I've always wanted to have a go at lightning shots, but felt they were somehow mysterious, needing superhuman timing, maybe a funky gadget or two and oodles of luck. Well, some of those are certainly useful, but putting aside those issues, a storm over the house had me out on our deck. Armed with a vague inkling of how to go about the task, a little perseverance, and a lot of luck, WHAM!! Lightning does strike where you point the camera...

Lightning strike over Mies

This was shot in August 2018, using the Canon 5D MkIV with the 24-70mm f/4: 24 mm, 8 seconds at f/4 and ISO100. Manual exposure, manual focus (just back from infinity), VR off. Once the framing was as I wanted, the interval timer was set to take 99 shots with an interval of 2 seconds. In all I took, or more accurately the camera took, somewhere in the region of 4-500 shots. From those, maybe 3 or 4 had a lightning strike of some sort, but this was by far the winner. Processed first through DPP, with minimal adjustments save to reduce the exposure by 1/2 ev, oh and to set the white balance to "White fluorescent" (bringing out the purple/blue tones), and ending with a light touch in PS.

Some reflections - don't be inhibited, and just give something a go - there's learning in every failure, and part of developing skills is being prepared to fail. Looking again at the exposure, I think I'd have been better at ISO200 and 4 seconds: a little less noise to deal with. And then, since I darkened the image by about 1/2 ev in DPP (the illuminated sky was just too bright), shooting at either f/5 or f/5.6.

At the end of last year I had some good luck with Hawfinches in the garden (see blog post from December 2017). But shortly after their visits became less regular and with spring upon us I thought that my chance to improve upon the shots already bagged was unlikely. But noooooooo!!! Just at the end of March more opportunities presented themselves. I now have 5 (!!!) coming to the garden, including a couple of gorgeous bright individuals.

So it was back under the Lenscoat hide! And what a treat I received.

Hawfinch, Mies, Switzerland

These images really show off an unusual feature of their plumage - the ends of the glossy blue-black secondaries (I think, although it could be inner primaries?) are bizarrely shaped. Despite searching the web I couldn't find any definitive explanation for the curious shape, although some literature suggests they may have some significance in courtship.

Hawfinch, Mies, Switzerland

Hawfinch, Mies, Switzerland

Shooting data: all images taken with Canon 1DX Mkii with 600mm ISII and 1.4 extender.  Aperture f/7.1 or f/8 and a shutter speed of around 1600. ISO either 1250 or 1600.

Post processing: raw conversion to TIFF using DPP, then PS with MacPhun/Intensify for fine detail and finally selective sharpening with Nik Output sharpener applied around the eye, feather edges where the colour changes (mostly on the head and neck/nape), bill edge and legs.

This winter has been notable for the frequency of visits by certain finches. I've already posted about Hawfinch and this time it's the turn of the Siskin to take centre stage. They are a rather smart, delicate, finch that in the past has been a very rare visitor to the garden with only the odd one perched briefly in a tree or flying overhead. However, this winter there's been a small flock coming sporadically to the feeders -- which translates into getting under the LensCoat portable hide (aka one large camo blanket) and sitting by the feeder for hours.

Once the birds found the feeders the next step was to encourage them onto settings that were, well, not on the feeder itself.

The first obvious opportunity off the feeder was underneath, but birds on grass, are, well, not very interesting. I mean take a look at the image below. It's nice enough as a photo, and a cracking male Siskin. But let's be honest, grass as a scene is, well, boring with a capital "B"!

Siskin (male), Mies, Switzerland

And while I'm being critical, the light's somewhere off to the left side - note that the right-hand half of the bird is in shadow. This individual just kept hopping closer and closer to the blind, and as it got closer it moved to my right, and hence the poor sun angle (when compared to my position relative to the feeder).

Next to the feeder used to be a mature sycamore, some 50 ft or so in height, towering over the back of the house. This tree fell a couple of months ago (narrowly missing the house - phew!) and what's now left are a handful of small stumps. In the clean up process these were rather over zealously pruned, leaving me with a couple of featureless perches, and providing, as beautifully illustrated in the next image, bird on stick, or more precisely, bird on big stick.

Siskin (female), Mies, Switzerland

Bird on stick = also BORING, although a (small) step up from bird on grass.

I'm not one for routinely messing with perches and so forth, but when in the garden I feel I can afford myself a little latitude - the birds are already attracted by seed, so a little creativity with the environment around the feeder seems ok.

Although we have a large garden, improving the photographic opportunities and getting birds off the feeders didn't require anything too elaborate. Birds are like labrador puppies - award them and they will (if you wait long enough) come and use the perch you provide, although they will also stand on the ones just out of site, or behind a twig or somehow hide from view. So one tip is to minimise the number of perch options with a little selective pruning.

All I did to improve the photographic options was move a couple of moss and ivy covered logs that were lying around the garden and place them under the feeder. In the end, I had the remnants of the sycamore tree and a couple of moss covered logs. These were obligingly used by the Siskins, which takes me nicely to my two favourites - one of a smart male, sporting its black crown and bib, and then a less colourful streaky female.

In the first, the male Siskin is perched on what's left of the fallen sycamore. The white out of focus circles are hail. The hail shower was super light and blowing around all over the place - simply too erratic to work with slow shutter speeds (for streaky snow) - so I went fast to freeze them. Canon 1DX Mkii with 600mm f/4 ISII + 1.4x. 1/1600 @ f/6.3, ISO 1600.

Siskin (male), Mies, Switzerland

And in the final shot, the female is perched on one of the old logs I'd simply positioned under the feeder. This Siskin spent most of its time hopping around on the ground, but for a few brief seconds it hopped up onto the log. Of course there were a few sunflower seeds strategically placed just out of view, to encourage such action. Canon 1DX Mkii with 600mm f/4 ISII + 1.4x. 1/1250 @ f/6.3, ISO 1600.

Siskin (female), Mies, Switzerland

For some final reflections, Siskins are not classically ground feeders, and so what I'm missing is a classic "Siskin feeding on a thin alder or birch twig" shot. There are some aspects of a shot that epitomise a bird's habitat, character and/or behaviour, and those to me are richer images. To get that shot in the garden will require dipping further into perch set-up than I typically like, although I'm not totally against giving it a go.