The Savvy Winter Bird Photographer, Part 2

In Part 1 of The Savvy Winter Bird Photographer, I shared my strategies on how to best prepare yourself and your gear for dealing with extreme winter weather. In addition, I covered some tips for photographing from your vehicle and how to use manual focus in heavy snowfall. In Part 2, I will share some exposure tips, discuss how to create your own backyard bird studio, and also suggest a few winter bird photography destinations.
Winter is an excellent time to concentrate on photographing birds coming to feeders. Birds need an available food source to provide the energy they need to stay warm on cold winter nights. By providing food in your backyard, you might attract a good variety of beautiful birds into range of your telephoto lens. There are a few things you should consider when deciding where to set up your feeding station. You should place your feeding station near cover so the birds will have an opportunity to escape a sneak attack by a hawk or other predator. Close to cover, but not so close that a roaming cat might lie in wait to ambush your unsuspecting birds. Determine what light angle you want to work with. My feeder is set up to the west of a permanent blind I built in my yard many years ago. There are no large trees to the east that would cast shadows onto my feeders during morning light. Prior to building the blind, I used either a tent-type blind or a Lens Coat bag blind. I prefer a permanent or tent-type blind because they are easier to leave in place and the birds can become accustomed to them. To ensure good backgrounds, it is very important to keep the feeders close to your shooting position and to keep the distance from feeders to background at least twice as far as the distance from your blind to the feeders. I most often use up to 700mm of focal length and prefer my feeders to be about 20 feet from my blind. A background 60 feet from the blind is good, but 100 feet would be even better.