mickporter
Oswaldtwistle birder
Ok guys, first I confess...... I ignored all advice. I bought my eagle eye adaptor, and couldn't wait to get out and photograph birds! After reading Andy's advice for camera settings (I did get that bit right!!) I whizzed around to the nearest bird site, mounted my Coolpix 4500 onto my scope using the eagle eye adaptor and clicked away. Took over a hundred shots. Really confident. After all I take good pics of the kids, portraits, animals at the zoo etc etc.. No need for all that practice on inanimate objects. Back at home I uploaded my pictures to the computer. Every shot looked out of focus. Some birds were not even recognisable.
I showed one to a friend who pointed out that because nothing in my pictures was in focus, intimated that camera shake was my problem. (I had not used a remote or cable release!). I bombed around to my local camera store who were happy to sell me a nikon remote at great expense. (Don't tell the wife!)
After double checking my settings again, I returned to my usual haunt. (I never learn!!) Again clicking away, this time much much more confident. This time my pictures were very much better. More or less in focus although not all. Lots of them contained ducks rear ends! (I assume that is why Teal have that yellow patch on their backsides. To help me pick them out in pictures!) It seems that after pressing the button halfway and composing the picture, to the camera actually recording it, is enough to allow the bird to swim off. Most annoying. I complained to the Wetland Centre manager about that! He needs to ensure his ducks behave more responsibly in future.
Which after boring you all with this brings me to my questions:
1. My pictures appeared very washed out. Colours seemed dull. Why???
2. Some appeared as though they were taken in a haze, Why??
3. Finding the birds with my binoculars is easy, finding them through a telescope is not too hard, but finding them on that little screen is really hard. Have you any sure fire tips for finding my targets more easily??
4. My tripod no matter how I try seems to kick back slightly after it is set on a target. I assume the camera weight makes the scope heavy at the back and no matter how I tried I found it really difficult to lock the tripod with the bird in the screen. After some practice I found that aiming the scope under the bird and then leaving loose sometimes resulted in the front rising to the target but it was very hit and miss. Holding the scope handle again caused camera shake. Would putting a weight on the front of the scope to counterbalance help? Or is my tripod at fault? (It is a manfrotto and was not cheap. I have no problems with just the scope alone). Any suggestions would be appreciated.......
In fact any help would be appreciated. I am at the glueing the birds to the fence stage.... fast moving into the jumping on the camera approach. Tell me there is light at the end of this long tunnel!!
Regards Mick Porter
I showed one to a friend who pointed out that because nothing in my pictures was in focus, intimated that camera shake was my problem. (I had not used a remote or cable release!). I bombed around to my local camera store who were happy to sell me a nikon remote at great expense. (Don't tell the wife!)
After double checking my settings again, I returned to my usual haunt. (I never learn!!) Again clicking away, this time much much more confident. This time my pictures were very much better. More or less in focus although not all. Lots of them contained ducks rear ends! (I assume that is why Teal have that yellow patch on their backsides. To help me pick them out in pictures!) It seems that after pressing the button halfway and composing the picture, to the camera actually recording it, is enough to allow the bird to swim off. Most annoying. I complained to the Wetland Centre manager about that! He needs to ensure his ducks behave more responsibly in future.
Which after boring you all with this brings me to my questions:
1. My pictures appeared very washed out. Colours seemed dull. Why???
2. Some appeared as though they were taken in a haze, Why??
3. Finding the birds with my binoculars is easy, finding them through a telescope is not too hard, but finding them on that little screen is really hard. Have you any sure fire tips for finding my targets more easily??
4. My tripod no matter how I try seems to kick back slightly after it is set on a target. I assume the camera weight makes the scope heavy at the back and no matter how I tried I found it really difficult to lock the tripod with the bird in the screen. After some practice I found that aiming the scope under the bird and then leaving loose sometimes resulted in the front rising to the target but it was very hit and miss. Holding the scope handle again caused camera shake. Would putting a weight on the front of the scope to counterbalance help? Or is my tripod at fault? (It is a manfrotto and was not cheap. I have no problems with just the scope alone). Any suggestions would be appreciated.......
In fact any help would be appreciated. I am at the glueing the birds to the fence stage.... fast moving into the jumping on the camera approach. Tell me there is light at the end of this long tunnel!!
Regards Mick Porter
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