sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

The 4 pairs of painted buntings that live six months of the year in the woods behind my house are a little skittish and will not allow me to be in the backyard while they are at the feeder. I mounted my Canon 6D with a 100-400mm lens on a tripod yesterday morning and let them get used to it, and then connected it via its intrinsic WiFi to my iPhone and triggered the shutter remotely. This was frustrating because there was a significant shutter delay and then a 3-second or so delay after each shot. Not the most ideal, but better than what I have been able to get from shooting from inside the house.

The other challenge with this method is that I could not get the camera to maintain a focus point at the feeder, so it would focus on the cage. At f 11 this still results in photos that aren't terrible, but they are a little soft. More reason for a GAS attack - apparently I "need" a new R5 with the eye focus feature!

The bird feeder is an Audubon feeder which is pretty effective at keeping the squirrels out - with the exception of one small one that manages to squeeze through the cage openings.

Female painted bunting.

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MSW

nice shots

knessr

Why don't you switch to manual focus and focus on the birdfeeder at the time when you set up the camera?

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Beautiful pictures. I don't think I have ever seen those birds in either Idaho or California. Well done photos.

May I suggest using your camera manually focused on a point where you think birds will land. It may not work in your situation because you seem to have a pretty large feeder. When photographing hummingbirds a few years back I would focus on an area where the bird landed by putting something up there to focus on. Anything will do. Then the focus is taken care of. The long DOF helps too. I wish you good shooting.

Dennis

warrenvon Loc: Ellicott City, MD

You might try using Back Button focusing to separate that function from the shutter release action.
The use of back button focusing is highly recommended for wild life imaging or all the time.
Check out this and you might like its use.

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

Nice shots...as suggested you could use manual focus...maybe f11 so the whole bird feeder would be in focus...manual focus would also help the camera shoot quicker because it does not have to find a focus point...

I have a Nikon D7200 and bought a generic wireless remote control for it...since i use back button focus when i set my camera on a tripod and plan to take a photo using the remote i focus on my focal point and dont have the cameras self timer on...when i push the shutter releases button there is very little, if any, shutter lag...I havent used my iphone as a shutter release but I assume you would probably get the same results.

good luck and let us know how you make out...

Chuck

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

Nice shots

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good series, Steve.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Nice "Jail bird" shots!! Love the Buntings, we have many pairs/large extended family with babies in our yard too......great subjects, wonderful colors. We enjoy them!!!

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

I like your approach to getting these photos...an enjoyable series!!

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Really nice. Your efforts paid off.

angler Loc: StHelens England

A very nice set.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Lovely captures ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Nice set Steve