Posted by John Robinson on April 21, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Interesting thread earlier about the low level pool ( and the cost of using it ! )You don't need to be a rocket scientist to build one.
My son and i did it a few years back and eventually chucked it in a rubbish skip along with the reflections!!
All you nee is a piece of marine ply for a base and some wooden boards about3 inches deep to go around the edge. The base can be as big as you want but try something like a metre wide and two long.
Line the whole thing with cheap pond liner and then that heavy roofing felt with the gritty bits on.
All you do is stand it on something about three foot high and stick a small hide at one end. You can stand it on a moveable frame. We made one of dexion.(And sometimes balanced it on an old milkchurn. You can change your backgrounds as you wish. Put stones or logs in the water- watever.You need some branches or logs or vegetation at the edges above the boards to make it too high for the birds to sit on and drink You can move these around to get the birds drink where you want them.Thats all it is and it doesn't cost the earth.
You will of course have lovely big reflections in your shots which most of the time you will want to get rid of. And at the end of the day the pics never look natural anyway- but its different.
And you need to site the whole thing where there is no other water.
JohnR
Posted by Paul Thomas on April 22, 2009 at 9:47 AM
I agree about such shots looking un-natural but I suppose the general public doesn't really know what natural should look like. But then again most people don't like my show-it-warts-and-all approach to wildlife photography. Each to their own.
Discussion
2 repliesMy son and i did it a few years back and eventually chucked it in a rubbish skip along with the reflections!!
All you nee is a piece of marine ply for a base and some wooden boards about3 inches deep to go around the edge. The base can be as big as you want but try something like a metre wide and two long.
Line the whole thing with cheap pond liner and then that heavy roofing felt with the gritty bits on.
All you do is stand it on something about three foot high and stick a small hide at one end. You can stand it on a moveable frame. We made one of dexion.(And sometimes balanced it on an old milkchurn. You can change your backgrounds as you wish. Put stones or logs in the water- watever.You need some branches or logs or vegetation at the edges above the boards to make it too high for the birds to sit on and drink You can move these around to get the birds drink where you want them.Thats all it is and it doesn't cost the earth.
You will of course have lovely big reflections in your shots which most of the time you will want to get rid of. And at the end of the day the pics never look natural anyway- but its different.
And you need to site the whole thing where there is no other water.
JohnR
Paul