In short: surprisingly well! 

Now, you may ask yourself why I even considered trying this. Well, the number of bird species we get in the wilderness aka garden around our home sadly has been declining over the last years. After a long, warm March, the firsts days of April brought us snow, sending some birds to our birdhouse we have not seen in a while. Therefore, I mounted my trusty old EF 500 f4 first gen to my Canon R5 in order to seize the opportunity. 

Of course, I am tempted to tell you the classic nature photographer tale; how I battled cold and fatigue outside for endless hours only to get the ultimate shot just before the battery died. The truth is far more trivial, I literally sat on my breakfast table and shot through the balcony door – goodbye heroism, hello practicality. Since there was no direct sunlight, reflections were pretty much absent. But I should clean the door!

It is actually often the «not-so-ideal» conditions that teach me a lot. I absolutely did not have the wonderful bokeh in mind that snowflakes can produce as in the title photo, but for sure I will remember and use it more often in the future. Due to the cold, the birds really fluff up their feathers, appearing almost double the size then normal. And snow always provides a nice contrast to our more colorful feathered friends, in some close-ups one can almost see the structure of the ice crystals.

I hope you enjoy the portraits.