Outtakes

I have my tripod set up in my living room, inside the sliding glass door to the deck, which is where I have my bird feeders, including the orange. But I usually grade in the sun room off to the side, where I can see the orange from another angle. So when I bird comes to the orange, I'm not right there. If I see it, I get up and try to walk casually into the living room and reach for the camera. Sometimes, the birds look up but are patient, but usually they fly off before I can click. So I get my share of empty orange pictures. But sometimes I get a cool picture just at that moment of almost flight.

I pre-focus the camera as well as I can just on the far side of the orange, which works pretty well for the birds who are cooperative enough to hop up on the orange to eat, but not quite as well for birds who land just behind. I'm not even sure which wing that is up behind the little House Finch in this last picture.