Bird Bath Cam

[mjs1973]

This spring we moved our bird bath to a much better location. I have been cleaning it out and putting fresh water in it almost daily, but I had never seen a bird using it. I could tell they were using it because I would find droppings on it. I have wanted to set up my camera, and take a series of shots throughout the day to see who my visitors were. Today I finally had the chance. I hooked my camera to my PC and set it to take a photo every 5 seconds. Due to the time it took to save the image to the PC, it turned out to be 10 seconds between shots instead of five. (Note to self: Use smaller image size next time.) I set the camera to f/8 and used aperture priority mode and just let it go for about 4 1/2 hours. I used my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. It took 1565 photos in that time. Here are a few of the visitors that I captured. I also had some blue jays. I will use a wider lens next time so I don't cut off the larger birds. Only PP done is a little sharpening.

[Loupey]

Nice use of the timed/PC shooting feature.

It is interesting to see what we miss during the day.

Thanks for your efforts and sharing these!

[paulnj]

That's a great idea!!!!!

[mjs1973]

Thanks Loupey and Paul.

I set my camera and PC up again today knowing that I wasn't going to be out and about shooting. This time I used my 50mm f/1.8 set to f/10. I had to add another rock to the bird bath because there was a bad glare on the water messing with my exposure. I also found out that even by setting my camera to the lowest quality jpegs, I still end up with 10 seconds between shots. I will have to try writing to the card first to see if that speeds things up.

I checked some of the photos after a couple hours, and noticed that the focus had shifted. I thought I forgot to refocus after moving the camera, so I adjusted it, and reset it. After a while, I checked it again, and noticed that the focus had shifted again. So I turned the AF on, and left it. It worked fine but it drained the batteries much faster. Next time I will put a piece of tape on the focus ring to keep it in place. Notice how the cardinal and the pair of house finches are OOF. The lone female house finch must be a model. She hung around for more than 60 photos!