Chickadees in the Yard

Slideshow Banners

First, I would like to bring your attention to the new slideshow banner at the top and bottom of Bird Lady Blog. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, then I remembered some slideshows of some of my older bird photos out on Photobucket.com that I used to use for my MySpace profile. So I'm trying them out here.

Hope you enjoy them!

~ Sherrie (Bird Lady)

Chickadees in the Yard

On New Years, I hung a new feeder on the balcony, that had just been sitting around not being used.  I found some Black-Oil Sunflower Seeds in the cupboard and filled up the feeder, hoping to attract some different winter birds to my yard.  The birds are used to coming to the suet I have hanging about 15-20 feet from the balcony, but I wondered if they would be comfortable enough to come up closer to the house, as the new feeder was only about 4 feet from the slider door.  

Well, it's been a couple of weeks now, and finally I have visitors to the new feeder, the Black-capped Chickadees! Which are new on my Big Year list and my Yard list.  They are so cute when they come into the balcony area, they usually land on one of my wind chimes before going to the feeder for a seed or two.  Even a Red-breasted Nuthatch came and clung to the ropes hanging from the wind chime.  I wanted to get a picture of one of the birds doing this, as it would make for a great photo.  So I decided to set up my camera on the tripod just inside the slider door.  The plan was to get everything all set up, wait for the birds to start coming, and then open the slider up for picture taking.  Mind you it is only in the mid 20's outside.  When the chickadee finally came, then left and I opened up the door, but it didn't come back.  So until they get used to me and the tripod so close to the feeder, I would try to get a decent photo with the slider door closed.  I did recently wash the glass door since it was filthy dirty with dog nose prints from my chow chow Cubby Bears, who's bed is on the balcony.  I wanted to actually be able to 'see' the birds out of the window.  I wasn't able to get a good shot of the wind chime landing, but did get a few half way decent shots through the glass door. This chickadee sat there for the longest time with the seed in his beak, and posed for several photos.  

RAW edit

jpeg edit

Photography Talk

I did edit both the RAW and the jpeg versions, and am displaying both after some cropping and editing in Photoshop Elements 7.  I adjusted the levels, increased the contrast slightly, adjusted the brightness and sharpened the photo. I don't really like shooting in RAW because of the lag time on my camera when it saves the large files.  But I understand the importance of being able to have access to the RAW version of the photo especially when the shot is less than perfect, which many of mine fit that category just perfectly!  After looking at both photos, I'm leaning towards the jpeg edit.  It just looks crisper to me, but the colors in the RAW edit are better.

I am really trying to learn my camera manual settings better, so I experimented with the ISO, doing some of the shots at 400, and others at 800 as my lighting faded.  I set my mode to Shutter Speed Priority and tried to set the camera at the fastest shutter speed and lowest aperture that I could and still maintain the exposure. I then also took some shots in Auto Scene Recognition mode to compare. This particular photo was taken at ISO 400, f/7.2, 1/20 sec. It's not a half bad shot for being through the window, with the available light. The bokeh is nice. I like how you can see some frosty spider webs on the feeder right under the birds wing. Check it out in the larger version (click on the photo). Funny the things you notice when you are so close with the camera.  I am looking forward to more photo shoots on the balcony with the chickadees!  See if I can improve my pictures.

Don't forget to check out the slideshow down below...