Bird Bath Photography Natural Setups

[ChasMcRae]

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this, so please move it accordingly.
In my area I get more of variety of species at birdbath setups than feeding setups.
Would like to hear ideas on thoughts of the set ups,backgrounds(natural closeup or far away and how you achieve this), water droplet highlights which show with sunlight and flash( mixed feelings since they are a natural situation but then when do they detract from the pic ?) Many pics of birds I have are on perches as they approach or leave the water,but now more interested in problems with the bird actually bathing.
I would be interested in any thoughts on bath bird photography !

Chas.

[Chris Hansen]

Chas,

I have built a number of water set ups over the years. I have found that a piece of 4' x 8 'plywood with built up edges and visqueen plastic gives me the most area to work with. That way I have plenty of room for the birds reflection.

Take a look at my blog for an example of how I built it.

http://diyphotocheapodepot.blogspot.com/2008/07/diy-large-water-feature-results.html

I'm sure others will chime in with other ideas that have worked for them too.

God bless,

chris

[Chris Hansen]

OOps wrong one. Try here

http://diyphotocheapodepot.blogspot.com/2008/07/diy-large-water-feature_25.html

chris

[Dan Brown]

Hi Chas. I too am very interested in this subject! I have a small water feature in my backyard and have been shooting the bathers recently. My situation will not allow for a distant bg but I think that may be the best thing!

Currently my setup has water cascading (trickling) down over different levels of flat rock, with one level very close to the next. The posted image here gives you an idea of what i'm up against. This isn't very good in terms of bg at the moment but I am going to rearrange the rocks to create broader shelves, each being a seperate bath, (probably with bg's that won't be pleasing but I'm gonna try it).

As for the subject of water droplet highlights, they're beautiful:D! When my birds are actually bathing and splashing, I like them. When they are sitting still, I don't but they are easy to tone down IMO!

I am currently using natural (changing) lighting, zoom lens, manual exp mode, with TTL fill, better beamer on the camera. I am shooting out of a north facing open window and can pan around and shoot the birds as they approach, which requires some thinking and adjusting exp. Shooting out of the 2X3ft open window is working good, I can step back a bit and the birds don't seem to see me and then sneak forward and even lean out a bit, if I do it slowly.

This setup is not ideal yet but it is producing a few nice images IMO (the post isn't a very good example of great photography but shows the problems). My 2 cents:), I am anxious to hear what others are doing!

[Dan Brown]

Here's another from my open window setup! No crop and a quick sharpening of the bird only.

[ChasMcRae]

Good ideas so far. I'm thinking of elevating bath(plywood base) and figuring out some way to get far away backgrounds. Any more ideas from any one ?BUT also create one area with close background-moss,etc.
Only thoughts so far.
Thanks for input and hope the posts draws others in for suggestions.

[Chris Hansen]

Chas,

One idea is to use colored matboard available from framing shops or art suppliers online. It comes in hundreds of colors. Just buy a sheet of it and prop it up behind your set ups. The other is to get a large piece of cardboard and spray paint your own. The skies the limit as far as your creativity goes. Just be sure to make it big enough and set back far enough from your set up so as to be out of focus. With humming birds I have used everything from back drop roll paper to bedsheets. There is one guy ( can't recall the wesite) that uses 16 x20 colored prints of flowers!

Good luck and God bless,

chris

[Alan Lillich]

Dan.

I like your idea of a cascade over rocks. I like the bird in the water, would have been nicer if the bird was further from the right edge. The dove on dry rock is a tad urban. Along with broader shelves, have you thought about higher steps? Then you would have a curtain of water as a BG. Here's an example of what I'm thinking of, from a small stream in the Sierra when I was playing with shutter speed effects - this one is 1/100 @ f/8.

Alan

[ChasMcRae]

Certainly a curtain of water falling would be a nice background ,but with multiple shots and species it would be the only background you ever had.
I can see this as ONE of the backgrounds.
Shot around water feature today and fiddling with my existing feature until I can build one that I think close to ideal(Ha !)

[Chris Hansen]

Chas,

My brother who is a wildlife photographer always carries a piece of black plastic tarp in his trailer for setting up temporary mini ponds when he is photographing down in the desert. Just dig a hole and line it with the plastic. Add water and natural rock and sand around it and your set.
If you need a smaller water set up than a piece of plywood a serving platter works pretty well. Below is a link to using a platter as a water feature.

http://diyphotocheapodepot.blogspot.com/2008/06/water-pond-for-bird-photography.html

Hopefully some others will post samples of their water set ups too.

God's light and love to all,

chris

[Alan Murphy]

I have a little info on drip ponds on my blog.

http://alanmurphyphotography.com/blog/

[Rich Steel]

Hi

I omly have a tiny back grarden and so set up a bird bath using a mortar mixing tray. e.g http://www.hobuk.co.uk/acatalog/Mortar-Tray-Spot-Board.html (although mine is square rather than the shape shown). They make great bird baths as they are low cost, robust, shallow, easy to move around. Not sure if they sell in the US but I would be surprised if they don't.

Cheers

Rich

[Kevin Hall]

Alan has offered some great ideas and I am looking forward to his new CD. That being said, the portable pond he shows at his blog seems a little complicated to me. I've found a great portable pond that can carry much of your gear, rocks, and flora is the Rubbermaid Roughneck Storage Box in 18, 25, or 31 gallon sizes. The lids make an excellent 1 3/4 inch deep pond. Remove it from the top of your tote for a ground set-up or leave it on the box for your elevated set-up. Dress it up with rocks and vegetation and you're set. With rocks and water it works best in combination with your mobile blind (vehicle) but it does transport nicely on a beach cart.

I'll post some images later along with another idea to get more splash from the water without the spray filling your frame.

[Kevin Hall]

http://kmhwildlife.com/Other/Photography-set-ups/PortablePondI/706148307_5ok6L-M.jpg

I made a quick construction of the portable pond to make these images before the sun went down. Above is the bare box with tripod reservoir and drip.

http://kmhwildlife.com/Other/Photography-set-ups/PortablePondII/706148335_449vt-M.jpg

In the second image I've placed some rocks and added some water. I did not take the time to properly level the set-up but you get the idea. Also notice that as long as there will be overflow on this elevated option I am using the spill over to my advantage. This increases the splash volume without the abundance of water drops in the scene. I can stack the rocks higher in back for a tighter background or leave it low for more distance.
This is the 31 gallon Roughneck and it gives me a 27" x 17" puddle to work with.

[Chris Hansen]

Kevin,
What a great idea! It's wonderful as you stated because you can carry your equipment in it. One idea sparks another. So it made me think of using one of those coolers on wheels and you could add a water tray to the top of it. It would be easy to haul your equipment around and you would have a built in platform for the bird bath.

chris

[Kevin Hall]

Glad you liked it Chris.

The weight of the rocks and water keep this fairly close to my van (blind) or backyard but I do have wheels and have gone far off road with it before. Wheeleez makes a great collapsable beach cart that will take up to 165 lbs. It floats over sand, rock, rough terrain, and even swamp. It is still work but it does give me more options and a serious payload.

http://kmhwildlife.com/Other/Photography-set-ups/PortablePondIII/706267958_RPuc2-M.jpg

On the cart are a Roughneck 18 gallon, a Doghouse blind, Pelican case, tripod, and two super perches.

[ChasMcRae]

And the ideas keep on coming.

When I travel I use a H2O Solar Shower bag to set up a drip. The speed and size of drip can be changed . As a reservoir I use a simple plastic shelf from an old cooler ,but almost anything would do. Originally I used it to attract birds to a perch near pool ,but of course rocks,etc can camouflage the pool
The downside is that the plastic sack is very heavy when full and hanging sites and position can be a problem ,but allows you to set up in boondocks.
The idea of using an extra tripod to support the sack is interesting and I have a few of those around.
Sack like reservoirs also allow you to lay it on a flat surface such as a picnic table and the weight pushes the drops down the connected hose and drip and the reservoir can be your imagination. In Arizona I scooped out a shallow hole and surrounded it with rocks just out of sight of the legs of the picnic table.
Chas.

[Kevin Hall]

Hi Chas

I bet a lot of us have at least one old tripod sitting around. The one above is a 90's vintage 3021, solid but heavy. I removed the threaded bolt from the center column where you connect the ball head. In it's place I threaded in an eyebolt and then reversed the column so that it's inverted. With the open end of the column on top I can place a platform feeder for bird seed, mealworms, or fruit. Sometimes I like to throw the whole kitchen at 'em, sink and all.

The reservoir is also a solar shower, like yours I would imagine. It is 40+ lbs. heavy when full so to make an easier connect to the tripod I attached a carabiner through the hole on the bag. It's a lift and quick clip to the eyebolt on the tripod now. I always make sure those leg locks are kept tight with that much weight.

There are lots of good ideas on set-ups and drips it seems lately - I don't know about you but my mind is always racing on this stuff. It's fun to tweak, improve, and modify.

[Arthur Morris]

<style></style>My thoughts: Kevin at least has the best rocks... Light colored rocks, water, full sun, and birds are a toxic mix.... As some of you might guess, what I would love is a very large shallow pond so that the only background would be water. I am not a fan of seeing the rocks or even the far shore/edge of the pond in the image. I will be setting up my backyard at the end of this year and my basic plan for my bath will be an 8 foot long by 3 foot wide bath about 1/2" deep possibly with one (attractive) flat rock that come to just above the surface. I am exploring the possibility of using bentonite clay. Any clues on that?

Be aware that there is a big difference between a bathing pond and a drip pond. With the former the goal is to photograph the birds in the water (at times while bathing). The latter is used to attract the birds to a perch set above the water.

Alan Murphy's new Songbird Set-Up Guide has a detailed section on creating a drip pond with perches: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=275

[Dan Brown]

Here's another shot from my H20 feature. This thrush sneaks in from the foliage and drinks often. I understand what Artie is saying about the combo of water,rock,bird,sun. All that I can really eliminate from that line up is the sun (shoot only on overcast days) which does seem to produce more pleasing images. I attempted to redo the rock formation today and realized that I am not going to be able to get much improvement by moving the rocks around (I did manage to produce a couple more bathing sights, we'll see what they bring in and how they photograph). I am setting up perches that some of the birds are using upon approach, and some even have decent BG's.

BTW, I slightly cropped and PP'ed this image in ACR and CS3 which included toning down and cloning some BG leaves and highlights. And, I will produce the raw image if requested:D

[Kevin Hall]

Hi Arthur

I have thought about just water as well but requirements begin to counteract portability with a hard puddle. I can shoot my box lengthwise but it still only gives me 27" if I attract the bird to my end of the pool. I can hit that from a higher angle but not at eye level. Perches are standard when I set up.

Will you be installing the bentonite yourself or hire a contractor? Good compaction of the bed prior to the layer and on the layer itself will be important. If your soil is sandy you will have a harder time of it.

[ChasMcRae]

Yep,Art,Light rocks dry quickly and create a spotlight on photographs. Sometimes they look OK to the eye but the photograph looks otherwise. Experience helps selection. Rough absorbent rocks seem to do OK. Light leaves also "spotlight" especially Magnolia leaves.
I like a moss background,low growth background since it seems so natural, but difficult to pull off the perfect look. Yep,bright sunlight and flash help and hinder the look !
Great to hear all the thoughts about this subject since I have been playing around it for many years.

[Rich Steel]

<STYLE></STYLE>. I am exploring the possibility of using bentonite clay. Any clues on that?

Artie part of my job is lake design and restoration:). Bentonite can be tricky to work with and prone to cracking if allowed to dry. As such most tend to steer clear of it these days. Have you considered something like Bentomat? This is bentonite sandwiched between two geotextiles. It has the benefit over traditional liners pond that if it is punctured the benonite core will self-seal. Usually its installed on a 2 " sand blinding layer and then overlaid with a foot of soil to give extra protection.The overburden layer would ideally be a stoney subsoil. If you overlay with clay then you may end up with a coffee coloured water feature for a long time!. If you overlay with topsoil then expect some green water!

Cheers

Rich

[ChasMcRae]

I have not removed or added any water droplets to any bathing photographs I have posted.