I recently attended an excellent program given by Mark Theriot who is an amazing nature and aviation photographer. His program was about backyard birding and how to set up your yard for natural looking bird photographs without distracting feeders to detract from images. I was inspired by Mark's program and wanted to set up my yard in a similar way. Mark very kindly visited my yard and gave me tips on how to set up an area for taking images based around two old tree stumps in my lawn. In the photograph you can see there are two feeder stations either side of the tree stumps and a bird bath sunk into the ground. The tree stumps and a branch placed in the middle of the stumps will hopefully provide a perch for birds to land on before visiting the feeder stations or bird bath. I will be adding a second bird bath on a stand behind the tall feeder station. I will sit about 15 feet behind the tree stumps in a low to the ground chair. Hopefully if I sit out there often the birds will get used to me and I will be able to take some great backyard bird images. Watch this space for updates and images fingers crossed!
Here is a link to Mark Theriot's Soaring Art website where you can read his blog and see his stunning photos:
http://soaringart.com