My backyard buddies. More pics 1-29-09

[JayinMN]

These are some of my everyday visitors.

[Birdsong]

You have a lovely little family! They may be everyday visitors, but your photos are not everyday. They are just beautiful. You've really got that background thing down and the birds are perfect. I love both of your little nuthatches, especially. I see there was snow--but was the light still pretty good? They are so sharp. And the one perfect little snowflake on the nuthatch's log is killer.

[JayinMN]

The snow was lightly falling with an over cast sky so the lighting wasn't the greatest. I wish the 3 snow flakes left of the chickadee would have been in focus in the first shot. I think that would have really made that shot pop out. I had one goldfinch in a flock of 50 pine siskins that I went out to try and get pictures off. It was just to hard singling that one out...lol

[JayinMN]

I just realized I can see the silhouette of my house in all of their eyes...

[JeffB]

You've got mad camera skilz

[finnbay]

Very nice Jason!

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

Those are some real nice pictures!!

Here I thought when I read the subject "My Back Yard Buddies" in the far left colum under most recently posted you was going to have a picture of the Back Yardigans!!! Sorry couldn't resist as I have a 2 and 3 year old.

Those pictures would be sweet to get framed and mounted.

[Jim Almquist]

Jay I really like how on your Black-capped you have some snow flakes to go along with your buddy

Great job on the Nuthatch-Very sharp Heck there all real sharp

[Nymph]

Those are some sharp shots!! I love how you were able to capture the snow flakes in those images.

They are all definitely wall hangers.

[jonny_redhorse]

Very nice Jay!....those nuthatch images sure are sweet also!....love the fact you captured the single snowflakes....again,very nice!

[MN Shutterbug]

Super nice series. I like them all.

[eelpout1]

Jay those are some crazy good pictures, can I ask you what you use for a camera. I used to do a lot of photography back in the day, all my equipment is now antiquated, All old Cannon F-1 stuff (and the good stuff to go along with it), I own one small digital camera for fishing picks. I'm thinking I would like to start taking some pictures again

[JayinMN]

Eelpout, I have a Canon 30D body and a Canon 100-400 mm lens that I shoot with.

[eelpout1]

Jay a couple more questions if you dont mind. did you purchase your camera in a package or buy it by the piece, I've been looking on line for info and there are way to many choices for your model 30D body, lenses, flash card reader, flash cards and lenses. did you buy from a photography store which I would prefer to do, what could I expect to pay. If you don't want to say on this site, you can email me at [email protected] I am realy interested in doing some photography again. any help would be appreciated. Thanks much

[Dbl]

Those are some real beauties Jay! Nice work all around, sharp, great exposure, nice backgrounds. Well done.

[JayinMN]

Eelpout,

Originally I started with a Rebel XT that I bought as a package. I ended up with two lens I hardly ever use now but it was a nice set up to begin with. A few months after I bought the package, I bought the 100-400 mm lens. A year later I bought the 30D body used from a member on this board and have been really happy with it. I guess if I was to do it over again I would have skipped the package and bought the body and a lens of my choice. A lot of what you decide to purchase is going to depend on the types of shots you want to take. Steve Foss, has the 30D as well. He put his in my hands for a day while shooting together and I liked it so I bought one. I was looking at a new 50D and going with the older 30D saved me quite a bit. There are a lot of users far more technical savvy then I am so you might want to make a post in the photography forum with what type of photography you looking to do and maybe the price range you looking to spend. You will get better answers then I can provide, I'm am still pretty wet behind the ears...lol

I bought my XT package for $1200 new. That was the body, a 28-200mm lens, a 75-300mm lens, flash card and reader, camera bag and a useless tripod.

The 100-400 lens was around $1300.

The 30D body was $450.00.

I have maybe another $100.00 in accessories like camera bag, extra batteries etc.

[Captain B.R.K]

Great looking family!

[eelpout1]

Jay thanks for the reply and the info, It answered my questions very nicely. My experience with photography was drag racing pictures, lot of action and usually good lighting(they dont race in the rain and such)toward the end of my escapade a few tracks had lights so I did have some fun with that. My old equip is still in working order but I no longer have dark room equip. Its getting hard to find people to develope my film with quality, so I'll start over with Digital equip. I am looking into wild life photography, mostly birds and smaller native minnesota animals. birds intrest me the most, my wife and I have really gotten into bird watching, I would like to be able to save what we see. I will use your advice and also ask others, I really appreciate the time you have given to me, good luck and I hope to be posting pictures soon. Thanks again

[JayinMN]

Instead of opening another post I figured I would just add to this one. These were also taken in my yard. Pine siskins are dominating my feeders this year.

[Birdsong]

Now that is a perfect bg for a siskin. They look wonderful! I have a gazillion of the little guys this year, and a gazillion more little brown sticks to go with them. Nice photos!!!!!

[finnbay]

Great siskins, Jason! I was just taking some shots of those today myself because I haven't seen many posted. You've got some dandies there!

[MN Shutterbug]

Nice additions. They're all super.

[JayinMN]

I must of forgot to uncheck the "Automatically optimize JPEG images?" box on this picture and boy did villagephotos ever "optimize it.

[MN Shutterbug]

I like the Red-breasted nuthatch. I only saw the 1 1/2 days I was at the bog. That seems kind of strange.

[Griggs]

You've got some really nice looking photos. Would you mind telling us about your set up? Lookin great!