My New Birding Blog :-)

I decided to set up my birding blog sooner than later.  It's still a work in progress and I'm sure it will see a number of changes in the next few days, but if you would like to check it out, please feel free to do so.   I plan to update it as frequently as time and opportunity permits, but that is one blog that will keep growing.

Day 348 - Mallards

Down by the riverside for a quick photo session.

Day 329 - More Birds in the Bush

This White-breasted Nuthatch was pulling something out of the tree trunk and it looked like a snail or some kind of worm.  Ugghh!

My first time seeing Dark-Eyed Juncos - there were a few flocking around.

My second time seeing a Northern Flicker, but first time in my neck of the woods.  The first time I ever saw them was when I was visiting my friend in Fremont, CA last Christmas.

Day 325 - First Flowers

I saw the first flowers, purple crocuses, on the forest floor by the river.  I had almost passed them by because they were so tiny, but things seldom get overlooked these days.  I only had my  Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras with me, and therefore, I was a little bit constrained with trying to get the perspective right.  In the end, it's just recording the detail that was more important for me.

It had been extremely chilly and windy, and I hardly saw many birds.  It seemed like they were all hiding from the cold and the wind somewhere, because a lot of the birds have just migrated, and they are probably as surprised as we are at the lack of milder Spring temperatures. 

The waters were extremely choppy and I had fun watching this Mallard couple bobbing up and down on the waves.  They kept getting pushed up on the crests of the waves and then dipping into the troughs.  They looked really cute! 

And a few others from the evening:

Day 318 - Chickadees and Great Blue Heron

My shots have been pretty unsatisfactory of late.  I think my bird photography skills have become pretty rusty over the winter months.  :(  But right now, my main motivation to keep clicking is to just get the 365 challenge over and done with, although I haven't strictly adhered to it.  However, I can say this much - I have tried my best, given the set of circumstances.  I am slowly getting to the grand finale, and I can't wait!

Day 313 - His Holiness, the Northern Cardinal

And where would you expect to see such elevated spirits?  Of course, at great elevations - on top of the tallest trees, where even a 250 mm lens would have trouble beholding them!

Day 310 - It's Only Birds ...

... And birds are all I have, to take your heart away

Sorry for the bad pun, but I've had the original song "It's only words.. " going round and round in my head these past couple of days.  I somehow had to get that out of the system.

The first shot is SOOC - this sparrow dropped out of the blue and I was probably more surprised than he was.  Had I been prepared, I wouldn't have cut the tail off the poor soul.  I barely got a shot of him landing on the balcony, which I had to discard as it was totally out of focus, and then I got this one, before he took off. :(

This is a Common Grackle I found perched really high up.   I had to crop quite a bit to be able to get any detail out of this shot.

And the red-winged blackbirds are back too, and what a racket they make!

Day 305 - When All Else Fails ...

... capture a pigeon scavenging on the balcony!   (Shot through the balcony door)

Day 288 - Odd Numbers in Photography

I had quite a photography disaster this evening!

After not having the energy to leave home to do my shot of the day, I decided that I should keep up the snow theme for the rest of the week.  So, I could take a few shots from the balcony in an effort to keep that up.  The skies looked pink, with the snow clouds and the impending snow showers, and I thought an evening sky on a long exposure would make a great shot.

I was proved wrong, when I couldn't get a single shot to look the way I wanted because of the high winds that kept moving the trees causing a lot of blurred motion.  I thought I could use the blur as the subject, since I couldn't control the elements, but it just didn't work, and the wind kept shaking the camera, besides chilling me to my bones, of course.  So, I gave up and came back indoors.

This leads me to post one of a few images I took a couple of days ago, and to explain what I mean by odd numbers in photography, which you might already know about, but which doesn't stop me from revisiting - the rule of including odd numbers in our images.

We often inadvertently incorporate this rule into our photography.  An odd number always creates a better image than an even number of objects that lead the brain to look for symmetry, which in most cases looks boring.  Additionally, it is said that the more time it takes the brain to process something, the better it is appreciated.

Sometimes three or five don't make a crowd.  However, we need to be careful of not introducing too many numbers as this will ultimately lead to clutter.  Keep it simple and clutter-free, but it's nice to create a little bit of interest and help the eyes travel all over an asymmetrical image, especially if you create a group/cluster of three or five, instead of putting them in a straight line.  Although, mind you, straight lines work better in cases where you want to create leading lines or patterns.  The artistic choice finally lies with you!

When I shot these images, I hadn't realized that I took only a couple of images with the two starlings in the tree, but most of my images had three of them in it.  There was a large flock of these feathered guys, but I was somehow able to isolate and shoot the three close together.  Maybe this was totally accidental, or maybe it was subconsciously executed.  Who's to tell!

To illustrate the case in point, here are three shots.  Do let me know which one(s) you find most interesting.

And while this is a rule in composition to use odd numbers, there are always exceptions to this rule and it's always nice to be able to break them creatively.

Day 246 - Relearning the Alphabet: The Letter "E"

"E" for Egret (catching up from the holidays)

These shots were from my trip.  My friend and I had gone to Lake Elizabeth in Fremont in search of pelicans!  I'd never seen pelicans before, and therefore I had been really excited.  I had also seen fantastic images of egrets that my friend had taken on her walks at the Lake.  When I had almost given up hope of seeing an egret (which I had also never seen in real life), I got to see one!   This is a Snowy Egret, if I'm not mistaken.