Photography can be many things – creative, compelling, unusual, artistic, documentary, emotional, even comical. Bird photography may be a bit more limiting than other forms, but realistically, we should embrace the potential of all those options as we search out photo opportunities. And sometimes in the heat of the moment, when you see an opportunity to do something different, go with the flow of your creative juices, just as a duckling flows through a wind-blown reflection of cattails of varied shades of green and gold, shimmering with the movement of the water and the soft motion of a downy Redhead.
Then too, it’s one thing to take a few unusual photos in the field, and quite another to see something unique, something special when reviewing and enlarging the images on a big computer screen. As I viewed the best of the images and enlarged them, I could see it was not a stretch to call the watery reflections that surround the innocent-looking duckling as “psychedelic,” and as I embraced that theme, the photographs seemed to take my bird photography to a new dimension – ha.
In the Moment
With my camera in my hands, I could see the merits of taking a series of photographs as the duckling steadily made its way across the brightly reflected background. In fact, initially I saw the potential of the cattail reflections as I watched and photographed some of the other birds that were assembled along this wind-blown backdrop. Indeed, a nearly mature brood of Mallards, a new brood of Ruddy Ducks, some fully feathered Redhead ducklings, young American Coots, Pied-billed Grebes, and Western Grebes all swam through similar reflections in the linear waterway – but none of the photos I took of the other birds had the interest or impact of the photos of the downy Redhead duckling in that setting – and I could see that as I was photographing.
Back at the computer, someone else may not have embraced these photos as special; in fact, another day I may not have found them worthy of additional attention either. But once I enlarged and positioned the images for cropping, I was sold on the idea that these photos were unique enough that I wanted to show you how color and design, harsh and soft lines, and fluffy down atop a cute patito (duckling) could create a unique image worthy of a second look if not a moment of contemplation.
As for the Photo Tech side of the images, the water was a bit shaded by the cattails, which made me want to increase the light sensitivity by changing the ISO setting from my usual 400 setting to 800. I kept my usual pre-set f-8 aperture setting which provided a sharp image of the duckling and its immediate surroundings – the color-induced reflective water. With that aperture setting, the shutter speed of 1/1000 was more than adequate to document the psychedelic scene.
Bird photography provides a wealth of opportunities to be creative, to take initial documentary photos, then wait for the action to begin, or for your creativity to flow freely. In the right place, under the right circumstances, and under a little off-kilter frame of mind, you may see something different and be open to the idea that different can be impressive too. Add a little more artistry to your bird photography as August leans toward September – I’m already leaning in that direction. Good Luck!
Article and photographs by Paul Konrad
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