Hi Beth, Thank you and everyone for looking! It brings me great joy to share photos of some of the beautiful birds here on the Central Coast of California. Never a bad day when I'm in the company of these amazing birds! Best, Tony
Tony, what catches my eye, in addition to the details in the feathers, etc, are the backgrounds in your photos. I got caught up last night watching some YouTube videos explaining how those are done with the camera settings. It was over my head. They said capturing shots of birds is one of the most difficult. One thing I came back with...it takes a lot of patience and waiting, for just the right shots. Thanks for posting these.
Hi Nancy, Thank you for looking and commenting! Yes, patience is near the very top of the list, especially in bird & wildlife photography. When I first started photography it took some time for me to break the habit of becoming "hypnotized" by the subject I was photographing and I would forget to consider the background. A distracting background certainly draws interest away from the subject of the photo. Lighting is perhaps the most important consideration in the style of photography I enjoy. My favorite images were taken during the early morning hours when the sunlight was coming from an oblique angle. This type of lighting is called "side-lighting" outdoors and often referred to as "Rembrandt" lighting indoors. It really helps to establish a mood and emotional component to a photograph! Best, Tony
I remember reading an interview with one of the Magnum photographers, can’t remember who (Elliot Erwitt?). Whoever, the interviewer asked him about the ability to take such great shots. I’ve always remembered his answer, “f/8 and be there”. We have a large photo that a local photographer took of a polar bear mom and her two cubs, in the wild, all snuggled together deep in the snow. He said he waited 3 hours for the two cubs to turn both their faces toward the camera so you could make them out. Takes some amazingly dedicated folks to take these pics.