Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 3-Critters

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"George Eating Maple Seeds In Winter"

“George Eating Maple Seeds In Winter”

This George the Grey squirrel. When we run out of peanuts to feed the birds, which George steals often, George resorts to what nature has left him. Don’t feel to bad for George. He gets his fill of peanuts and everything else we put for the birds.


In “Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 1” I said to buy a quality bird bath so the other critters wouldn’t knock it over and break it (we figured this out by experience). Another benefit of attracting birds however is the critters themselves. You can create some great photos of other critters while waiting for the birds or just forget the birds for a day or so and concentrate on the critters.

I had just filled our bird feeders and was watching through our dining room window waiting for the birds to show up. It usually takes them about ten minutes to get over the fact I was in “their” yard. George the squirrel showed up first so I took advantage of the situation and created “George Eating Maple Seeds In Winter”.

While visiting friends in Southwestern Nevada I spotted a lot of birds I had never seen in the wild before. Their backyard is literally the Mojave desert. The Lake Mead National Recreation Area is only a few hundred yards from their house. I was sitting with my back against the cliff side of a twenty foot high rock outcrop, and facing Lake Mead. The back of their yard has several ten foot plus tall saguaro cacti. The humming birds love to perch on the spines of these cacti so I was confident I could create at least one good hummingbird photo.

After about forty five minutes or so, and no birds to be seen, I heard something rustling in the bushes near me. Getting up to look around I saw a lizard about six inches long foraging for insects and seeds. I laid back down on the ground so I wouldn’t scare him. I created “Lizard in the Desert” while crawling on my stomach and following him.
"Lizard in the Desert"

“Lizard in the Desert”

This little lizard was running around in the backyard of our friends house in Boulder City, Nevada USA. He’s only about 6 inches long and staying close to the ground clutter to keep cool. It was very easy to follow him around laying on my stomach. Using my 70-200mm zoom lens helped me to stay as still as possible and use the zoom to frame the photo.


I did eventually create at least one good hummingbird photo.
"Costa's Hummingbird in Flight"


“Costa’s Hummingbird in Flight”

I’ve never seen so many hummingbirds in my life. Everybody in Southern Nevada has hummingbird feeders hanging outside, even businesses. This is a Costa’s hummingbird I caught in flight while feeding.


Next time you’re out trying to get that great backyard bird photo pay attention to what else is going on around you. You might just reward yourself with some great backyard critter photos.

~ Daniel Kmiecik
Next week: Urban Nature Photography – Keeping warm and getting the shot

JUS’CUS it’s Tuesday

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JUS'CUS Cards

“JUS’CUS Cards”

This is one of my JUS’CUS Cards (shown setup for printing). You may notice this particular photo also became my JUS’CUS logo.


Last year I began displaying and selling my art photography at the Canton Farmers Market in Canton, MI USA. If you’re in the area you really should check out this market. Literally tons of produce moves through this Farmers Market every Spring through the Fall. We also have a lot of artisans showing and selling their creations.

On the advice of the market’s administrator I created a line of note cards I call JUS’CUS Cards. She felt this would be a great seller at the market. Turns out she was absolutely right! My cards were a big hit last year and I’m going back for more this year. I’ll be at the market for at least eleven weeks this year (dates to follow later). Hope to see you there.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 2

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In “Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 1” I talked about getting birds into your yard by creating a bird friendly yard. Now that the birds are showing up, how do you start creating great photos of them? I’m sure you’ve seen many photos of people feeding wild birds, such as Black-capped chickadees, by hand. While this is possible, it is not the norm. Most birds are very wary and fly away literally in less than a blink-of-an-eye.

House Wren in Flight

“House Wren in the Blink of an Eye”

If our eyes did not automatically correct for fast motion this is what birds would look like as they fly by. The time frame you’re seeing is one, one hundredth of a second (about 30 to 40 times faster than the blink of an eye).


Personally, I think “House Wren in the Blink of an Eye” is a pretty cool photo. But if you want to create photos like “American Goldfinch Perched in Tree” and “House Wren at Nest Box” (seen in my post “Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 1”), the answer is to use a blind. You don’t have to stop reading and go spend hundreds of dollars to get one. Many times you don’t even need to build one. Birds generally don’t like to see the human form. The idea of a blind is to break up your silhouette so the birds don’t recognize you as a human.

So how do you create and use a blind? Unless you have a lot of property and don’t mind building or buying a permanent blind you need to get creative. I created “House Wren in the Blink of an Eye” and “American Goldfinch Perched in Tree” from my most expensive blind, but thankfully I didn’t have to build it. I was sitting in my dining room and created both photos from inside my house. Another great blind you probably already own is your car.
American Robin

“American Robin”

I finally caught a good profile of an American robin in our front yard by using my car as a blind. I pulled in the driveway and saw this robin hunting for worms. I grabbed my camera from the backseat, lowered the driver side window and started shooting. The robin didn’t care about the car and went about its business.


Of course it helps to have a nice long telephoto lens, but not everybody can afford one. A blind will you get closer and save you money. For many years the longest lens I owned was a 180mm macro lens. For”House Wren at Nest Box” I was standing in the low hanging branches in a tree next to the one where the box is mounted. The shepherd’s hook in”Black-capped Chickadee on a Shepherd’s Hook” was too far away from our house to keep the bird large enough in the frame to see it very well. I spent many hours, over several weeks, sitting still in a lawn chair, with camera at the ready and never got a good shot. I’m sure the neighbors thought I was a little strange when they saw what I setup to use as a blind. First, I setup the two wrought iron lawn chairs next to each other so I could use the arms to steady myself. Then I setup one of my light stands with a photo umbrella just above my head while sitting on the ground. Making sure I had a nice green background, I rested my arms on the two chairs and waited. It only took about ten minutes for the birds to forget all the commotion I made while setting up. A few minutes later and I had the photo I’d been try to create the whole time.
Black-capped Chickadee

“Black-capped Chickadee on a Shepherd’s Hook”

My wife’s favorite song bird visitor to our backyard. This little guys is waiting for other birds to leave the feeder hanging below so he can get his share.


Thanks for visiting and reading my blog. If any of these tips help you out, I’d love to see your results.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Next week: “Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 3-Critters”

Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 1

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Creating photos of birds in your backyard can be difficult. First you need to bring enough birds to your yard so you don’t have to wait hours between shots. Once they show up, you need to get them to hold still long enough to get a sharp photo. You also want to capture an interesting pose or behavior to make your photo stand out among all the other bird photos out there. All of this has to happen before you accidentally scare the birds away.

“American Goldfinch Perched in Tree”

“American Goldfinch Perched in Tree”

We went from seeing only a few of these American goldfinches to needing a finch feeder that would allow more birds to feed at once by switching to fresh thistle seeds.


Let’s start by getting birds into your yard. Birds want the same thing you do, no not money. They are attracted to food, water and shelter. Food is harder than it sounds. The big name brands you get at the grocery store or local pet store are not normally the freshest and attract few birds. If you have a local specialty birding store, they will usually have the best, freshest food. These foods tend to be higher quality and attract a lot more birds. When switched from name brand to food from the local birding store we had so many birds we had to buy more feeders. What about the squirrels? They will eat your bird food. Buy more food, you can’t stop them. Besides they’re part of nature too and will most likely provide you with more photo ops than the birds. Plus it’s interesting to watch the birds and squirrels compete for the food. Getting water for birds is as easy as buying a bird bath. Get one you like to look at it because you care more about the looks than the birds. If you buy a quality bird bath, you won’t need to replace it very often. Some bird baths are too light and unsteady. The problem with this is critters other than birds such as squirrels, raccoons, skunks, neighborhood cats, etc. The critters will jump onto the bird bath knock it over and possibly break it.

If you buy a bird bath with a slick bowl and sides, be sure to add some large rocks in the center to give the birds a place to land. Don’t cover the rocks completely with water. Some birds will stand on top of the rocks to take their bath. Others will use the rocks as a place to hop off into the bowl and then back up again after bathing. If you live in a climate where water freezes in the Winter and you still want to keep the bird bath setup, bird bath heaters are available. Birds love slow moving water, think babbling brook. You can buy drip systems specially built for bird baths or you can fashion one yourself out of a plastic bottle. Just hang a bottle with a pin hole in the bottom from a shepherd’s hook above the bird bath. Keep the bottle filled with water and you’re done. Providing shelter is probably the easiest of the three things that draw birds to your yard. If you already have a good selection of trees, bushes and flowers you’re done. You can buy or make nest boxes and mount them in your yard for even more bird appeal. Birds will use the nest boxes to raise young or as a decoy nest or for roosting in the Winter. Make sure you place your bird baths and nest boxes where it’s difficult for predators to get to but easy for the birds to get to your trees etc. If you don’t have a lot of trees and plants around your home, birds will still visit your feeders, bird baths and nest boxes. You may not get as many as a yard with a lot of landscaping. There are a lot of birding websites and magazines with all the information you need to create a bird friendly yard.

"House Wren at Nest Box"

“House Wren at Nest Box”

I mounted this nest box on a pine tree 7 years ago. Since then the house wrens have raised two broods. The other five years they used this as a decoy nest.


In “Creating Backyard Bird Photos Part 2″ I’ll start discussing actually setting up and creating backyard bird photos.
~ Daniel Kmiecik