Is this a successful “birding” image? It might be, depending on your point of view and your definition of birding. For me, it is. It’s not a tight image with the 200mm or a “classic” birding image, but for me it does what it needs to do when telling a small piece of the avian world story. This was shot with the X100V, not known as a birding machine by any stretch but a camera that is always with me, always. So, as I find myself in more and more situations where I am paying attention to birds, well, I’m going to be making more and more “birding” images with this camera.
Maybe the simplest answer is “Who cares?” and for you non-birders that is probably flowing past your teeth as I write this. Birding is now all the rage, courtesy of the COVID pandemic, proof that good can come from even the most challenging of situations. I like asking these questions and I like compiling these images because they are perhaps a small portion of a potential solution when it comes to presenting birds in a new way. There is no shortage of incredible bird action photos, and no shortage of photographers who specialize in this field. There are far fewer images of the atmosphere of birding, and that is where images like this come in, especially when designing a book.
What about this image? Again, it works for me. Habitat, plain and simple. And a perfect example of what is being destroyed at an incredible rate both here in America and abroad. I can already remember legions of places I used to go that are no longer wild. Indiana, Texas, Wyoming, California, Arizona and New Mexico, all suffering from sprawl, development and habitat loss. But hey, the new iPhone is coming so at least we can watch footage of the destruction at 8k while buying shit.
What about this? A night mission to spot owls. Never did see one but did walk away with this image and a host of others that I really like. Also walked away with tons of mosquito bites. I’m not saying I love mosquitos but I do equate them with doing things I enjoy. Only a matter of time before I get West Nile, Zika, malaria or chikungunya, or if I live in Florida, something worse. (I thought Texas was currently the dumbest state but Florida has really put in a solid effort to recapture the top slot. Brazen crime has California inch up the rankings as well.)
I think I love this photography thing more now than ever before. I’m also as curious as I’ve ever been.
I don’t love being a photographer, so no desire to ever make my living with imagery ever again, but I do love compiling and making sense of images. I also love building stories and building archives of images that may or may not make sense now but might in the future. I also love carrying a small camera. I know someone out there is going to write and ask “Oh, does this mean you are selling your other kit and your 200mm.” Um, no. Not even close. My goal is to use the other kit even more than I am now, and there is a perversely satisfying feeling when nailing something with the 200mm, especially if the image is tight and requires no cropping.
The last thing I’ll say is that you haven’t seen my best birding images and you won’t until they appear on the pages of a future book. Sharing now would only work to lessen the impact. They will be edited, sequence, sized, designed and printed to the best of my ability. They will reflect a wide range of image, location, species, and skill level of the person pushing the button. Just as it should be.
Comments 13
I bought a pair of Vortex 8×42 last week and I haven’t seen a bird since!!! What’s up with that?
Author
They are fearful of your skill.
I’m not a birdwatcher, but even I occasionally shoot a winged one, usually one that lands in my yard. This black and white photo speaks to me much more than a tight frame, especially since there are many of the latter. Because “nature photographers” are full of social media and almost all photos look the same. I have two cameras, most often I use 35mm and they are both on, at the moment they suit me best and I think that the most interesting ones come out for me. Once I tried to take a picture of deer in a clearing, which were about 300 meters away, the effect is obvious.
As for concreting everything… My city is undergoing a complete modernization right now. Apart from the fact that it is difficult to get anywhere, the places I remember from my childhood as wild turn into roads. I don’t live in a remote area, rather on the outskirts, but there are a lot of green areas around. Two years ago, I had to pull a deer out of the swimming pool that I have in the backyard, which jumped in and could not get out, there were also foxes, wild boars … Now these animals will be run over by cars on a four-lane road that will cut them off from their green areas. I understand the expansion of urban infrastructure, but nobody thought about the wild nature that is around us.
Author
Once that nature is gone, it’s gone. For our lives at least. We now have so many generations of humans who have grown up with no connection to land, buried in screens as their substitute for getting dirty, convinced what they see online is enough or even reality. We are doomed.
Addicted to small cameras, have two Pen f bodies that I can use my old OM lenses on, will be sad when they die. Just bought a Pen EE, half frame point and shoot from the 50s, TriX is coming out of the fridge.
Author
Had a student in Albania who makes GREAT work with that thing. I’d never seen one but what a great cam.
Oh please OM Digital, we are waiting to get a new OM-D Pen f MkII in our cold frozen hands! A small rangefinder style camera and my 17mm f1.2 glued on it…
Storytelling is the future of photography, it was the past. We moved miles aways from that with social media. It seems no one but Dan saw that coming. But now storytelling needs to be pushed even further and in genre that didn’t do much of it like birding. I’ve been struggling with making sense of photography lately and it always comes back to « what the heck am I trying to tell here? ». Looking forward to see what you bring to the birding world!
Author
Yes, what am I trying to say. And do I just keep it to myself or try to tell others?
I’m not a winged hunter, sometimes I shoot them when one lands in my yard. Social media is fragrant with close-up photos of birds, after all, it’s popular. The problem is that most of them look the same. So this black and white photo speaks to me more than a close frame, it is interesting, original and shows much more. I have two cameras, an older heavy dslr and a mirrorless camera, most often I have a 35mm mounted on each, I think that so far it’s the best option for me and I get the most interesting shots. As for concreting everything… My city where I live is currently undergoing modernization, many new roads are being built. I live on the outskirts of the center but there is quite a lot of green around. It happened that deer, foxes or wild boars walked around my yard (there is a small stream at the back of my plot). I will not see them anymore, because they will be run over by cars on the new road, which will cut through two tracts of greenery. He understands that expansion is needed, but no one thinks about nature.
Author
I almost ran over a fawn yesterday, in the middle of a strip mall parking lot. It’s us vs nature and we are winning.
Well, telling a story with an image is certainly one aspect of photography, but it could also be a mistake to hang too much value on that particular hook: lots of very good images do not tell a story at all: they are simply beautiful. Design and arrangement within a frame are interesting factors in their own right.
The world of valuable pictures does not consist solely of photojournalism. One need only think of some of Jay Maisel’s photos to see that proven beyond question (even though he himself likes to put a measure to them; in his case, I think he calls it attitude or something similar – I forget much these days), and there are many other examples of wonderful work that’s all and simply about itself. The same holds true in painting, and for some reason that eludes me, few seem too concerned with much beyond the painting’s intrinsic value as its own thing. Why would we suddenly put a different, prescriptive, constrictive hold onto photographs; is it a remnant of the old “is photography art” discussion, with photography more subject to arbitrary rules and regulations, possibly suggesting that no, photography cannot be art, only a means to another end?
Author
Heck, not telling a story is a story. I think anyone with imagination will find story in just about anything. Fact or fiction.