Remotely capturing birds

TUSCUMBIA-I have a diverse variety of birds in my yard, but don’t get much of a chance to take to get any pictures of them as I have three big reasons.  My three hooligans as I call my three rescues, charging through the area or chasing after the birds scaring them off or just hanging somewhere around me in a spot near the birds.

I had priced a wireless remote for my Canon, but had better needs to spend that kind of money on, than a piece of novelty equipment.  On the Ugly Hedgehog, a photography forum, some one was asking about a model RM-WRS-CN2 SLR wireless RF remote by Accessory Power at $29.99.  Number one question, does it work, and two will it work on a Canon camera?    After reading some of the discussions, I decided to order one so I could set my camera up near my hummingbird feeders, and also work on this years Hooligan Christmas card with the hooligans and myself in the picture.  After getting it in, I played with it using the delay and it was very easy to operate.  The controller fits into the hot shoe on the camera and the cable plugs into the flash port.  I then decided to set it up near a bluebird box that is along the driveway.  Mom would fly the coop every time she heard me coming while she was sitting on the nest no matter how softly I walked.  That saying Mom’s have eyes in the back of their heads is certainly true.

Early one morning I sat a broken tripod up about 15 feet from the nest in order for them to get used to it.  Broken one, not because I was worried about someone stealing it, but worried that the Hooligans in one of their chase Levi scenes would run over my new Canon one.   Later that day I sat up my camera with the remote and used the instant shot setting, and sat down in the shade about a hundred feet away for a cup of tea and wait.  The female was the first to arrive and I clicked the remote and she seemed startle and flew up into a nearby crepe myrtle tree. I got up and walked to check my camera for the results from that distance and it worked.  So back to my tea and wait for the next feeding trip.  I thought maybe I had it sat up too close and she was hearing the camera focusing, and soon realized that if they were flying toward the camera, they were seeing the lens shooting.  If they came in from behind the camera, they were not startled.  Each trip I would click on the remote until one of the parents flew off with a housecleaning item in tow and drops it somewhere away from the nest. Both parents help in the feeding.  Things were working nicely until one of the Hooligans chasing bumblebees and another one decides to flop down near the camera set up.

Next I decided to set up near the bird feeder.  This was a little more difficult to get pictures.  If I had the camera focused on the feeder, the birds would congregate on the ground below the feeder.  If I lowered the camera to get the ground below the feeder, the birds would be on the feeder.  Also the Hooligans kept wandering through the area and scaring off the birds.  A two-camera set up is needed.  The remote is on sale for half price, all right!  I’ll have to get another tripod unless I can make one good one out of two broken ones.  Now that I’ve ordered it I hope they are on different frequencies.

Overall I’m very pleased with the remote.  One problem if the battery gets weak and you have the camera on its side with the controller away from you, the signal doesn’t pick up well.  The last couple of fly ins I didn’t get many shots.  When I changed location to the side of controller, I got a few more, but it would take longer between shots because of the weak battery.

Off to the store to get more batteries.