I still don't photograph birds

click photo to enlarge
Let me re-phrase the heading of this blog entry - "Birds are not a subject that I go looking for". But, if one passes my way I might snap it! A while ago I titled successive blog posts, "I don't photograph birds" and "I DO photograph birds!" The subject of each image was a heron. Over a couple of days they seemed to be lining up to have their photograph taken. However, the second wasn't a typical birdwatcher's bird photograph - more a generalist photographer's image.

When I came to review the photographs that I have taken of birds I found I've done more than I remembered, and not only herons! It seems I've captured the robin, a solo swan, a swan with cygnets and a sleeping swan, a black headed gull, a lesser-black-backed gull, a surrealistic herring gull, a distant carrion crow, a great tit at a nest box, silhouetted mallards, a moorhen on its nest, a pelican feeding its young (though it is in stained glass!), some metal sculptures of cormorants, and the feather of a guinea fowl. So, looking at today's photograph of a great tit at the nut feeder in my garden you might be thinking, "Hang on a minute Tony, you do photograph birds!" But I still feel I don't. It's only done casually, in passing, and often in a decidedly "arty" way. And then only if they are within range of my non-bird photographer's lenses, and if I happen to see them. Not one of them would pass muster in the eyes of a dedicated avian snapper. So, whilst I'm happy to say that I do photograph churches, buildings, landscapes, flora, semi-abstracts and quite a few other subjects, I really don't photograph birds. Honestly!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: -1.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On