I've got a couple simple suggestions that have worked for me. "My" chickadees and hummingbirds are very friendly (they know who feeds them!) so I can stand nearby and take pictures of them easily. However, the Orioles are a different story. They're very skittish and like to chirp at me if I'm near "their" feeder. This rules out sitting on the deck and taking photos of them. I use a Canon Digital Rebel and luckily the wired remote has a simple sub-mini plug on it. I went to Radio Shack last fall and purchased a 25' extension cord for it. This way I can set the camera up on the deck and run the release cord into the house where I can trip the shutter when something interesting lands on the feeder. I've also aimed it at the bird bath, too, since I get a wider variety of birds there. I'm going to try this setup this spring to (hopefully) get some photos of our wrens feeding their babies. Granted, these aren't true "nature" photos in that they're coming to something I put out for them (birdbath, feeder, birdhouse), but it's fun. When I shoot photos of our bald eagles in winter, I either stay in my car or stand by some trees.
On Friday I was at the local sporting goods store killing time while hunny was making some purchases. I saw they had hunting blinds that were reasonably priced (around $60US for the largest). I checked them out and I don't see why they wouldn't work well as photo blinds. They looked kind of like those tents that have the shock-corded fiberglas poles in them, but of course they were camouflage color.
I hope this helped!
Donna