug on the extension cord.
The ISO jumped from 6400 to 8000.
Matching color temperature with the background doesn't seem to be
really critical here.
I didn't have time yet to shoot a comparison in full daylight, but all
the fill seems to do is reduce contrast with the background.
On 8/2/2026 9:04 PM, Bruce Walker wrote:
John, I find that an important secret to making introduced light look
natural is matching the ambient colour temperature. And the easiest
way to
do that is with a COB LED continuously variable bi-colour light. A
have a
couple of Amran's to do this (300C, 150C) but they are a pricey
option and
there are a number of pretty good less expensive choices around now,
like
Godox, or a less well known brand Colbor. I have two Colbor CL60's
that are
small and light and can be run off batteries for an hour or two.
I really like the Amran though because I can set it to 7500K CT and
use it
in open shade to look super natural. I shot portraits under a cherry
tree
on Saturday using a 24" octabox on the 300 watt Amran and you cannot
easily
tell from the shots that there's any added light.
On Sun, Aug 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM John Sessoms jsessoms002@nc.rr.com
wrote:
I noticed that a lot of my images were backlit almost to the point of
becoming silhouettes, so I set up a 75W PAR Flood Lamp in one of those
$1.98 clamp-on holders from Lowe's to give me fill at the feeder.
I'm shooting with the K-1, K-3 and K10D; leave the tripod & lens set up
all the time & just swap bodies from time to time. Using center point
focus to set the "zone" & burst to get several frames at a time.
I might look for a brighter flood light. The 75W was what I had laying
around.
I want it to be lit without looking lit.
--
Aeternum vive aut conando moriere.
--
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www.avg.com