I have to say that I am very pleased with today’s photographic efforts. I am lucky, living in Devon as I do, to have several Blackcaps in the garden, over-wintering from the Continent. Although I have managed a few good shots this winter,  so far that really good shot has eluded me.  Backgrounds are an important aspect, or feature of any picture, and particularly if you are capturing bird portraits it’s very important to make sure that the background of your picture does not detract from the subject.  Taking my lead from some great photographs of Hummingbirds from the USA that I had seen, I decided to take control of the backgrounds and ‘mock-up” a nice bright neutral back drop to compliment my pictures.  Using some artists pastels I designed  a nice artistic backdrop to not only compliment the subject, but also to reflect the light.  I placed the coloured back-drop several feet behind where I expected a Blackcap to come in and feed, and waited to see what happened.  To my utter surprise and amazement, the presence of a large piece of coloured art board clamped to a bush had no effect on the feeding Blackcap whatsoever. However, the bird with us at the moment has been a bit shy and any slight movement of lens or camera from the hide, or even noise from the shutter, sent her scurrying back in to the shrubbery.  Eventually after more than two weeks of effort and perseverance it all came together.  I saw her feeding at around lunch time today and quickly went out to my hide with the camera. After just a short while a Blue Tit came in to feed off the apple and then as I was looking at the photos taken to check I had the correct settings, suddenly there she was in front of me and showing perfectly.  This had taken so long to come together, I was thrilled to know that at last I had got some pictures that I knew were going to be good. The sky is the limit really.  There is going to be an infinite variety of backdrops and for-grounds for that matter.  It is simply a case of changing the props and waiting for the birds to come in to feed. When the light is better I will be bale to make sure I have some good depth of field in my images which isn’t quite the case today but that’s the next thing to correct.