Tripod Test

In addition to using a tripod for these shots, I also used a small
flash which can be seen reflecting in the eyes of this tiny birds.

I've been wanting to try using a tripod when shooting birds over the past couple of days but the birds around the house disappeared for a few days while we had a hawk in the area. My tripod and camera sat in front of the kitchen window waiting for some birds to return so I could attempt to shoot while using a tripod.

This afternoon we had a few very skittish birds out there so today was my first chance at giving this a quick whirl. I only spent about ten minutes testing what it is like to shoot with a tripod but I came away from this short practice session feeling that using a tripod for bird photography is the way to go! The tripod allowed me to shed the weight of the camera which is a tremendous help for my spinal injuries. The tripod also kept the camera rock steady.

I should also point out that my spinal injuries are so severe that hand-holding a camera with a long lens becomes excruciating within minutes. Within just a few short minutes, I am gasping for air because the pain physically takes my breath away. Obviously, this affects my breath control and I subsequently capture far too many blurred imaged. 

The catchlight in the eye due to using flash on this shot produced
a funky 'green eye' rather than human 'red eye'. In hindsight, I
should have eliminated most of this catchlight since it 
looks so weird.

I used my Gimbal tripod head mounted on my tripod and I was impressed with the amount of control I had over camera angle. I was able to control the camera angle using only my left thumb, slowly swaying the camera to the necessary angle, quickly and fluidly... while my right hand used the shutter release button.

This combination of tripod and Gimbal head was very effective!

My only problem was that the tripod limits my ability to shoot at greater angles through this small window. Since this window is so small, my shooting angles are few and shallow when using a tripod. In this case, I was shooting an area of one tree that was about 15' x 15'. When I hand-hold the camera at this small window, I can shoot an area more than five times that size so the combination of tripod and a small window limited my shooting area.

On the positive side, I had less of a problem getting sharp results which was my problem when hand-holding the camera when using my longest lens. Motion blurring was a persistent problem while hand-holding the camera. The only motion blurring I encountered was due to flittering motion of the birds and not due to me being unable to keep the camera and lens steady. This is a significant difference than when I am hand-holding the camera!

I'm looking forward to feeling a bit better and getting outside to shoot in different locations while using my tripod... I believe my tripod will be used far more often this summer than ever before...