advice sought

[mudman]

I bought a remote release for my K7 recently and thought it could be useful for bird shots as i can stand back 20 feet or so. my thoughts are that i set the camera up at a spot the birds visit and pre-focus on the spot. the using live view wait until birds, or other subjects come within the focus point and activate the shutter.
are there any tips or techniques i can use to increase my chances of getting successful images?

[Kym]

Stalking, drab clothing, quiet patience, bust shooting - that's the 'normal' approach.

See: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=16408

[mudman]

thanks Kym. i am assuming that the subjects would be more scared of me than the camera, so i should be able to place the camera fairly close to spots the visit regularly. this should enable me to get larger image sizes at lower zoom levels with greater DOF. at least that's my theory.

[vk2gwk]

Problem will be focus..... So you have to make sure you have a sufficient depth of field to cover the area where you may expect your subjects.

One way to get more control remotely is to tether the camera with a laptop via a USB link (with booster to cover the distance - 20 ft is just about managable that way). That way you can see what you are doing.

Another solution is putting a laptop next to the camera and using DSLR Remote (http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=38)via you iPhone. I have done that a couple of times for nature shots.

But weak point is that you cannot remotely focus the camera. You'll only get proper focus when the subject is hit by the focussing point or is within the DOF of the fixed focal point. Good luck and show us some results.

[kiwi]

You have to focus on the eye, thee's only one right way to do this.

Now, if you have great light (so you can shoot at a dof that will get the whole animal in focus) and the animal is big enough (eg a Lion drinking at a waterhole) thsi makes more sense to me to fire remotely

[mudman]

Thanks for the replies, they confirm my thoughts on the subject. the only thing to do now is to go and try it.
i expect a lot of misses, but i should get something decent occasionly too. time will tell.
cheers