Bullfinch

p4Male Bullfinch taken at F5.6at 1/250 with an ISO of 250 at 400m.Surprisingly low shuter considering the conditions.

A female Bullfinch again the same settings but i had to change shuttrt speed down to 1/200 sec to get it.

Perfect they have come down from the trees to get some seed that i have scatterd in front of my hide but they were so nervous i had to be quick but i am pleased with the result .The female was taken at 1/400 sec and the male at 1/1000 both at f5.6 at 400m with an ISO of 320.these two shots have to me cosidering the pair were on the ground a good colour and a nice composition as there  are no distractions in the pictures,just the birds that i had set bout to get.

The male here was getting slightly bolder and flew a bit closer but i still needed the full zoom of the lense to get him,this was a rare chance to get him without any branches in front of him.but with a clear sky behind him i managed to raise the shuttrt speed a little to 1/640 .

The skys darkened and this Female tones in nicely with the greyier sky behind her as she feeds on new shoots in the tree,again a change of shutter speed now down to 1/320 sec as the light changed.

This last shot looked stunning as it happened a perfect place to land with a dark background so the male here would stand out , i again slowed the shutter to 1/80 sec ,looking back i could of raised the ISO from 320 to around 800-1000 so i could of used a faster shutter but doing so could of led to a grainier picture which i did not want.

My mission today on the 18/3/11 was to photograph Bullfinches at Cannok Chase,the weather was perfect bright and sunny with little cloud (perfect)The plan was to use my Nikon D300s with a Nikon 80/400 telephoto zoom lense hand held as the Bullfinches are quite nervous and get spooked easily so setting up my tripod and then getting a fix on the birds might of been to long to fire some shots.With good light i could set a fast shutter speed and a low ISO as there was plenty of light.