wildlife photography through the lens of an animator

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Small birds - low quality shots

It's always hard to draw a line between good photos that deserve publishing and average ones that never see the world. Especially for species that never appear on good photos. There isn't much time left for this bloG, but I think at this point I'm ready to redefine my own quality control requirements. Small birds which hide in the undergrowth are a serious challenge for the photographer. The lighting is poor most of the time, they move fast and are so tiny to make focusing very difficult. On top of all this, the setting is seldom anything that can be qualified as 'inspiring', 'clean' or 'beautiful'.

Many times I see a tiny creature and feel very lucky to even be able to get a snap of it, so that later at home I can identify the bird. Often this happens only once and there is no chance for a second take. Maybe I'm missing something important, but until I get much better images of some of these species I will keep posting average photos which at least show the birds and can be used as a reference by other bloggers.
above: Grey Fantail, Tasmania
above: Brown Thornbill, Tasmania
above: Variegated Fairywren, NSW
above: Spotted Pardalote, Tasmania
above: Striated Pardalote
above: Striated Pardalote
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