Lovely shots!! The males are such a vibrant, gorgeous red, but I actually find the females to be prettier, with their many different shades of red, orange, gold, gray, brown......much more interesting, and quite beautiful in their own way!

Wow gldno1 - Those sure are great shots. I really need to learn how to use my camera better. My shots are never that clear.

Beautiful! Actually we get several pairs of Cardinals at the feeder. I often see the males knocking off the females off the feeder to get to the food. They are not gentlemen :-)

I can't get photos that good either. I am guessing some sort of telephone on a tripod is needed.

Here in Ohio the Cardinal is our state bird so the males are instantly recognized, but sadly many people have either never seen or never paid any real attention to the females.

I have a hopper feeder hung on a low tree branch about 50ft outside my bedroom window that holds 1.5 quarts of seed. In the last few weeks there has been so much traffic at that feeder that I have had to fill it at least twice and sometimes three times a day, but I am not complaining in the least because I have taken up nature photography as a retirement hobby and I spend many, many productive hours sitting with my camera on the tripod zeroed in on the feeder.

Although the Bluejays and Cardinals do come to the feeder, as a rule they prefer to feed on the ground directly below the feeder. Generally when I fill the feeder I also sprinkle a 1/2 cup or so of seed on the ground. In turn, i think nothing of seeing a half dozen cardinals, four of five bluejays, a dozen doves and who knows how many sparrows and Junkos all feeding together at the same time. Needless to say, with a crowd like that the seed on the ground is consumed very quickly, but yesterday, to my surprise I found out that Bluejsys are by no means "bird Brains".There is a large Bluejay that lands on the feeder, then grips the perch tightly and flaps his wings like mad. That results in blowing seed from the feeder the ground where he and his companions can comfortably feed together.

Needless to say, I am going through about 40lbs of wild birdseed a week, but when you consider that I took over 700 photos yesterday alone, I consider it pretty cheap entertainment.

I am attaching some of the photos of female cardinals. Not quite as detailed as those presented above, but I am shooting about 60 feet from camera to subject. (Perhaps I will set up a feeder on the window sill and see what results)

I have also noted in numerous threads that people feel they need a better camera or perhaps learn some techniques to use what they have. We have recently formed a small photography club and one of the key purposes of our club is to help people get the most out of the cameras they have, whether it is a sophisticated DSLR or just a simple point and shoot camera. To that end we have made it a club rule that we annotate the type of camera, lens and other pertinent data on the photos so others can see how we got the shots. I think this would be a good idea for people in this forum to help others learn to get the most out of what they have to work with.

lazy pup. I love your shots and they are amazing to be taken so far away.

I think you will love having a feeder hung close by a window.

When I take my shots, I am standing maybe 5-6 feet away at the most. I use the zoom, macro feature. My picture info says:
Photos by
cogardengram
Photo information
Loading…
Dec 18, 2009
1600×1200 pixels �" 232KB
Filename: P1080562.JPG
Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ8
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 3.3
Focal Length: 72mm
Flash Used: No
Latitude: n/a
Longitude: n/a

I want to buy a tripod, even though the camera does have IS.

Sometimes I adjust the white balance according to the lighting I have, but that is it. Everything else is automatic. I am slowly learning the camera and haven't got past the WB! I am a slow learner.

Gldno 1

I was not familiar with your camera so I did a quick online search for it. Although it is advertised as a point & shoot camera technically speaking it falls into a category known as "Bridge Cameras" because they bridge the gap between point & Shoot and SLR's. Generally speaking (although not in all cases) SLR's have interchangeable lenses however with a 12x zoom your camera has a full focal range from normal to about 400mm.

I could not find all the specs on the user definable exposure settings for your camera, but I did manage to glean enough information that I think you will be able to take the same kind of shots I am taking very simply.

As you already mentioned, you will no doubt need a tripod, But be very careful here. There are perhaps as many variations of tripods as there are cameras to mount on them, and sadly, some are not worth the labor to drag them to the curb. Believe me, that is coming from one who has purchased 5 tripods in the last 6 months before I found a descent one.

When selecting a tripod you will find that they come with either a Tilt & Pan head or a Ball Head. Personally, I prefer a Tilt & Pan head, but that is merely a matter of personal choice. one word of advice, whichever type head you select, be sure to get one that will allow you to rotate the camera base from horizontal format to vertical format. Unless you are buying a high end professional tripod built with high tech graphite I would strongly suggest you stear away from any tripod that is advertised as "light weight". The lightweight ripods are fine for the little pocket sized point & shoot cameras, but in most cases they lack the stability to hold a larger camera steady. It could be argued that your camera is lightweight, but it must also be noted that your camera has no provision for a shutter release cable or infra red remote, therefore you will have to press the shutter button with your finger, and that action could introduce vibration therefore in my humble opinion you would need a slightly heavier tripod to compensate. I would suggest you look for one that is rated in the load range of 8 to 12lbs.

Many of the amateur grade tripods come with a bubble spirit level built in. That is a nice sales gimmick, but in the real world it is highly unlikely that you would ever have need of it.

Another feature that is commonly found on contemporary amateur tripods is the quick release head. I fell for that nonsense, but in the real world it turned out to be a real pain in the butt. First off, it doesn't take that long to mount your camera on a tripod screw. Secondly, the screw that holds your camera on the quick release plate has a very small head and it is difficult to get it tight enough to be secure, not to mention that on my camera, if the plate is secured on the camera base, that is one more step I have to go through to open the battery compartment. (That tripod has now been relegated to a light stand for an external slave flash).

Your tripod should have an extended height of at least 40 to 48" with a telescoping center that will extend up another 10 to 20". Some people find a geared crank type elevator convenient, but I find on the cheaper amateur grade tripods they are usually just a piece of plastic junk that will soon strip the gears. When discussing a center elevator rod there is one feature that i would highly recommend. Get one where the elevator can be removed then inserted up from the bottom. That may sound silly, but I shoot nature and quite often I am shooting a subject that is very close to the ground. By inserting the elevator up from the bottom I can suspend the camera upside down off the bottom and get good stability with the camera right down to 4 or 5" off the ground.

I would strongly suggest looking for a tripod that has all metal construction. You can expect to pay $50 to $75 for an all metal amateur grade tripod, but the up side is, you will not wear it out in your lifetime and if you are lucky enough to find a second hand one, you may get it for less money than the plastic and thin aluminum junk that is currently offered. (I got a professional all metal tripod from and online auction sponsored by Goodwill Industries for $13.75 + $8 S+H.. Check out WWW.shopgoodwill.com).

From what I could gather you camera does not have user definable shutter speeds, however it does have numerous "Scene Modes". If you set your camera scene mode selector to "Sports" it will operate as a shutter priority system. This means that it will select the highest possible shutter speed and compensate by opening the lens to the widest aperture. For shooting bird pictures that will give you a two fold advantage. 1. But keeping the shutter speed higher, you will be able to get stop action and should be able to capture birds in flight coming and going from the feeder and 2. by keeping the aperture wide open it reduces the "Depth of field". Depth of field is the area in front of and behind the specific focal point that will remain in focus. By example, in your pictures above the bird, being the focal point is in perfect focus, but because the aperture was open to 3.3 the depth of field was only about three feet, which made the background blur, giving you that nice faded pastel background rather than showing all the trees and bushes behind the scene.

Early this morning I took four pictures to give you a visual lesson of how I get the shots and how you will be able to do it with your camera.

The first shot is taken from the shooting position in my bedroom with a 50mm normal lens focused on the bird feeder. The camera was mounted on a tripod about 5ft from the window. In this photo I used the flash to illuminate the window frame, however you will not that it had no effect on the outdoor scene. In addition, the flash reflected off the glass causing the bright light flare appearance on the tree. Notice that with this lens the depth of field is from almost immediately at the camera all the way to infinity on the trees in the far distance (over 300yrds away) You will get the same shot by setting your lens to normal length and set the scene mode to Sports".

For the second shot I removed the normal lens and mounted the tele but I did not make any adjustments to the camera settings. Once again the lens is focused on the bird feeder. (With your lens set to maximum tele you will have approximately the same focal length) With a 300mm lens focused at 50ft you can see that the depth of field is very short, causing the brush in the background to blur, leaving a soft background. However you will note that the snow is bright, and therefore fooling the meter into thinking there is more light than what is really available, which causes the scene to appear darker than desired.

In this shot all things are equal, except I set the Exposure Compensation (EV) to +1 to lighten the print one f stop.

To this point all photos are as taken straight from the camera with no post processing.

The last photo is cropped from the previous photo to produce the final print

Actually I can set the camera to Aperture-priority or shutter-priority and Manual exposure where I can set the aperture value and the shutter speed.

I have just never attempted any of this.

I need to get more daring.

Thanks for the advice on the tripod, I was set to look for the cheapest I could find!

I will be printing off your instructions and try the same thing with my camera.