Lucky Bird Photos

photo by Ernie Hoffert.

I am a novice when it comes to bird photography. I keep telling myself that one of these days I'm really going to bear down and LEARN how to use my fancy digital camera. Of course that will mean finding the uninterrupted time to read through the manual and the books I've bought--books specifically written for digital photography mouth-breathers like me.

After 20 years of choosing images for Bird Watcher's Digest I know what a good photograph is in terms of focus, exposure, composition, and content. But knowing what a good photo IS and TAKING a good photo are two completely different things.

With the digital revolution in cameras, computers, software, and the associated technologies, anyone with a couple of thousand extra dollars can buy the high-end consumer (often called "pro-sumer"--a blend of the words consumer and professional) cameras and lenses needed to take superior photographs. Some of my professional bird photography contacts are really bummed that it is now so easy to take "publishable" bird images. The technology that goes in to our modern cameras makes them so much easier to use, you can practically point and shoot and get doggone good photos. Auto focus, image stabilization, all kinds of pre-fab settings for certain situations, the ability to see the image you just took on the camera's small color monitor...it's the golden age of nature photography!

Back in ye olde days of yore a person wanting to become a gifted nature photographer had to spend years honing the craft. Cameras shot film. Settings were manual. Just seeing what your images looked like often took weeks while you waited for the processing house to develop your film into prints or slides.

My kids cannot understand this. They grew up in the era of "Let me see what that picture looks like!" Whoops! Aunt Fleda's eyes are closed and Papaw's fly is open. Let's see if we can reverse those two problems and take another shot!
How the world has changed.

Taking good bird photos is not hard. Taking GREAT bird photos is still pretty hard. It still requires lots of skill, a depth of knowledge about your gear, and being in the exact right place at the right time. I have little skill, shallow knowledge of my camera and lenses, and very little time afield, typically.

But every so often I get lucky.

So I am starting a new irregularly appearing feature here on BOTB, called Lucky Bird Photos. Now with my being a editur you might think I'd give this feature a name that did not make it sound like the birds were the lucky ones. But no, I did not even think of that. These will all be bird photos that I got because of pure luck. No skill, no years of experience, no personal sacrifice or physical trauma. Just luck.

Here's installment number 1. A winter willet I photographed last January on the edge of Titusville, Florida. It was coming in for a landing and I just pointed and shot. No planning. No creeping up stealthily. No aiming. No futzing with the dials and knobs. Click! Nice! Lucky!

Winter -plumages willet showing its best field marks.

Giant Things That Dance!

Dirty dancing giant things! What next?

Way back on September 1, Zick and I were doing a book reading and signing at the new Books-A-Million in Triadelphia, West Virginia (a town that is soon to be renamed Cabela's, West Virginia for the giant outfitter store that has consumed that corner of The Mountain State).

As we drove up to the bookstore, which was celebrating its grand opening, we saw one of those giant dancing air sock things, powered by an air blower. This one looked like the result of a giant banana having mated successfully with a foot-long hot dog. Its movements were fluid--mesmerizing even.

Throughout the afternoon, as I watched it, it became clear that the giant dancing hotdoganana was putting the heavy moves on a nearby lamppost. It was like Patrick Swayze and that lamppost-like woman in Dirty Dancing. Except that the bananadog had better hair than the Swayzmeister.

Lots of 70s dance moves are coming back into vogue.

We did not stick around after our reading to see if the lamppost finally gave in to the undeniable charm of Mr. Yellow Wigglesdog. But if I see a bunch of yellow lampposts shimmying and shaking in front of that bookstore next time I'm there, I'll be sure to feature it here at Bill of the Birds.

I'm not sure The Bump is coming back, but you never know.

Awesome robot moves!

Thinking About Punkins

Click on the link for the soundtrack to this post.
DaddysLilPunkin.mp3


This morning the frost was on the pumpkin, or pun'kin as they say. So I'm thinking about punkins, and these images came to mind, as did this song, written by John Prine, and performed here by The Swinging Orangutangs.

DaddysLilPunkin.mp3

The Swinging Orangutangs in this performance are: Bill Thompson on guitar and vocal, Steve McCarthy on drums, Julie Zickefoose on vocals and pennywhistle, and Marty Margolis on bass.
Enjoy it with your favorite punkin.