The Cornell Lab Bird Academy Discussion Groups Bird Photography with Melissa Groo Practice Getting Creative and Telling Stories

    • Dika
      Participant
      Chirps: 13
      For the last 4 evenings I have gone to a location where I can sit and observe the birds fly in, forage, and engage in interesting behavior.  Between 7 and 8 pm I have found at least 5 Snowy Egrets, 2 Black-necked Stilts, 2 Black-crowned Night Herons, and on the first evening 5 Black Skimmers skimming.  Also a couple of Black Phoebes that fly in and perch on a close snag.  Grackles abound, also a Mallard with chicks, and Red-winged Blackbirds.  This is a marshy area that I drive to and then walk about 500 yards to a viewing platform. This is a well-known birding location in Santa Barbara -   Andree Clark Bird Refuge. I'm using a Canon 7D Mark 2 with a very old 100-300 lens ( from film days) with a 1.4 adapter.  I've just completed the lesson on "telling a story", so I shoot a lot - (RAW) in burst mode (AI Servo).  This is the first time I've tried shooting in Manual mode, setting my aperture to F8 (the widest available to me).  The light is coming from behind me and the side as the sun is setting.  Since I am not usually able to adjust my settings rapidly enough I get many photos (of the white egrets) that are very overexposed, and as the light fails my shots of the Black-crowned Nights Herons that suddenly flew out of the reeds where they were hiding these shots were quite underexposed. There is one series of shots in which 2 Snowy Egrets were actively engage with one another.  This occurred suddenly and at first I though this was dominance behavior, but is has occurred to me rather that it is mating behavior, something I've never observed before. I have used the editing software provided with my Canon camera to edit the photos.  I don't have Lightroom and my Photoshop is very old.  All in all this has been a very interesting and challenging learning experience.  I have posted a large group of my selected  images on Flickr - where I have a PRO account.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/digolov/.  Scroll down until you find the Skimmer, always an exciting find for me. Would love to have feedback.  Dika Golovatchoff, Santa Barbara, CA.  July 8, 2020.
      • Carole
        Participant
        Chirps: 39
        Wow! Some great action shots! I love the one of the egret that looks as if it is running across the water.
    • nicolette
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      I spotted a pair of Carolina wrens gathering nesting material. They were on the top of a link fence and were building the nest, next to a light, on top of a speaker on the porch, which I thought was odd, given the amount of alternative natural sites on the property. I have since learned they are quite prone to nesting in domesticated areas. I thought the contrast of the habitat opposed to nature was interesting. I also chose to take a shot from behind one of them for a change from the norm.E9520356-EBF1-47B7-92D5-15117634B4B16E2ABF6D-81B1-4CD7-996D-89091AAD15874E715D2E-3394-431E-8BD6-84E0B26BDA97
      • Carole
        Participant
        Chirps: 39
        Goodness! Does that light work?! Will they be in for a surprise one night? Oh!
      • Isabelle
        Participant
        Chirps: 59
        Those are great photos they really bring us into the intimacy of the nest building of this pair!
    • Krispen
      Participant
      Chirps: 6
      I went to a nearby reservoir and bird Reserve yesterday evening to catch waterfowl and shore birds in the sunset, but ended up spending over an hour with a family of Rock Wrens. They were quite friendly and let me hang out with them until sunset.  I have several classically composed takes from the session but I pulled aside a few that I thought were interesting. The first shows the wren nestled next to a rock and has some unusual shadowing.  The second is of one wren in immediate flight off of a rock. 4E132852-BED0-467D-AE0E-F0BD48C662538F1D5191-18B8-4B30-8FFB-1D04A8E71147
      • Carole
        Participant
        Chirps: 39
        Lovely shots!
      • Isabelle
        Participant
        Chirps: 59
        I like the action of the second one and also to see it jump on a rock!
    • Fred
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      I have come to be extremely fond of environmental photos of birds as opposed to bird portraits and try to capture as much of the environment as possible while still keeping the bird or birds sharply defined, even if small in the frame. Two examples are the backlit Whimbrei and the Pied Avocets with their distinctive black and white patches and curved bills. I also like capturing stories as this one  in a series depicting Nazca Boobys courting and nest building. _DSC7099 _DSC6781 _DSC2448
      • Lucy
        Participant
        Chirps: 24
        I love this photo! It makes me feel the bond between these birds.
      • Carole
        Participant
        Chirps: 39
        Yes — that third photo really tells the story of their bond. You can feel it. Great shot.
      • All great, but that last one is really special. Not just the bond, but the black and white of the birds and rocks make for a nice "feel". Great work!
      • Isabelle
        Participant
        Chirps: 59
        All of those photos are beautiful, they really take us where the birds live, it is as if we were walking with you along the shore and seeing the scene in front of our eyes. Wonderful!
      • Doug
        Participant
        Chirps: 13
        Super shots...sharp and storytelling in perfect harmony.