Many thanks for all of your recent comments - I appreciate them all. I don't like clogging up your inboxes with acknowledgements, but will always respond to any direct questions and queries. I also spend as much time as I can looking at and commenting on your projects.
@jacqbb Jacq, obviously your feeders should be in a position which allows you some cover to take shots so that you do not disturb the birds when you are shooting. Then it's a matter of setting up the bird food etc, settling down comfortably with a cup of tea (or whatever) and waiting!
For the rest, I am uncertain of your depth of knowledge so difficult to know how to pitch the answer - forgive the fairly basic approach. My camera settings were high-ish ISO, Aperture Priority setting, wide aperture (for this shot it was f/5.6) - the aforementioned will result in a fast shutter speed and fairly shallow depth of field. Camera shutter release set to "continuous shooting" - so the camera will shoot in bursts of frames if you hold the shutter down. After that, it's a matter of judgement as to getting the camera pointed in the right place, focussed on the right spot, in time for whatever action you are trying to capture. For this one, I think I shot around 20-25 frames in 4 or 5 bursts at different times as the starlings were flying around the feeder. With that number of frames, I had a choice of 2 (3 at most) that were suitable for 365 purposes. The beauty of digital cameras, eh?
Oh, and I also had a 70-300mm zoom lens attached (I treated myself a few years ago in advance of a safari holiday!).
And I didn't use a tripod. (Oh, and auto focus setting set to AI Servo AF, which is the Canon method of continuously adjusting the focus when continuously shooting objects that are moving).
@peadar Thanks for your explanation Pad, i’ll have to look into the continuous shooting setting, but probably will find it. It’s great to work digital otherwise I could not afford the film.
For the rest, I am uncertain of your depth of knowledge so difficult to know how to pitch the answer - forgive the fairly basic approach. My camera settings were high-ish ISO, Aperture Priority setting, wide aperture (for this shot it was f/5.6) - the aforementioned will result in a fast shutter speed and fairly shallow depth of field. Camera shutter release set to "continuous shooting" - so the camera will shoot in bursts of frames if you hold the shutter down. After that, it's a matter of judgement as to getting the camera pointed in the right place, focussed on the right spot, in time for whatever action you are trying to capture. For this one, I think I shot around 20-25 frames in 4 or 5 bursts at different times as the starlings were flying around the feeder. With that number of frames, I had a choice of 2 (3 at most) that were suitable for 365 purposes. The beauty of digital cameras, eh?
Oh, and I also had a 70-300mm zoom lens attached (I treated myself a few years ago in advance of a safari holiday!).
And I didn't use a tripod. (Oh, and auto focus setting set to AI Servo AF, which is the Canon method of continuously adjusting the focus when continuously shooting objects that are moving).