Hi Arthur!
I am Mary Bull, probably the least able, technically and in some other ways, member at OPF.
I very much like birds. I may not yet be at a level with my G2 to photograph all the cardinals, bluejays, mockingbirds, Carolina wrens, house finches, chimney swifts, and transients that I see around me in my yard every day. But I'm aiming to get there.
Until I got a Kodak DC210 in 1998 (moved to a G2 in 2003), I was using an old Minolta--the model number constantly gets away from my mind, but I have the camera upstairs in its own camera bag in a closet. With a 50 mm, a 28 mm, and a 400 mm lens. The match needle is stuck, and digital photography absorbed my interest so much that I've never sent it off for repairs. That info I offer as an introduction to a reminiscence of the time when I was seriously shooting birds.
First, in the winter of 1977-78, in Kentucky. Deep snow all over the northeastern U.S. and snow several feet deep around my house. Highly unusual year. Hungry birds all around the feeder hanging from the crabapple tree near my front door. I shot tons of them--got a few good images--through my open front door.
A few summers later, my daughter made me a gift of a window box feeder wiith one-way glass. I shot through that glass using the 50 mm lens and got quite a few good closeups of cardinals and finches. Plus some outstanding catches of hummingbirds--at least outstanding in my eyes.
That was an exceedingly fun time.
Mary
