I didn't say that ... I said "more serious," meaning, as suggested by mentioning the park, looking for less common species, learning more about habitats and habits, and the like. While not completely ignorant about birds - I used to do a little bird watching and still have a nice, but small, collection of bird handbooks - I'd need to reacquaint myself with the activity to do much more than what I did this morning.
Within a short distance from where I was, I know that White-crowned Sparrows can be found, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have been seen, as well as Ash-throated Flycatchers, Lark and Grasshopper Sparrows, the Lazuli Bunting, and many other birds. More than once I've seen a Nuttall's Woodpecker. However, I just wanted to fool around with the local birds on my friend's deck. These birds fascinate me because they are quite used to people, behave with such distinct personalities, provide a simple and easy opportunity to get to know them individually, and afford the opportunity to get close and use the equipment I have. There's no need to spend years, like John Pezzenti did when photographing eagles, to get to know the individual birds. It's great fun to try to capture something more than a staid photo using old manual focus gear, thinking about different angles and perspectives, working to avoid distracting backgrounds using DOF and different shooting angles, and thinking about the best time of day to make the photographs, when the light may be better. If I'm going to photograph birds, I want to do something different than, as Bob said, making "Bird on twig with catchlight" photos - something Belinkoffian <LOL>. That means pushing the envelope of convention, which in turn means a higher failure rate, especially while experimenting to see what works, and producing work that will be looked upon by some, especially by those who see things in a more conventional way, that is unacceptable or poorly executed. Shel > [Original Message] > From: William Robb > I disagree in principal with your comment about not being able to do > "serious" bird photography in an urban environment. > Birds are a part of city life, I see no reason not to photograph them in > their day to day street life, and in their occassional interactions with > people. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
