Blue tits

[miketuk]

Hi

Any tips to photographing some blue tits that are nesting in my garden, I am trying to make them look still in flight.

Had a couple of goes but would appreciate any suggestions to improve the shots.

Thanks this is the first attempt a lot out of focus.

Fast little things

[E.T]

You'll need faster shutter speed to stop motion, looks like you took it with F4.1 which might be widest available aperture so only way is increasing sensitivity.

You also used flash so disable red eye reduction, it doesn't do any good, just causes additional shutter delay.

[miketuk]

Thankyou I will try that, red eye was on must remeber to turn it off.

These are some of the settings for that photo, any help welcome.

Shooting mode Manual
TV (Shutter speed) 1/500
AV (Aperture Value) 4.1
ISO Speed 100
Focal Length 29.2mm
White Balance Cloudy

[Peter_with_digicam]

Miketuk

I've got an identical box on my garage wall. The blue tits are now nest-building. I get a good view from my bedroom window, but I will wait until there's frantic feeding going on, then snap them in bright sunshine which should allow a fast shutter speed. I expect therefore to have to wait several more weeks before I can experiment.

I'll try with my TCON-17 / FZ30 combination at 80 ISO.

[bernabeu]

you will need a shutter speed of 1/2000 or faster

[alberta]

as you say mike.like a bat out of hell.i had my sony h1 set at 125 sec and managed one going in the box.slight blur but should give you a starter.as stated elsewere wait for a prolonged feedind spell to give you plenty shots.the are tireless birds and will visit the nest at least 500times a day.good luck
a.w

[Peter_with_digicam]

Unfortunately the nest I have been watching emptied in the (relatively) early hours of the morning before I had any chance to get the camera out. Plus I missed the adult birds arriving with meals, probably because I was concentrating on some young blackbirds which had recently left the nest. Ah well ... there's always another year.

EDIT 4 June: That's what I thought, but when I took the nest box down yesterday there were in fact half a dozen dead chicks in the nest. I had no chance to photograph them leaving the nest. I believe from TV this is what may have happened to other blue tit hatchings in England this year.

Peter_with_digicam wrote:

Miketuk

I've got an identical box on my garage wall. The blue tits are now nest-building. I get a good view from my bedroom window, but I will wait until there's frantic feeding going on, then snap them in bright sunshine which should allow a fast shutter speed. I expect therefore to have to wait several more weeks before I can experiment.

I'll try with my TCON-17 / FZ30 combination at 80 ISO.