Male Eurasian Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Rutland Nature Reserve, November 2019.

Nikon D7200, Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6

f6.3, 1/40s, ISO 500, 380mm

Chaffinches are one of the most common UK small birds, but ones that don’t visit my garden. So, I am always happy to have a chance to see them when I’m out and about and will always try and take a shot if an opportunity presents itself.

This one was a tricky task as sunset in mid-November in this part of the UK is 4:15pm, and it was already 4:30pm when I found the birds.

There was still a trickle of light left in the sky, cutting through the dense but almost bare trees as the birds prepared to roost.

I quickly realised I could either push the ISO to a point where the noise would really spoil the shot or attempt to shoot at a shutter speed well below the recommended 1/focal length for a long lense and ruin it with camera shake instead.

I shortened the lens to 380mm, braced myself against a tree as firmly as I could and wound the shutter speed down, watching the exposure needle creep towards the middle of the scale. Click…click…two shots and he was gone.

I looked at the exif data on the camera and saw 1/40s. I thought, that’s probably the slowest shutter speed I have ever shot with this lens. And it was, until 10 seconds later when I got a lovely shot of a Dunnock at 1/30s.

You’ve gotta love image stabilisation!

  • EvilTed@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    3·
    8 months ago

    You’re doing very well with that setup, I am impressed 👍 And thanks for the photo.

    I love that feeder as well, a great idea 😀 I’m not sure I wouldn’t just have a parakeet feeder if we got them regularly lol

    • AchtungDrempels@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 months ago

      I mean… it still is a parakeet feeder, they just don’t stay longer than a couple minutes and only one at a time. Really i just don’t want to anger the people living below me with my feeders. There’s also one feeder the parakeets can reach downstairs in the garden, but i don’t think it gets refilled much since the parakeets found it.

      They still hang out in the tree right in front of me every day, last two weeks a couple’s been shagging pretty much every morning. They’re also trying to build a cave (two actually) in the insulation of a house opposite me. Now that the sun comes out sometimes, their colors really start to glow, so nice.