Photography In Our Garden - Part 3 - House Sparrows in Flight

Photography In Our Garden - Part 3 - House Sparrows in Flight

The other birds that we have in our garden in quite large numbers are House Sparrows. We are quite lucky in this respect because House Sparrows have declined in numbers quite alarmingly over the last couple of decades. 

House Sparrows like hedges because bushes give them plenty of cover from attacks from Sparrowhawks and other predators. We do not actually have a hedge in our garden, but we do have a very large and overgrown pyracantha bush, and the Sparrows love to use this. We also have our seed feeders sited quite near to this bush, so they can easily fly from the bush to the feeders for food. I set myself the task of trying to photograph Sparrows as they flew back and forth from the bush to the feeders.

Using my Olympus EM1X,  the 40-150 F2.8 lens + MC14 converter, or the 300mm F4 lens, and using Pro Capture , would certainly make capturing small fast birds in flight a lot easier than if I was using mu old DSLR system. The follow is a selection of shots I was satisfied with , as well as some images showing the set up, and the photographic problems I had to overcome to get the images.

A few shots of House Sparrows in flight

I found that photographing House Sparrows in flight to be a lot more difficult than photographing Starlings in flight. For a start they are half the size of a Starling, and they appear to fly faster.(to me anyway )  I did however manage to get some reasonable shots of them, although my initial first attempts were a bit disappointing. The problem photographically was the situation of the bush and the feeders. They are sited quite close to the house because we like to watch them from the kitchen window. Because of this, I could not use the garden shed as a hide (as I had done for the Starlings) because it is at the bottom of the garden. The answer was to erect my old canvas hide halfway down the garden, and photograph from there. 

The Set Up and Hide Positions

Because the pyracantha bush is quite close to the house, I initially tried photographing the Sparrows from inside the house. By pulling the lounge curtains together and poking the lens through, the birds took no notice of me. The problem was that the light comes up in the morning from the bottom of the garden, so in the morning I would be shooting into the light, so the birds would be in dark shadow. Later in the afternoon when the sun has move around more was better, but the light was then coming from my right hand side, and the birds were still in partial shade which was not ideal.  There was a whole F stop of light difference between the light falling on the bird, and the light falling on the grass in the background. It still managed to get one or two reasonable shots though, but ideally, I needed to be photographing from the other side.

These three shots are taken from inside the lounge. There is one F Stop of difference between the lighting on the bird and the brightly lit grass in the background.

This is the view from inside the house. The arrows show the direction the Sparrows fly from the bush to the feeders and back again

By poking the 300mm F4 lens out between the curtain, it gave me the right focal length and distance to photograph them. 

EM1X from inside the lounge

You can see on this image that the Sparrow is in shadow because there is strong side lighting coming in from the right hand side. The light is falling on the lawn in the background, but the shadow from the house is putting the bird in the shade.

The solution was to erect my old canvas hide, and position it facing towards the house about 20 feet away from the feeders. I would then have the sun directly behind me for most of the morning /early afternoon, which was ideal for photography. It took the birds a day or so to get use to this being there, but after that they then took no notice of it whatsoever. FRom this distance I could use the EM1X and the 40-150mm F2.8 + MC14 converter, which would give me a combined focal length of 210m (420m on a full frame DSLR)

My old canvas hide sited about 20 feet the other side of the bush and feeders

The only problem with this new position was that it gave me lovely lighting on the birds, but a very distracting background ( the back of the house and patio doors )  Because of this, I had to erect a false background with green plywood and camouflage netting. This was held in position in the vice of a black and decker type` workmate`. The advantage of this was it could be moved around if necessary. The camouflage netting would give a nicely out of focus background.

The background from the hide when looking through the 40-150 F2.8 lens +Mc14 converter. I have focused on the feeder, and although the background is nicely out of focus, it is a very distracting background. 

This is the view with the same lens from exactly the same position but with the false background erected. 

 A shot of on of the Sparrows taken with the false background. Because the sunlight was directly behind the hide, I was easily able to obtain shutter speeds of 2/000th sec and higher which would stop the action yet give a little blur to the wings.  

This shot is a wider angle view that shows the false background. 

This shows the construction of the `mobile `background. The advantage of having it on a `workmate` is you can pick it up and move it if necessary. This is the green plywood/cardboard with some scrim netting

This is the finished background with the camoflage netting. 

The view on the screen of the EM1X from inside the canvas hide. 

With the false background in place, this hide position was fine for the light in the morning, and was ideal for getting shots as they flew backwards and forward from the bush to the feeder. Using the Pro Capture High mode on the Olympus EM1X and the 40-150mm F2.8 lens + MC14 converter, I was able to get some really nice shots of the Sparrows in flight.  Because the birds were in bright sunlight, I could use ISO 200 and still achieve shutter speeds of between 3200 and 2000th sec at F4.

You have to use manual focus with Pro Capture High, so I had to pre focus on an area where I thought they would be coming in to land. This was a few inches to the side of the cage feeder. Half pressing the shutter button activates Pro Capture, but the images are not written to the card to the card until the shutter button is depressed fully. This way you stand a lot better change of catching the bird in flight between the bush and the feeder. Because I had to pre focus where I was estimating they would be flying, I did get a lot of pictures that were just out of focus. The bird only has to be an inch behind or in front of the area I had focused on, and the bird would be out of focus. Depth of field at F4 is very narrow, but with perseverance, I did manage to get an number of `keepers` that where nicely in focus.

These next two shots show the finished `cropped` image and the original. 

After a couple of sessions photographing from this position, I decided to try photographing them from a different angle in an attempt to get some shots of them `head on to me`. I moved the hide to the left so that I was getting the afternoon light and moved the `mobile background` around because of this. This way I was able to get some shot of them flying towards me rather than around the field of view.
Also, because I had moved the hide further away from the feeders, I could use the 300mm F4 lens, which would make the background even more out of focus

This shot shows the new hide position. 

This shot shows the view without the false background with the water butt and fence as background

This shot show the same viewpoint but without the false background moved into position. The arrows and circled area are the area that I pre focused on for the shot.

Male House Sparrow in flight - 300mm F4 Lens 

Photography In Our Garden - Part 2 - Birds at a Reflection Pool

Photography In Our Garden - Part 2 - Birds at a Reflection Pool 

This is Part 2 of the series on `Photography in our Garden` (while the country is still in lockdown) This blog is about photographing birds at the reflection reflection pool I set up in my garden, and also shows how I went about constructing my own particular set up. 

Once again I was using the garden shed as my hide. The following are some of the shots which were all taken using the Olympus EM1X, and either the 300mm F4 Pro lens or the 40-150mm F2.8 +MC14 Converter.  ISO varied between ISO 400 and 1000 depending on the light.

The reflection pool is set up on a table, so it is not a permanent set up. I can change the position of the set up, and I will probably do a further blog sometime in the future where I have moved it to a different position, and set it up nearer ground level. 

The Set Up - How I constructed my Reflection Pool. 

The set up was on a garden bench I had positioned about 15 feet away from the shed.  I used a long black plastic garden tray,- measuring 47 long" x 22" wide by 1.5" deep. This was placed on top of the bench.  I placed packing underneath two of the legs of the bench to ensure that it was level, and I used a spirit level to check this.  

At the far end of the tray, -where I wanted to photographed the birds,- I made a sloping mud bank. I set an old piece of log, cut to the width of the tray, within this mud bank.  Half way down the sides of the tray I constructed two thin plywood `fences`, about 5" high. These were to stop  birds coming in to the sides of the plastic tray. The reason for doing this I was that I wanted to restrict them to only visiting the far end on the tray, which was where I placed any food, and where I wanted to photograph them. The high `plywood fences` are too high for birds to drink from, so they have to come in from the far end. 

Behind the tray I put another large log which was held in place with large stones. To help entice birds to that end of the tray, I placed some food offerings in the gaps between the first `mud log` and the edge of the tray.  This comprised of soaked bread and lard, and it was pushed into the crevices and gaps behind the front log. 

When this had been done, the area was modified with vegetation and moss to look as natural as possible when looking through the viewfinder of the EM1X  . I also put some stones in front of the mud/log area, so that small birds like Sparrows and Robins could bathe without getting out of their depth. 

When this was all done, the plastic tray was filled with water. In the previous picture you can see the soaked brad/fat mixture behind the first log, , and then the moss have been added.. At each side of the end of the tray (where I was baiting the birds)  I also placed some small trays of food to help bring the birds down to the far end where I wanted to photograph them. .  

When looking through the camera, it looks reasonably natural. Because the set up is on a bench with gives the impression of photographing them at ground level. The blue in the background are out of focus bluebells. 

This is the view you get looking through the viewfinder of the EM1X fitted with the 40-150 F2.8 + the MC Converter. It is giving the equivalent focal length of 420mm on a full frame DSLR

This Starling took of in a hurry when a Sparrowhawk flew into the garden. 

The large garden tray I bought from Garland Products 

https://www.garlandproducts.com/giant-plus-garden-tray-black.html