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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. Denny Woodthorpe

    Back for another go.

    It’s been a while since I have done any bird photography in the garden, but now autumn is here and winter is on its way, I intend to have another go. There are not actually many birds around at the moment, as I have been away from home and the feeders have not been filled up. I spent all day...
  2. Denny Woodthorpe

    All quiet in the garden.

    It is now September. Autumn is now here according to the meteorologists and the garden is very quiet. Having reared their young, most of the birds seem to be taking time off to recuperate. Many of them are moulting, ready for the coming winter and consequently not looking their best. There is...
  3. Denny Woodthorpe

    More Activity.

    After some success with catching garden birds in flight, I was eager to change a few things, as I was afraid that all of my photos were beginning to look similar, even if the birds were different. I still want to capture action, including flight, but I want my photos to be more than yet another...
  4. Denny Woodthorpe

    Got it!

    Yes. This is what I was after! This shot of a greenfinch is just the kind of shot I hoped for when I set out on my quest to photograph garden birds in flight. I don’t mind admitting that I am very happy with it. I wanted the bird to have its wings down, as I prefer that to seeing the...
  5. Denny Woodthorpe

    The Quest Continues.

    I am moving forward with my quest to photograph garden birds in flight, instead of just having them sitting on a perch. I have recently bought a new remote sensor system. It is a LiDAR sensor from Cognisys, called the Sabre. It is fairly expensive, but great. It is similar to radar, but uses an...
  6. Denny Woodthorpe

    Red bird in Massachusetts.

    Hi, I am on holiday in Massachusetts and managed a shot of this bird. It is the size of a large finch or maybe slightly larger. I thought it might be a juvenile Northern Cardinal, but I am not really sure. Any help would be appreciated
  7. Denny Woodthorpe

    Flights of fancy.

    Since setting out to photograph the garden birds in flight, I have only had the time for one session before today. What is more, I am away for another three weeks, so today was important for my learning and my confidence. The day stated badly, with lots of false triggers from the infra red...
  8. Denny Woodthorpe

    Small birds in flight.

    With only a limited number of birds in the garden for me to photograph, I have to find ways of challenging myself to produce different types of images. At the moment I am working on flight shots of small birds. I find this branch of bird photography to be the most difficult. I have tried...
  9. Denny Woodthorpe

    A crisis of confidence.

    I haven’t added to my blog for a while and have even considered giving up posting altogether. Part of the problem has been a distinct lack of birds in the garden, but I must also admit to a small crisis of confidence. All it has taken is a fairly negative comment of a previous post, stating...
  10. Denny Woodthorpe

    Developing a Style.

    I am slowly developing my own style of bird photography. It is essentially based on portraits of garden birds taken in a somewhat controlled environment, utilising an attractive perch and subdued background. I use flash to give enough light to stop movement and to give sufficient depth of field...
  11. Denny Woodthorpe

    Anatomy of a photo.

    I am not so much a bird watcher who takes photos, as a photographer who uses birds as the subject. I am always trying to create a picture that, whilst perhaps not art, I would be happy to see it mounted on my wall. This is one such photo. Why does it work for me? It is a common bird, not...
  12. Denny Woodthorpe

    A little bit of planning.

    Sometimes my photos have an element of luck to them. At other times, I plan what I want to achieve in a particular photo. This afternoon, I was getting frustrated with the starlings taking over the feeders and the perch, so I set up a bird table away to one side with loads of food on it in an...
  13. Denny Woodthorpe

    Working on backgrounds.

    I am really enjoying my garden bird photography at the moment. I am beginning to get a few different birds on the perch and I am now working on improving the background and the perch. The background is actually a large piece of hardboard that has been painted. To begin with I just tried...
  14. Denny Woodthorpe

    Back again.

    Well, it is that time of year when I have the chance to set up my outdoor studio and photograph the garden birds. I set myself the challenge of getting one or two decent photos of a long-tailed tit. I have a small flock of them come to the fat balls about three times a day, so I set my perch up...
  15. Denny Woodthorpe

    Rainy Days.

    It’s been a while since I did any photography in the garden, so I thought that I would have a go today. Guess what? It has started to rain. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year and I spent the day gardening and when I get the chance to sit and enjoy the results of my labours, it rains! I...
  16. Denny Woodthorpe

    More Flashers

    I spent a good part of today pursuing my quest to capture the iridescent plumage of the starling. I think that the secret lies in the angle of the flash units in relation to the lens axis. I remember from my school days that “the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection”. So, if I...
  17. Denny Woodthorpe

    Fluffing up feathers.

    Hi, Does anyone know why the starlings in my garden all seem to have fluffed up feathers? It was a warm day when I noticed it and I first thought they had been in the bird bath, but it seemed that every one was the same. My theory is that they were fluffing their feathers up to let air in to...
  18. Denny Woodthorpe

    Iridescent Starlings.

    I set myself the challenge of trying to show the iridescence in the plumage of a starling. I started by doing some research on how to capture the iridescence on humming birds, as I couldn’t find anything online about starlings. What I found out was that it is all down to the angle of the light...
  19. Denny Woodthorpe

    More about the flasher.

    I have explained in a little detail how I have discovered that using HSS flash for my garden bird photography has allowed me to operate at high shutter speeds under any conditions. What I haven’t explained is exactly how I set it all up. I believe in making things easy for myself, so I operate...
  20. Denny Woodthorpe

    The Flasher-Part Three.

    If there are is anyone still following the saga of how I developed my system for using flash to photograph small garden birds, this post should at last give the secret away. Warning. It gets a bit complicated. I had struggled with using the flash on reduced power, as in spite of it working on...
  21. Denny Woodthorpe

    The Flasher Part Two.

    In my last post, I ended by saying how reducing the power of the flash units increased the speed, but how it in turn led to other problems. There are two main problems. The first, obvious one is that there is not enough light produced by a single flash unit, or even two, to give a decent...
  22. Denny Woodthorpe

    The Flasher.

    In my last post, I indicated that I would explain more about how I use flash for my garden bird photography. First of all, I need to explain why I choose to use flash instead of available light. My camera, a Canon 60D is not very good when used at high ISO settings. Anything above 400 tends to...
  23. Denny Woodthorpe

    Getting Technical.

    I thought that I would start explaining some of the technicalities of the photography set up I am using to take photos of garden birds while I sit inside with my feet up. The first useful bit of kit I use is a remote shutter release. I have just bought a new one called the Aodelan Pebble. It...
  24. Denny Woodthorpe

    We have lift off.

    Well, I have now set up my camera and perch on the decking at our static caravan and I am really pleased with how quickly the birds have taken to it. So far today I have had loads of goldfinches, a robin, greenfinches, chaffinches and sparrows all using the feeder. Only the goldfinches have used...
  25. Denny Woodthorpe

    Disappointing Day.

    It’s been a while since I have done any photography, so as we were having a day at home with little to do, I thought that I would put my gear out and sit and watch the action. Guess what! No action! I think that I only had two birds land on the perch all day. This was the only decent shot. Not...
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