The Blue Bird of Happiness and the Olympus 300mm f4 + MC14

For the past six years, since I retired, I have tried to photograph the Blue Birds as they return in the spring. Each year they arrive, fly around in the tops of the trees for 30-45 minutes, then drop down to check out the housing accommodations.

The result has always been the same, they stay for an additional 5-15 minutes and leave. They appear to believe the housing is substandard, the neighbors are noisy (House Sparrows and Wrens), and the area has a serious crime problem (too many local cats). I have only 5-15 minutes to get Blue Bird images each year.

I first used the E5 with the EC14+50-200 and then the E-M1 with the same lens. The problem was that I could not focus quickly enough (they rarely remain stationary for more than a couple of seconds), the focal length (283mm) was not long enough, the shutter speed was too high with result high ISO. I have very few images (5 that I still have) from the first five years.

This year, when my wife told me they had arrived, I picked up the E-M1+MC14+300mm and waited. The lighting was not particularly good (overcast with periods of light mist), so I chose Aperture Preferred at maximum aperture (f5.6) and the Electronic shutter (to not frightened them). All images hand held with shutter speeds between 1/50-1/250.

The total time from the first image until they flew away was 8.5 minutes. I shot 216 images and 148 were acceptably sharp (the others were misses – the bird flew – distorted by bird movement, or I missed focus). By replacing a $1640 lens (EC14+50-200 SWD) with a $2850 lens (MC14+300mm f4), I got 148 acceptable images in one year vs 5 acceptable images in five years. The new lens is definitely worth the additional cost to me.

After the Blue Birds left, I did some bird house renovations, to improve Blue Bird housing quality, however, it will not improve the neighborhood. There are still those House Sparrows and Wrens and crime will still be a problem. If they return, I would also appreciate it, if they would bring better lighting.

See the attached for a few images. I will eventually have time to PP more images, I have been too busy using the new lens creating an even larger PP backlog.