Backyard bird, up close and personal

At first glance, I thought this was a sparrow, but I think it's a female Pine Siskin

For over a week, I’ve been testing out various ways of taking bird photos that get me in closer to the action. Some of the options were expensive (but I rented, so I could explore before spending any serious money on new equipment). The one I finally settled on was not.

The shot above is proof that sometimes, a simple solution is the best solution.

After trying some high-end super-telephoto lenses, I wound up buying a 2x teleconverter for the lens I already have. Admittedly, the Canon 300mm f/2.8 is a great lens, but I just never though that a simple (and relatively cheap) extender would be a good solution to getting closer to the action.

The extender/teleconverter makes the Canon lens a 600mm f/5.6. And a very sharp one at that.

This shot was at ISO 800, 1/500th second, f/5.6. Conditions were terrible: rain, dark clouds—if this setup can work this well under those conditions, I’m excited to see what it can do when the weather gets better.