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