Ha, ha! Joyfulee!

I often have to open My mouth, just to EXCHANGE feet !

Oh, and here are a couple other suggestions. If you're shooting at an angle to the plane of the windows, the effects of blurring will be increased, so either make sure you are perpendicular to the window surfaces or open the glass door and shoot through the opening, exclusively. Of course during clod weather you're going to need to close up the gap as much as possible to keep heat in your apartment, so you just have enough of an opening to poke the lens through. ALSO, try using a Polarizing filter. It might really enhance the coloring of the bird's feathers. You can leave the mirrors outside all the time & not have to worry about weather damage, like you would if you used Flood lights, too. Make sure your lenses are clean, both front & back, and NO FINGERPRINTS on either surface. Oils from skin will damage the coatings and blur the image. Well, that's about all I can think of. Have FUN !!

Dyane,
Have some questions for YOU. Is the door to the deck a sliding glass door? Are you shooting through this window-door? Have you thought about using large inexpensive mirrors instead of Flood-Lighting?

You obviously need more light coming from Your side of your subjects. In the examle you posted, the right 'shoulder' of the B&W bird is Over-exposed & washed-out, while the near-side of the other is flat. Try mounting to the outside wall of your building around the deck, a few large mirrors that will send flat skylight back toward your subjects, on the near side. That should solve your lighting problem, admirably. You'll then be able, if needed to use either a smaller lens opening for greater Depth of Field, or faster Shutter Speeds for Stop-Action, or a combination of both. It might also be a good idea to mount one or two of these mirrors ON the Glass Door, itself, for two reasons. One, to add to the total ambient light coming from your direction, but also to Hide You & your movements from the subject, which will probably frighten them away. By using mirrors instead of Flood Lighting there also won't be any color balance changes to make - It's ALL Daylight ( Color Temperature 5,800°C ), whereas the Photo Floods are usually 3,200°C - quite a bit yellower.
As for the blurriness & lack of sharp focus, I suspect that you are shooting from inside during cold weather THROUGH a Glass Door, probably with TWO thicknesses of glass, which creates FOUR additional surfaces for the light to bounce off of & wash out the colors & make for a slightly fuzzy focus. The glass in these windows, while sufficient for everyday use, aren't Optically FLAT, and therefore have microscopic ripples and flaws that will change the focus of you image & also make it impossible to focus SHARPLY. Also cuts down the contrast.

Try using a polarizing filter on your film camera. You may be getting some extraneous UV light from somewhere that will wash out colors, if the anti-reflection coating on the lenses are deteriorated, at all.

Hi Marcy,!
You realize, don't you that this Forum is INTER-NATIONAL in scope. So you really need to give more information about your location, than just the County - like, State &/or COUNTRY.
- jackKLE

Alaskan,
The only time you manually close down the aperture is for Metering. The rest of the time, it's left on Auto at full aperture for focusing & composing.

Hey Sparky!
If it doesn't work right for your purposes, I'll buy it from you. You say that it doesn't focus to infinity, which is a definite problem for me because that is about all I DO shoot (Astro). But I don't mind partially dis-assembling a lens mount to make an adapter that WILL work, if it can be done. - J. Kelley < yellekayrrej1@yahoo.com >

[abc1234]
The Canon Rebel, 300D, is a wonderful camera in like-new condition. No blemishes or known problems.

Three Canon USM lens:
EF-S 17-85 mm with image stabilizer, f 4.5-5.6, 67 mm
EF-S 18-55 mm, f 3.5-4.5, 58 mm
EF II 70-200 mm, f 4.5-5.6, 52 mm

Polarizers (52 mm and 58 mm), Expodisc (58 mm), sunshade (58 mm), recharger, documentation. One 512 M Sandisk CF card and two 2 G Sandisk Ultra II cards.

Prices to be determined.

(jackKLE)
WHY would you 'post' this announcement without ALL necessary information like Array Size (for those of us who don't know), How Much You're Asking for the equipment.
The only additional information I've recieved since the First inquiry is that it's a 300D. In my opinion, there NEEDS to be a price for EACH item in the "Ad", before you make the Original 'Post'.

Lumicon is a company that produces high quality filters for Astro-photography. These are Broad & Narrow Band-Pass & Interference filters. However, there IS one that does wonders for UV Blocking - much better than a UV filter & that is a "Minus-Violet" filter. It's ALMOST clear like a UV, but has just a hint of Yellow. It's VERY effective at blocking Violet, which will degrade your images.

While it's certainly the Polite thing to do, in my experience, if you're in a public place, anyone can take your picture with or without your permission, including against your wishes.

Howdy! What model is this Rebel ? The price you're asking was not posted, so I'd like to know that too, of course. I've been ouut of
photography for some time & think it's about time to start doing it again, with an emphasis on Astro-Photography - JackKLE

Canon offers what they call their Customer Loyalty program, where they will deduct a substantial amount from the price of a new DSLR, if you Trade-in your 35mm Film Camera Body. It doesn't even have to work & they aren'y interested in your lenses.
case in Point. When I called them to ask about the T1i Camera(15Mp), they told me that I could up-grade to the T2i (18Mp), by using their Program. Well i just happened to have two 35mm Bodies lying around.. At that time the Retail price of the T2i was $890, but with the Trade-in I could get the same camera for $512.
Guess what I did ! I traded my "TL", with a hole burned in the Shutter from being on a telescope during the day and allowing the Sun to pass across the corner of the field of view, accidently, of Course. They accepted it without a word ! I was astonished to say the least. AND, I still have an "FTb" that
i can do the same thing with, when/if the time ever comes to up-grade. And, I still have a few hundred feet of Film on Bulk Rolls to burn up, including Tech Pan, T-Max 3200 & Tri-X - I only shoot B&W.. BTW- Would anyone be interested in buying an 11x14 View Camera? - Or an 8x10 ? I have Both, and as far as I know, I can't get any more film in those sizes.

As it turns out, LUMICON DOES have an IR BLOCK filter, that comes in 1.25" & 48mm/2" diameters. The larger one is $99.95, the other, $69.95. I suggested the possibility to them of making a larger one that could be used with Step Rings to adapt to virtually any Camera lens, directly /7 they 'seem' interested in the idea. - We'll see what happens. Oh, and the IR Block filter has a 750 nm cut-off. I haven't a clue what the cutoff is for any of the cameras on the market, but would assume that it's pretty close to the same value - enough so, that the camera's internal Color Balance SHOULD be able to compensate.

Gary also offers full instructions for those who feel confident enough to make the Modfication on a DIY basis. But he only charges a few hundred bucks to do the "Mod", in his shop - so to me it would be well worth the expense to have him do it. Anyway, I'd probably botch the job, having 11 thumbs & 3 left feet

Gary HONIS, is one of the two guys that does the "Modifications".