You've probably heard us mention David Lindquist before. He's one of our most active BirdCam users, and has contributed some really beautiful photos to the Wingscapes Photo Gallery. David has 22 bird feeders set up in his backyard in Cary, North Carolina, and has used his BirdCam to track bird behavior patterns. We convinced David to share some of his bird watching wisdom in an informative BirdCam Q&A. Thanks, David!
When you have a Wingscapes BirdCam, one of the things you find yourself doing after awhile is thinking of new ways to position it for capturing images of birds and other visiting wildlife from different perspectives. For example, placing the BirdCam directly on the ground provides the perfect position to get the eye-level view of ground feeding birds and other wildlife, such as this Varied Thrush:
…or this Douglas Squirrel:
However, in my experimentation with BirdCam positioning, I have discovered that raising it up just slightly provides a different perspective. Lately I have been using a table-top camera tripod that is only a few inches high and that offers moveable mounting head to allow the BirdCam to be positioned at a slight angle for enhanced three-dimensional perspective.
The results can be surprisingly different. Remember the Douglas Squirrel image recorded form a directly-on-the ground placement? Now compare it to the following image of the same species of squirrel recorded in the same location but using the little tripod with the BirdCam tilted at a slightly forward position:
They’re both very good images but each has its own strengths. The important point is to know the effects and advantages offered by each of these different BirdCam positions in order to give you more options when considering how you’d like your BirdCam images composed.
Try experimenting a little on your own. Change the position just a little or find a new way entirely to position the BirdCam. As always, we encourage you to share your discoveries and images with Wingscapes.
