Backyard photography is always fun whether it be wildlife or closeups! When I first started out, I read a book by George Harrison (no, not the famous Beatle- this one was an author of 13 books about birding and bird photography). He talked about how setting up a backyard environment by providing food and open water will attract wildlife to your property. By doing this, you are able to spend the time around the wildlife to get good photos. Because it takes a lot of time (and a lot of photos) to finally get a few keepers that are truly good ones. After a while, the birds get used to you and start accepting you as just another animal at the watering hole. Depending on how much time and patience you have, you can get very close. Just make sure it's on the animal's terms. At one point, I was able to hand-feed the chickadees! One would even land on my lips and pluck a seed directly from my mouth! Most of the time, I could get frame-filling bird shots with just a 300mm lens with an extension tube to focus closer! Of course, a lot of this depends on your feeling about feeding wildlife. Some people are opposed to it completely, some are okay with certain types of feeding. Probably not a good idea if one has pets that could attack. (That's one reason I don't feed at my current property- I have too many cats!) I do provide water and seed in harsh times. But the whole point is to extend your time with the wildlife so that you can have more opportunities, not to mention you learn a lot more about their behavior. You start to develop what I like to call "chickadee timing"- being able to press the shutter at just the right moment- bird in profile- good light- catchlight in the eye- nice pose - - - click!
Hey Brent, thanks for the comment! The chickadee timing" is something I definitely need to work on, I struggle to capture images of fast-moving small birds in trees. I am quite fortunate to live fairly rural on a large river and we have quite a lot of diversity around us, lots of different mammals and birds. On of topic of feeding I have nothing against bird feeders and the likes, but I have not gotten around to setting any up. For a variety of reasons, I am not a fan of feeding other animals. For example, feeding larger mammals makes them less timid and leads to behavioral changes, which in turn can cause them to take more 'risks' and possibly endanger themselves. Additionally, we have a few dogs so that could lead to other problems as well! I might have to check out some of George Harrison's books they sound interesting, Cheers.
If you really want good photos of that Fox, the best way to make that happen would be to get a remote caller that has a motion attractant. You set the speaker out in a nice looking setting, with good background separation, and then you set a bit of brush over it to make it not so easily seen. And this is a speaker set-up that includes a motorized thingy that moves an object around. So the Fox hears a call and comes in cautiously, to see what it is ..... and then he/she sees something in the brush moving around, but the brush obscures it enough that the Fox must come in closer to get a better look. Meanwhile, you are set up in a blind about 30 yards away from the speaker and bit of brush, in a position to take photos when the Fox walks into a good area with no distractions in the background. If you do not have some sort of plan like this, your chances of getting really beautiful photos of the Fox are very very slim. Just going out there and crouching down in the brush, hoping against hope that the Fox comes really close to you, in good light, with no distracting bits of brush or grass behind him, and no blades of grass or other vegetation between him and your camera, is not likely to end with the results that you want. You really gotta have a plan.
Hey Tom, I do agree that to get a good picture of said fox I would need a plan. And these two mornings I had no real expectations to capture a 'good' image. I want to observe what is around my area and over time learn their behaviors and patterns. That way I can position myself in a better location in the future and capture an image I am more happy with. I do not currently have a blind but I may purchase one!
As it is now the end of January, it is not too late to establish a bird feeding station or three on your property. I would scatter seed rather heavily in 5 or 6 areas and then check it daily to see when the birds finally discover one of the areas you have scattered seed at. It typically takes 3 to 10 days for them to find it. Once they discover it, you will want to replenish the seed quickly to make sure they are rewarded when they return. Then you will want to replenish the seed every day. They should lose fear of you rather quickly. You can sit in a comfortable chair about 15 yards from the seed at first, and then after a few days move the chair closer and closer. Then you can set up attractive natural perches a couple of feet above the seed. They will often land on the perch before they come all the way down to the seed. That is where you want to photograph them - when they land on the perch you set out. You can change the perches every day, or every hour, so that you don't end up with thousands of photos of the birds on the same stick or stump. To photograph the birds, you will need to be extremely close, even with a 600mm or 800mm lens. Like closer than you can possibly imagine. Last week I photographed Chickadees and Juncos at a distance of 12 feet and still had to crop much more than I would have liked. As I said, being late January, it i snot too late to start a feeding set-up, but if you wait much longer, it will be too late. Once established, the set-up should provide opportunities to photograph birds until mid-March or mid-April, depending on where you are located.
These are great tips, thank you Tom. I have been meaning to set up some feeding stations but have not had the chance to do so yet. One of my concerns is that we have a few dogs that would: a) eat the seed b) scare away any birds. I will try to find a clearing in the woods where they dogs will not go and see what kind of birds I can entice.
@@tim.poirier oh yeah, if the dogs are just allowed to roam loose, that could present a real problem. If they are locked in a kennel or dog run and only allowed out for brief walks on a leash, with you right there, then that wouldn't present any feeding station conflicts at all. My buddy lives on an awesome property for wildlife, but it is useless to go there, ever, because he has dogs that he just allows to roam loose.
at 5:47, about lying prone ..... that is what we do when we are actually photographing wildlife. To be honest, you are not at that point yet. What you are doing is scouting the area for future opportunities. It would be a terrible idea to lie prone during this scouting phase of your project, because that severely limits your visibility. Visibility is of the utmost importance at this point, because you are just trying to figure out what is around and see what they do and what area they are in. The laying prone stuff is part of the end game, after you have scouted for months and have everything figured out, and have established things around your property that will bring certain animals to certain precise spots, where you already have the shooting all figured out and blinds set up, background distractions removed, etc. Getting truly great frame-filling wildlife photos typically takes a few months of pre-planning, at the very least.
Thanks Quentin, I love making these videos but they may just be a little more infrequent for a little while! The lens is 150-600mm (on an APS-C sensor so roughly 225-900mm full frame) and it's an absolute beast. It's tack sharp all through its focal lengths, internal zoom, and small enough that I carry it with me all the time. The one downside is that it's not overly fast (f5.6-8.0) but that's not a deal breaker for me!
What would have really helped with this video would have been a detailed, informative introduction. It would help us get a better idea of what you are doing if you would show us an overview of your property, and tell us what state and area you are in. Also tell us how many acres you have, and what type of land adjoins your property ..... is it surrounded by farms, by natural areas, by apartment complexes and parking lots, etc. It looked like there may have been fresh snow at one point, but we weren't told when it had snowed and how many inches had fallen, and what the temperatures were, and how quickly it was melting (or not melting at all). The more info you can give us about your "backyard" and the current conditions, the more enjoyable these videos will be to watch.
Thanks Tom, that is a great suggestion. I tend to lean towards the "low production" vlog style videos because they are less time consuming to edit and I find them less stressful as I do not feel the pressure to produce the highest quality video every week. That being said I do want to work on my story telling ability to engage the viewer and provide more substance to my content. Going forwards I hope to improve.
@@tim.poirier well that makes a lot of sense. If I were trying to make a video like this, it would probably never get done because of my OCD. I am just really interested in this project of yours on this property, and can't help but to want to know a lot more about it.
Backyard photography is always fun whether it be wildlife or closeups! When I first started out, I read a book by George Harrison (no, not the famous Beatle- this one was an author of 13 books about birding and bird photography). He talked about how setting up a backyard environment by providing food and open water will attract wildlife to your property. By doing this, you are able to spend the time around the wildlife to get good photos. Because it takes a lot of time (and a lot of photos) to finally get a few keepers that are truly good ones. After a while, the birds get used to you and start accepting you as just another animal at the watering hole. Depending on how much time and patience you have, you can get very close. Just make sure it's on the animal's terms. At one point, I was able to hand-feed the chickadees! One would even land on my lips and pluck a seed directly from my mouth! Most of the time, I could get frame-filling bird shots with just a 300mm lens with an extension tube to focus closer! Of course, a lot of this depends on your feeling about feeding wildlife. Some people are opposed to it completely, some are okay with certain types of feeding. Probably not a good idea if one has pets that could attack. (That's one reason I don't feed at my current property- I have too many cats!) I do provide water and seed in harsh times. But the whole point is to extend your time with the wildlife so that you can have more opportunities, not to mention you learn a lot more about their behavior. You start to develop what I like to call "chickadee timing"- being able to press the shutter at just the right moment- bird in profile- good light- catchlight in the eye- nice pose - - - click!
Hey Brent, thanks for the comment! The chickadee timing" is something I definitely need to work on, I struggle to capture images of fast-moving small birds in trees.
I am quite fortunate to live fairly rural on a large river and we have quite a lot of diversity around us, lots of different mammals and birds. On of topic of feeding I have nothing against bird feeders and the likes, but I have not gotten around to setting any up. For a variety of reasons, I am not a fan of feeding other animals. For example, feeding larger mammals makes them less timid and leads to behavioral changes, which in turn can cause them to take more 'risks' and possibly endanger themselves. Additionally, we have a few dogs so that could lead to other problems as well!
I might have to check out some of George Harrison's books they sound interesting,
Cheers.
👍🇧🇷
Muito bom conteúdo
Thank you!
If you really want good photos of that Fox, the best way to make that happen would be to get a remote caller that has a motion attractant. You set the speaker out in a nice looking setting, with good background separation, and then you set a bit of brush over it to make it not so easily seen. And this is a speaker set-up that includes a motorized thingy that moves an object around. So the Fox hears a call and comes in cautiously, to see what it is ..... and then he/she sees something in the brush moving around, but the brush obscures it enough that the Fox must come in closer to get a better look. Meanwhile, you are set up in a blind about 30 yards away from the speaker and bit of brush, in a position to take photos when the Fox walks into a good area with no distractions in the background. If you do not have some sort of plan like this, your chances of getting really beautiful photos of the Fox are very very slim. Just going out there and crouching down in the brush, hoping against hope that the Fox comes really close to you, in good light, with no distracting bits of brush or grass behind him, and no blades of grass or other vegetation between him and your camera, is not likely to end with the results that you want. You really gotta have a plan.
Hey Tom, I do agree that to get a good picture of said fox I would need a plan. And these two mornings I had no real expectations to capture a 'good' image. I want to observe what is around my area and over time learn their behaviors and patterns. That way I can position myself in a better location in the future and capture an image I am more happy with. I do not currently have a blind but I may purchase one!
Great video 👍🙂
Thank you 😃
@tim.poirier 👍🙂
That is a very nice image at 3:40!
Thank you Tom, it's one of the few living things I encountered that morning and the colourful backdrop worked in my favour.
As it is now the end of January, it is not too late to establish a bird feeding station or three on your property. I would scatter seed rather heavily in 5 or 6 areas and then check it daily to see when the birds finally discover one of the areas you have scattered seed at. It typically takes 3 to 10 days for them to find it. Once they discover it, you will want to replenish the seed quickly to make sure they are rewarded when they return. Then you will want to replenish the seed every day. They should lose fear of you rather quickly. You can sit in a comfortable chair about 15 yards from the seed at first, and then after a few days move the chair closer and closer. Then you can set up attractive natural perches a couple of feet above the seed. They will often land on the perch before they come all the way down to the seed. That is where you want to photograph them - when they land on the perch you set out. You can change the perches every day, or every hour, so that you don't end up with thousands of photos of the birds on the same stick or stump. To photograph the birds, you will need to be extremely close, even with a 600mm or 800mm lens. Like closer than you can possibly imagine. Last week I photographed Chickadees and Juncos at a distance of 12 feet and still had to crop much more than I would have liked. As I said, being late January, it i snot too late to start a feeding set-up, but if you wait much longer, it will be too late. Once established, the set-up should provide opportunities to photograph birds until mid-March or mid-April, depending on where you are located.
These are great tips, thank you Tom. I have been meaning to set up some feeding stations but have not had the chance to do so yet. One of my concerns is that we have a few dogs that would: a) eat the seed b) scare away any birds. I will try to find a clearing in the woods where they dogs will not go and see what kind of birds I can entice.
@@tim.poirier oh yeah, if the dogs are just allowed to roam loose, that could present a real problem. If they are locked in a kennel or dog run and only allowed out for brief walks on a leash, with you right there, then that wouldn't present any feeding station conflicts at all. My buddy lives on an awesome property for wildlife, but it is useless to go there, ever, because he has dogs that he just allows to roam loose.
at 5:47, about lying prone ..... that is what we do when we are actually photographing wildlife. To be honest, you are not at that point yet. What you are doing is scouting the area for future opportunities. It would be a terrible idea to lie prone during this scouting phase of your project, because that severely limits your visibility. Visibility is of the utmost importance at this point, because you are just trying to figure out what is around and see what they do and what area they are in. The laying prone stuff is part of the end game, after you have scouted for months and have everything figured out, and have established things around your property that will bring certain animals to certain precise spots, where you already have the shooting all figured out and blinds set up, background distractions removed, etc. Getting truly great frame-filling wildlife photos typically takes a few months of pre-planning, at the very least.
I definitely agree I was certainly favoring comfort these few mornings, the payoff comes down the line!
Keep it up, been waiting for a new video! What is the size of the lens?
Thanks Quentin, I love making these videos but they may just be a little more infrequent for a little while!
The lens is 150-600mm (on an APS-C sensor so roughly 225-900mm full frame) and it's an absolute beast. It's tack sharp all through its focal lengths, internal zoom, and small enough that I carry it with me all the time. The one downside is that it's not overly fast (f5.6-8.0) but that's not a deal breaker for me!
What would have really helped with this video would have been a detailed, informative introduction. It would help us get a better idea of what you are doing if you would show us an overview of your property, and tell us what state and area you are in. Also tell us how many acres you have, and what type of land adjoins your property ..... is it surrounded by farms, by natural areas, by apartment complexes and parking lots, etc. It looked like there may have been fresh snow at one point, but we weren't told when it had snowed and how many inches had fallen, and what the temperatures were, and how quickly it was melting (or not melting at all). The more info you can give us about your "backyard" and the current conditions, the more enjoyable these videos will be to watch.
Thanks Tom, that is a great suggestion. I tend to lean towards the "low production" vlog style videos because they are less time consuming to edit and I find them less stressful as I do not feel the pressure to produce the highest quality video every week. That being said I do want to work on my story telling ability to engage the viewer and provide more substance to my content. Going forwards I hope to improve.
@@tim.poirier well that makes a lot of sense. If I were trying to make a video like this, it would probably never get done because of my OCD. I am just really interested in this project of yours on this property, and can't help but to want to know a lot more about it.
I am already thinking of ways to implement your advice for the next video :)