David Jenkins

Photographic Essay: Ground Work

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020Posted in Black-shouldered Kite9 Comments

Once they have mastered the art of flying, the young Black-shouldered Kites were introduced to working on the ground.
After all mice don’t fly, so they would have to spend part of their hunt on the ground.

In first few attempts that I witnessed they showed more of a fascination of what was on the ground, rather than any attempt to ‘look’ for food.

They seemed to enjoy laying down on the ground and rubbing their tummies along the gravel or grass.
Chewing the grass was another peculiar activity.

Slowly but surely they gained enough experience to hunt through the grass and while never successful at least they were on the way to developing the necessary skills.

They are not designed to walk around on the grass and tend to ‘roll’ along like sailors on a deck

This one was sitting behind a clump of grasses and came out to see me when I showed up.

Now able to drop into the grass silently.

Saturday Evening Post #98: Back to the Future

September 5, 2020September 5, 2020Posted in Saturday Evening Post, White-winged ChoughTagged Saturday Evening Post, White-winged Chough7 Comments

“The sanest man Sets up no deed, Lays down no law, 
Takes everything that happens as it comes, 
As something to animate, not to appropriate, 
To earn, not to own, 
To accept naturally without self-importance:
If you never assume importance You never lose it..”
Lao Tzu

One of the blog posts I regularly follow has been that of Ming Thein (MT)
Over the years his insight into the creative photo process and his attention to detail in technique has always offered new ideas and directions. His clear and reasoned explanations of the elements of a photograph, form, shape, tone, texture, point of view and the like, has always been interesting, and I have to say that not always did I agree, but that is part of the fun of looking at someone’s work.
But MT has called his blog time over.

In the same week, Kirk Tuck over at Visual Science Lab is also calling an end to his current blog as he is off to pursue some video options.

“I see myself writing less and less about new photography gear and new picture making practices. .. I’m not anxious to watch my writing devolve into some personal pathos about lost life opportunities, bad decision making, therapy or diets. Or “how we did things in the golden age of photography.”
I have recently (finally) come to grips with the whole concept that, in what’s left of the commercial imaging world, you can do quite well with a smart phone and a suite of programs to enhance your smartphone photos, with less hassle and less time spent than “doing them the right way.”

Sad to see them both go, but fully understand their individual reasons.

Truth be told, as the weeks of lockdown have deteriorated into months, that I find it much more difficult to warp out words that are relevant and encouraging. There are only so many stories from my own ‘golden age of photography’, only so much pathos that I’d be inclined to share online.

Saw an ad on the tv the other night (Yes, you read that right. Me, watching tv), from Apple. The tag line was, Taken[and Edited] on an iPhone, lots of flashy coloured splashes, and some clever image size, and perspective things to ponder over, and it just confirmed to me that the future of photography is going to do what it has always done. Change, evolve and find new markets, new vision and new visual experiences.

In another life I once made a presentation at a major photographic convention, just at the turn of digital, and indicated as photographers we have always been “on the cutting edge” of technology.
In the beginning we used to shoot only glass plates, then flexible film.
We began with Monochrome Images, who would have thought of colour.
Rangefinder cameras gave way to Single Lens Reflex.
Bulky studio lights gave way to sparkling electronic flash
Formal indoor portraits became rich environmental, tomorrow pictures (as Don Nibbelink coined).
Digital began for us as scanning from negatives and transparencies. Now we think in terms of 61Megapixel sensors and look beyond that.
Not unsurprisingly at the time, a lot of what I said was dismissed as ‘activist nonsense’ by the organisers.
Well.

And as my Tai Chi Master would say, “If an art is simply a repetition, then it will fade and die. For the Art to live on and grow it must find opportunity to express the old in new ways”.

Me, I’m looking forward to our times in the field. To look for and work with the birds again. To hopefully bring back some new fresh stories of our amazing natural world.

Been delving through the archives of late. Not much else to do really, amazing to find moments or opportunities with birds that I had overlooked.

White-winged Choughs are a favourite bird. I am happy to spend hours in their company. Many will tell they find them difficult to photograph. To the contrary, I’ve sat on logs in the forest and have them hunt over the log, around my feet and sit on the log and preen. Talking all the time.
Choughness is a compelling life.

This one was only a few seconds before the ‘guard’ in the tree. The communal life means they share various activities among the flock. It had been relieved of its sentry duty and wafted down to enjoy a rummage among the leaf-litter.

Looking forward to the ‘Roadmap Ahead’ tomorrow, or as Sean McCaullif said, “With all this social-distancing, what is the point of being a Hermit!”

Remain

Photographic Essay: Feeding your Black-shouldered Kite

September 1, 2020Posted in Black-shouldered KiteTagged Black-shouldered Kite12 Comments

Firstly I was sent this link by a friend, and I thought it struck a similar chord to some of my recent meanderings on visualisation. It also has some useful in-the-field bird photography advice. Funny how it’s taken a lockdown for people to realise that ‘awareness’ is not some app on a phone.
Tiny Wonders by Jessica Martin ABC News

She talks about developing a “Sense of Awe”

Quick quote,
“In many ways, then, these tiny, simple things we’ve been savouring lately — a flower, a bird’s pitch-perfect trill, how the sun hits the wet grass after a night of heavy rain — are the big things.

There are silver linings in all this.”

Hope you find it encouraging.

Back to the Kites.
I’m just now getting to working through the images of a couple of months back to consolidate them into working groups of similar actions or events.

The young had been on the wing for a couple of weeks and had developed their in-flight feeding skills. Poor old Bronson, had more work than a one-armed paperhanger keeping up with their voracious hunger. The female, Belle, seems to play no part in their early training or feeding once they are on the wing.

From The Global Headquarters of the Doona Hermit

Remain

Timing is right, speed is right, direction is right, eyes on the target. Release the Claws!

Dad won’t let go until he’s certain the young one has a proper grip.

This one missed the speed, angle and accuracy tests. Need to go around again.

Where’s my mouse!!
Hard to keep them filled up and quiet.

Saturday Evening Post #97: Learning to Isolate

August 29, 2020August 29, 2020Posted in Uncategorized10 Comments

Ha!
Gottacha!
Bettcha thought this was going to be about staying at home and virus stuff.

Noooo.

Someone once said, “Photography is the art of exclusion.”
Sometimes I’ve thought the viewfinder in the camera should have a little gilt-edged gold frame inside. So we can see what our masterpiece is going to look like enshrined forever on the wall
Because if nothing else, using a camera forces us to put our subject in the frame and exclude all else around, no matter how interesting it it might be.

And so I say to the viewer, “Look at this”, and they don’t get the option to see all the things I’ve left out. Unless of course it’s an handphone shot, with those atrocious wide-angle views. Then I get my feet in every shot. 🙂

I’ve quoted my great mentor, John Harris, a few times, when he’d look at a print or slide, and say, “You’ve got to look within the frame to see the picture that it contains. That is where the gold is.”

It’s a magic of pointing out the line, the light, or perhaps the movement that would otherwise have passed by and not be noticed, let alone photographed.

When it come to ‘seeing’, we are able to show not only what we see, but how we see it. There is also another form of seeing. I may close my eyes and say, “Oh, now I see.”

One thing I’ve noted from the lockdown is how much we are ‘story-telling’ people. I don’t mean making up some novella, but just day to day conversation. Zoe, at my local coffee shop is Greek, her hubby is Irish. She was telling the other day of the ‘fun’ of organising that wedding to keep both sides placated. I had a friend who married an Indian lass, he, was Greek. Another amazing intertwining of cultures for the wedding organiser. But we chatted back and forth (through our well adjusted surgical masks, -well hers was a handmade one) about the various aspects of the events. Building word pictures and picking up on each others view of the events. We are story-telling people.

If nothing else for me, the camera has always been a tool of story telling. A tool, that opens, my eyes and the eyes of anyone who views my photos, of the wonders of this amazing planet. The astonishing creatures that we share it with.
The breathtaking sunsets, the wide open vistas, the ranges of mountains that roll on in increasingly rich blues into the distance.

As Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian song writer says,

I stand here dazzled with my heart in flames
at this world of wonders…
Red-gold ripple of the sun going down…
in this world of wonders.

I’ve noted, I fear, I’ve taken to becoming fascinated more by the gruelling events that we are living through. Shock it seems keeps me glued to the tv and the news blogs and podcasts. The hard stories need to be told, some in the most graphic detail. But, I’m not the one to tell them right now. I can close my eyes and say, “I see”.
To quote David Duchemin, “I know there is great beauty and wonder out there, all around us, and I’d rather live my life looking towards the light, then fearing the darkness.”

So I take my clumsy tools of light and time and try to bring my vision of the around and help others to share and experience new wonder.

To open our collective heart to the world.

Photographic Essay: New Life Abounds

August 25, 2020August 25, 2020Posted in Masked LapwingTagged Masked Lapwing10 Comments

Here is a quick update of several of the clutches of Masked Lapwings in our area.

The single one, seems to be the most accessible, so guess you’ll see a few more pictures of it as it matures. I’ve named it Opal, from opalescence, a visual quality of milk. Why milk? Ah, you’ll have to read the back story. 🙂

Also included is a shot of three others in a large water-collection pan, that doubles as a community park.
And a couple from the supermarket pair, but they tend to stay just too far away for short lenses, and there is no-way I’m pondering wandering along with the long tele-hardware anytime soon.

A bright blush of colour, that has opened up all along the streets after the cold wet past few days. Isn’t nature amazing.

From The Global Headquarters of The Doona Hermit

Three of four that are in a large water overflow area. It is also used for a number of community activities including bike riding and football and off-leash doggies in an on-leash area. (Sorry Magda no Nettie).

Parent of the group of four. I thought it was going to have a go at me, but it was getting ready for a run at a dog that was off-leash in an on-leash area.,

One of the two young next to the supermarket. They are pretty advanced and seem to be putting on weight.

Opal with a typical lapwing pose with one leg lifted and paused.

Saturday Evening Post #96: Eavesdropping

August 22, 2020Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged Saturday Evening Post9 Comments

I don’t know about anyone else, but seriously, I’m seriously over Zooming, Youtube tutorials on just about every subject there is. Youtube product reviews, that are simply biased every which way, and the “We’re all in this together” mantra. I just don’t get it. The number of vidiotclips I’ve watched on how to make the most of my post-processing, are hardly entertaining, nor that well filled with actual instruction, and a lot of waffling (well, I shouldn’t complain about that too much should I, dear blog reader), and in the end not all that helpful for the types of problems I’m trying to solve. Not everyone is making (thank goodness) 34 frame HDR landscapes.
Joe McNally said it best, ” Post is not a hospital for poor camera handling technique.”

Must be the weather, or it’s hard to be a non-photographing photographer, or perhaps a non-plumbing plumber, we just can’t get out to our subjects, (well ok, a plumber can do emergency calls)

Eavesdropping is different. Listening to two totally invovled photographers in discussion about many elements of the craft, and little snippets of value seem to drift out, hoping to be cherished beyond the intimate discussion, and landing every so vapour-like on an eager ear. Something to build on. Or perhaps, slipping slowly across the void, hitting the wall or ceiling and lost forever.

We, EE, I and David Nice, have spent many hours with the nesting kites and their energetic young. It’s like eavesdropping on their lives. Waiting for an instant that is more than just another kite shot, but a real insight into their lives, a sensitivity for the moment. Learning a little about what it’s like to be a Black-shouldered Kite. I spoke with a long time friend today, about the excitement of being close enough to see the feathers rise and fall as the bird breathes. You don’t get that on vidiot.:-)

Here is one snippet that I meant to publish when I spoke of Rodney Smith in Saturday Evening Post #93, Speaking Privately.
You can see the full text here. But here is the eavesdropped version.

Rodney was photographing the Chief Executive Officer for a corporation.
He says, “I’d learned over the years that the play for power and control was simply fear… if you could earn their trust, they were willing to be truly vulnerable and powerful subjects.
The CEO walked in and said, “I’m very busy, let’s get this over as soon as possible.”
Everybody, the people who hired the people who hired me are sweating. Time is motionless.
Smith asks him to stand in one place, look directly at the camera, takes one picture and says, “Ok, that’s it, you can go now.”

Subject says, “Are you serious? That’s it”.

Smith replies, “I believe you have a competent picture equal to the effort you’ve put in to that experience and I’m willing to accommodate your need for speed. If you have some time in the future, and are willing, together we can produce something of far more substance, but now, that one frame will be enough.”

He leaves, everyone else leaves (quietly), Smith packs up and heads down the hallway.
Just about out, and the secretary says “He would love to see you in his office.” Smith is then shown some photos of houses that the CEO owns, and offers that he would love to be photographed in one of those locations where he would have more time.

“If one opens up to me, I’ll give them my heart and soul… the picture is bigger and stronger than me. It is sacred and worth fighting for. What starts with a handshake in the end is an intimate embrace.”

I was sitting on the grass, at the edge of a foot-bike path. The young kites were intrigued by the concrete and the grass and whatever might be in the grass. Every-so often their concentration was broken by a bike-rider hurtling past, but they quickly came back to investigate.
This one was working its way up the footpath towards me. Could it see me? Of course. Did it change its approach because I was there, No not one bit.

Holding my breath, and trying to avoid camera shake, and suddenly it rose up, flew toward me, and landed on the grass. I could see the feathers rise and fall.

Little Visit Off the Couch: Hot off the Press

August 20, 2020September 9, 2020Posted in Masked LapwingTagged Masked Lapwing9 Comments

Now into the third week of a six week isolation lockdown, it’s been very challenging to find suitable images for the day to day lives of the birds we work with.
In spite of the “We’re all in this together”, mantra, the birds don’t seem to have taken it too heart much, and haven’t been lined up in the street outside waiting for me.
We also don’t have any real suitable birding areas to walk by in our 1 hour a day “exercise” allowance.

But there are quite a number of storm water run-off drains and basins, throughout the suburb and several of them are within easy walking, and two are directly on the way to the local supermarket.
Every year Masked Lapwings gather to use the various open paddocks, drains and basins to creche their young. One pair has always chosen the grass verge between a dual carriage way. And try as the parents might, it always ends in disaster as the little tykes run about on the road. Not much between a fully laden Mac truck at 80+ kph and a baby lapwing.

One enterprising pair have located into a paddock directly behind said supermarket and as they are well protected by a 3m high chain mesh fence, and sharing the location with two rather large goats, they seem fairly secure, and have two spritely young.

A second pair have taken advantage of an unused house block and the nest is almost dead-centre in the middle of the block. No access for me. 🙂

A third pair, are using a run off basin that is also used as a local scratch-match footy oval, soccer-field, dog walking and mountain bike area. However restrictions have given them pretty much run of the area, and on the couple of times I’ve visited early in the morning, they seem to have four young on the go. Not easy to find, and I for one am not venturing out into the open field for a closer looksee.

A fourth pair, and subject of the blog. (Didn’t think I was going to get here did you!) have taken up ownership of an open storm water runoff drain.
EE located them the other morning, and I thought a trip by with my biggest shopping bag was in order. They seem to only have one that has survived. But it is doing quite well. On my first visit, it spent most of the time running about on a disused concrete footpath above the drain as the surrounding grass verge was particularly thick and over grown.
But in the meantime, the council, bless their environmental cleanup hearts have moved into the drain with mowers and brush-cutters and turned it into a “V’ shaped version of a bowling green.

Look as we might we were unable to see if the little dude had survived or where the anxious parents might have relocated it.

However, all is well. This morning on the milk run, I found it back in the same area and sprinting up and down the footpath.

So hot off the press.

Remain.

From the Global Headquarters of The Doona Hermit.

The day before the grass on the verge was over its head.

An adult that is ready to defend its prize.

Still plenty of hiding spots on the far side of the footpath

Little Visits from the Couch: A Morning with the Young Kites

August 18, 2020Posted in Black-shouldered KiteTagged Black-shouldered Kite9 Comments

I really feel I’ve been remiss working on the blog of late. I guess if anything it has pointed out to me the very nature of the “now” of the running a blog.

Birds as Poetry has always been for me about our interactions, or visits with a limited range of birds.
So no visits, well, not postings.

Still, as I wander back through the most recent trips we took in mid June, there are certainly moments that need to be shared.

So expect to see a few Photographic Essay of our days with the young kites. It either shows how dedicated to a clutch of birds, or how narrow our travel and bird experiences were during that period. Be kind, we weren’t able to travel very far.

The evil thing is cutting such a swathe of agony for so many people. I fully expect we will be limited in movement for quite a long time to come.
So enjoy the little interludes as I sweep out the library files, (figuratively of course)

Not often we saw all three on the same branch

After so many weeks with them, they were now very comfortable with our presence, and simply carried on around us

This picket was the only landing spot near me, and the young one came in quite deliberately to land. I’d like to think it wanted a closer look at my camera.

They had spent more of their lives all together in the small nest, and still were happy to share the smallest branch area. One just about losing balance to make room for the interloper

One mouse, two hungry mouths, and not the ones Dad was interested in feeding. He would let them get close, but then turn away. He delivered it to the third one.

Still getting the hang of taking from Dad’s claw. This one has overshot the mouse and crashed into Dad’s tummy

Saturday Evening Post #95: Future Proofing

August 15, 2020Posted in Uncategorized10 Comments

Over the years I worked with-or for- two organisations that had among their mission statements a reference to “Future Proofing”.
Every iteration of their product line or new product introduction carried a promise, (spoken or implied) of “Future Proofing”.
Somehow the businesses would be able to have sufficient flexibility that they would be able to handle any changes that come down the pipeline.

However, like wooden wagon wheels, both organisations have long since disappeared from the market place and their products are no longer available on the shelves. So much for “Future Proofing”.

Actually as I look back over it there have been a long list of products that I’ve used that are no longer extant.
Who remembers WordStar. and using ^control key formatting. (Don’t all put your hands up!)
WordPefect anyone? (I know that Corel still have a version, but do you know anyone using it?)
Ahh, Lotus 123 So long old friend. (I used to train Lotus 123, mind I’m not an accountant) And while we are are on spreading sheets, how about VisiCalc on the Mac?

Two more and we’re done. Aldus PageMaker (not the Adobe version please). And its PC equivalent Ventura. Ahh, the agony.
Yet at the time, Pagemaker in particular sold more macs in Universities than any other program.
Something quite interesting in using Aldo Manuzio and his friend Griffo, ( everybody should have a friend named “Griffo”, very, well ‘ Stralian maaate’.
Aldo had his own future proofing logo which meant “Make haste slowly”.

What brought all this trip down memory lane on?
Good question.

I’ve spent this week working through the camera cupboard and looking at hardware I’m never going to use again.
The Nikon 1 system. And don’t think I didn’t put in some effort to make it work for us. There are several blog pages on this site that tell the history of our association with the small camera and its beautiful lenses. But, it wasn’t Future Proof.

EE has taken delivery of a sparkling new iMac to replace the older Mac Mini that has served her well many years. The Mini will go the way of wagon wheels as there is only so much bench space.

A bunch of small lenses, including a wide angle we used for car interiors, they are now in the last box before the door in the garage. Along with some flash units, and more coloured filters and paraphernalia of similar used-but no longer used-vintage and we’d all blush if I mentioned how many camera bags are now on the short list too.

Lockdown, has highlighted how “Future Proofing” is as fragile as fine dew on a leaf in the morning.

So no future predictions here. The Doona Hermit is taking just one day at a time.

I’ve also been a bit remiss of the past weeks for not publishing any bird related posts. Usually have relied on reporting recent trips. So I’ll take a wander through some of the older files and see if I can patch together some related images this coming week.

In the meantime Stay Safe, Stay Well and Stay Creative.

Besties to all my fellow lockdowns,

From the Global Headquarters of the Doona Hermit.

Saturday Evening Post #94: From the Notebook

August 8, 2020Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged Saturday Evening Post6 Comments

“How ya Doin!”
Eddie Murphy Beverly Hills Cop

Shout out to all who are in Lockdown at the moment. We are at the end of week one with five to go.
It’s kinda like the job that just has to be done. Like vacuuming under the couch, or taking out the rubbish.

After the past few Posts I thought I’d try a lighter look at what has accumulated in my Notebook.

When I was still an apprentice, an early mentor introduced me to carrying and even better, making notes in a Daybook. I have, I guess been an inveterate note collector ever since. In the early days, notes of film type, lighting, camera settings studio setups filled many a page.
I came across one of those books a long time back (since lost again unfortunately) that had diagrammes of set design or location details for shots that I didn’t even recall making.

I even went through a “Yellow PostIt Note” phase. Just about everywhere you looked in the workroom were magazines, books, tabletops and equipment with little yellow notes with scribbled details.

Or excepts from some book or movie or activity that I thought I might work on.

These days, I confess, I clip things from the Web and keep in an electronic notebook.

Here is one I came across recently.
Jane Goodall.
Jane is the lady from the 1960s who spent her life working in Africa with Chimpanzees. Amazingly her discoveries changed a lot of scientific thought about these creatures and the whole human race.
She recalls in a BBC interview some of the most important events from her time in the jungle.
Here is the link.

Her technique of getting to know the Chimps as individuals was frowned on by the scientific community. Yet my own experience with birds has followed a similar path. Great to hear her defend her position. Enjoy

I found this one a bit amusing

Would have never thought of using Ibis as a measuring tool.
As some wag said,
“If you are 3 Ibis away, you’ve just lost your lunch”

From the Rodney Smith collection challenge last week.
The image I’m currently living with was the one “Zoe with Ducks” From the Storytelling Series.

However I am also quite taken by “Chicken Haiti” from the Humour set, is in there with a chance as well. I like it for the moment of timing. Given chickens to the best of my knowledge generally don’t perform to schedules.

I woke this morning with the sound of rain on the roof, and outside it was all grey and gloomy.
“Good day to stay under the Doona I thought”, and for no apparent reason, the song “Rainy Days and Mondays always get me Down”, by Karen Carpenter rang through my head. Funny as I haven’t heard it for years, and could never have cast myself as Carpenters fan.

Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit
Nothin’ ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around.

And

Finally,

Robin Whalley, a Landscape photographer from England posted this one. Interesting to me as he has gone back through some of his old work, and found some shots that he’d ignored, but now that he has some time, he’s been able to bring out a feel and mood that he’d missed earlier.

As I’m now working through my own collection of “Might have been good” shots, I found it very encouraging.

Funny old world.

Remain.

The Doona Hermit

Saturday Evening Post #93: Speaking Privately

August 1, 2020August 1, 2020Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged Saturday Evening Post10 Comments

When we talk of photography, it’s not something we think of in a ‘private’ sense all that much.

“Let me Share some Pictures I took”, “Here’s a shot I made at the park”, “This is some pictures I took on my holiday to Tuscany last year.” “My granddaughter’s graduation photos are here.”
“I photographed this Flame Robin at Woodlands Park in June.”
We share, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, (No, No, not Tic Tok), prints, email and blogs to name a few.
Photographer type conversations sometimes start, “Whatchabeendoinlately?”

Yet one photographer I’ve followed over the years has the concept of “Private” as part of his creative approach.

His work is characterised by enchanted worlds full of subtle contradictions.

His name? Rodney Smith.

Noted for sharing his vision of the world with Humour, Grace, and Optimism.
He has since passed, but on his blog entitled intriguingly enough, “The End‘, Rodney Smith would describe his creative process as being “intricately connected to how I examine my own life, how I got to know myself, and how I drew clarity of my emotions and translated them into pictures.”

So, if you want, you too can Go To The End

A further quote, “I want people to see the beauty and whimsy in life, not its ugliness. I feel the need to reach out for its soul, its depth, and its underlying beauty. I represent a world that is possible if people act their best. It’s a world that’s slightly beyond reach, beyond everyday experience, but it’s definitely not impossible.”

So here’s your humble scribe’s challenge. If you’ve manage to read this far without your eyes glazing over. (well done of you have!)

Follow this link over to his Gallery – the Humor Section.

While you’re there, have a look at several of the others sections, but do visit the Surrealism one as well.

Hopefully one or two will make you laugh, or smile, or just ponder a bit, or at least cause you to be amazed at Rodney’s sheer visual audacity.

Second part of the Challenge.
Pop a note into the Comments below, let us all know which one ‘privately’ appealed. Don’t have to say Why. Just enjoy the trip.

Next week I’ll reveal my fav. Hint, its neither of the ones with Hay Bales. But they did run a close second.

Took me a while to find a “Rodney Smith” Private moment among my own recent shots.

Don’t think its a great example, but at least I remember smiling when I pressed the shutter.

As Rodney is quoted, :”Choose Photography for Love, rather than fame, fortune or glory.”

I look forward to hearing from as many as possible.

Go on, you can do it.

Little Visits from the Couch: A Moment of Connection

July 29, 2020Posted in Black-shouldered KiteTagged Black-shouldered Kite11 Comments

Greetings from the Couch. Snuggled under the Doona looking out the window in afternoon. I don’t look out in the morning, else I’d have nothing to do in the afternoon.

During one of our forays with the young kites a few weeks back, this young bird was getting more and more anxious about Dad returning with a snack.

The area has a mound of earth, left over from an old bridge removal over the nearby freeway to Geelong. Several gums have grown in and around the mound and it has made a most pleasing studio in which to work.

The tree in this case grows out of a lower part of the mound and I was standing at the top nearby, which gave me an eyeball view of the bird only a few metres away. It was quite relaxed about my presence and had chosen to fly in for a better view over the paddocks, waiting for its share of the morning’s food.

Then, it all happened, leaving the branch it landed on nearby leaves and after steadying itself took off. Straight toward me!

It sailed by in full cry just past my shoulder, and the poor old camera/lens af combo gave up after about the third frame, and my old body gave up a second or so later as it rocketed by.

Too much fun.

From the Doona Hermit

Remain.

Comfortable with a great view of the paddocks

I always enjoy that heraldic pose. This was getting a little to close

And a bonus of the three together after a meal.

Saturday Evening Post #92: About 95% Negative Space

July 25, 2020Posted in Saturday Evening Post, Superb Fairy-wrenTagged Saturday Evening Post, Superb Fairy-wren9 Comments

“You’ll find,” he said, if I recall correctly, “that Negative Space carries a lot of visual weight. The subject therefore has to be very strong to balance out that 95% Negative Space.” A mentor was extolling the use of the broad, seemingly lacking in detail, surrounds of the main subject.

He went on, again as best I can recall, “Negative space helps the photo stay calm, and isolates the subject, and at the same time removes any interfering elements that distract from the view seeing what you are seeing.”

Great advice to a budding studio product photographer. After all a client doesn’t want a lot of competing visual elements, they want to see the product. And in particular, the product’s name, brand and model number (if applicable). If Mr Colgate couldn’t see the word “Colgate” in large letters on the subject, he would wonder how anyone would recognise his product, no matter how ‘creatively’ the subject was shown.

The same might be said of a certain cheese brand that is about to change its name. No matter that it was the brain child of a certain William Edward who’s family name now carries unfortunate connotations.
Ford Motor Company want to see their famed logo, and it is said the Coca Cola logo was one of the most recognised logos in the world. Now it seems the jury is out on the most recognised, but Google might be close to the top. At least when I googled, that is the result I got. 🙂

From a studio product point of view, getting the subject well lit, boldly presented and refreshingly isolated was always the big challenge. A small fill light here, a white card to be reflected in the strong sidelines of the product, a disappearing shadow to give depth, all against a plain backdrop.

But negative space is more than just a simple way of saying, ‘here is the subject’, it does, as my mentor suggested, carry a visual weight that needs to be carefully balanced by a subject. It reduces visual clutter and the minimalist approach welcomes a view to pause and reflect in a tranquil, welcoming way.

I have been I think, always a minimalist. Well, at least at heart. Preferring the simple to the complex visually.
Whether street, or field, or portrait, or product, I’ve always been happier to work with a subject against an uncluttered backdrop.

Most times, either here on the blog, or on Flickr, or my other web site, I try with the birds to provide as much detail as possible, preferring the closeup frame filling moment, rather than building a mystery or calmness or asking the viewer to pause and ponder, “Why there, why now, what was going on?”

So the past several weeks have been a bit intense, staying at home, (by preference) working through the photo library—it’s called Culling!
Removing those images that I am never going to pay the hostage price.
See Saturday Evening Post #87

And finding of course some photos that I’ve never spent time with, yet, hold a strong sense of graphic because of the smaller subject in its surrounds, or lack of them. Not always suitable as bird descriptive shots, but perhaps with a little work, suitable for Birds as Poetry.

Shots where the bird is almost inconsequential in the frame compared to the negative space.
It is true that I hadn’t been consciously working on that feel when I pressed the shutter, and it did require me to revisit to see the opportunity.
I’ve oft quoted my long-term friend and mentor John Harris. “You’ve got to look within the photo, to find the picture. Always look at the details, look at the obvious as there is always a highlight there somewhere, that others aren’t seeing. That is the diamond. Look for it always.” Thanks John.

The ones that have got the creative juices flowing, are those that lend themselves to making the most of the negative space. I’ve shared a few on Flickr of late, and thought this very active male Superb Fairywren had made a strong enough compositional statement to balance the dark moody area behind him.

As he moults into his breeding colours he is ready to become the master of his new status, his balance of the negative space gives him a strength and purpose.

The Doona Hermit.

Remain.

Little Couch Visits: On the trail of growing Black-shouldered Kites

July 23, 2020Posted in Black-shouldered Kite, Little VisitsTagged Black-shouldered Kite, Little Visits6 Comments

Added the “Couch” heading to my normal visits and journeys. We are as it happens, at home on the couch, iPad in hand.

So come with me on a journey back in time. Shades of “Back to the Future —another couch-time activity.

We had been, in early Feb and March, working with a pair of Black-shouldered Kites at nest. The day the first lockdown took effect, the young had only just flown. And then we didn’t see them for over three weeks. By then they were well advanced.
It was a bit of a missed photographic opportunity as the nesting site lended itself both from great light and open areas, for some really clear shots of the birds as they began their life on the wing.

Time passed, and restrictions lifted and we went back to the usual haunt to see if they were still around.
No. Well gone.

A couple of weeks later we returned with Flame Robin arrivals in mind.
EE spotted way, way, way down the paddock—even for her— a flash of white in the sky and declared that the young kites were probably way down the fence-line in the distance.

Robins, or Kites?
We set out along the fence-line.
The mice population among the bracken must have been very good as all three quickly scored a meal while we were approaching.
They settled down in among some of the small trees to enjoy a feast.

Out of nowhere, Dad arrived on the scene and took station on one of the higher branches. But rather than welcoming him, they harassed him for food.

However he wasn’t taking any orders. His Uberfood days were over.

The interesting thing that we noted was the colour change, each one was well into moulting the subtle grey and white and the ginger colours were being replaced.

I guess having some more time at home, I can work through the files and find some images, or sets that normally I’d just leave to mellow on the disk. A tweak here, a slider or two there, a brush on a mask there, and ‘hey presto’.

Enjoy

Remain.

The Doona Hermit.