What do you think?

As a learner I´m always interested in resources about wildlife photography. So I begun to watch the wildphotoadventures ( http://www.wildphotoadventures.com/watch.html ). In the second episode (about shoting songbirds) I have seen some tricks about how to attract them to a certain place. But as I was watching it, I felt that I could'nt do that the way they do..... What I mean is that half of the pleasure of shoting birds is to go different places and challenge yourself to, find them, get closer, and finally shot them with the best compo you can achive. So if you give me a seat in a place where I have to do nothing special to get the shot I feel it a little bit disappointing....
Just to understand your feelings about this, Would you enjoy songbird photography if you should generally shot in those controlled conditions?

Hi Jose,

First, I though you were talking about shooting to kill :)

There's a lot of people who do songbirds or hummingbirds in a control condition, look at the ranches in Texas where they have blinds set up in front of perches close to the feeders, or the hummingbirds set-ups.
There are also model facilities for wildlife, that seem very popular too.

It is up to your personal taste if you like to do that or not.

I like the "hunting" part of photography, so I'm generally happier if I don't know for sure whether I get the image or not, but respect the ones that rather have the certainty of the models.

Hi Jose

I feel the same way as Fabs ..... however the ranch approach with feed/set up is the best for songbirds. If you want the end result that is what you need to do. Maybe a combination could be the best solution .... some attracting some freelance !!!

I really enjoy the process.... I mean, while I try to get a good shot of a bird, I´m learning a lot about its behaviour, and environment, and that makes it sweeter when I finally "know" where, when and how to get the best shots of it. But I really respect this kind of set-ups and I´m thinking I will try them as well :-)

Hey Jose, I'm not a wildlife or bird photographer, but if I was I would probably do a combination of both styles. I would have the fun and challenge of capturing critters as they go about there daily routine, but wouldn't be opposed to a set up or two in my backyard just for fun.

Would you consider a berry filled shrub in the yard a setup that all of a sudden attracts dozens of feeding birds that are tolerant of you as you photograph.
Lots of wiggle room in "setups" and methods of shooting, especially songbirds.
Is pishing allowed ?
Best not to be rigid if birds act naturally and are not harmed or harassed.
Knowledge of birds and habits allows one to "setup".
Just my 2 cents worth. I certainly am not as rigid as I was 10 yrs ago although I'm still not a game farm photographer.
Chas.

I think there should be both. The set up in the show has what, 30 types of birds. Which is a lot, but theres a lot of other birds to photograph too. So this set up would be fun to get these birds, but there is plenty of work to be done finding other birds.