I suppose yesterday could be called a comedy of errors but I didn’t think it was funny. It only makes me feel slightly better to know that many of them were just bad luck.
It’s almost a tradition for me to call a relatively small cloud that blocks the sun, ruins the light, and then follows me all morning wherever I go in my pickup while I’m looking for birds, a “cloud from hell”. Well yesterday it wasn’t a cloud from hell, it was a thistle stem from hell.
1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
It was a slow day for birds in the mountains except for one area where a few birds eventually made their appearance. One of them was this American Goldfinch that unexpectedly flew in to feed on thistle seeds.
For over half of the time I spent with this bird he was facing me on the thistle flower. I got some fairly interesting shots but I’m not particularly fond of this head-on posture so I was hoping he would eventually turn sideways on the flower to give me a more interesting side view.
But see that damn thistle stem on the right? I didn’t even think about the problem it might cause if the bird eventually turned on the flower.
1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
When he eventually did give me nearly a side view that stem put an annoying shadow on his butt and/or tail. Maybe I’m oversensitive to shadows on my birds but they really annoy me. My eye goes to them immediately.
1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
That shadow was always there to ruffle my feathers. Even though the breeze was sometimes moving the thistle stems around and occasionally the shadow disappeared for a split second I never got any decent poses (or light in the eye) when it happened.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
The goldfinch did move to a more attractive flower on the same plant for a few moments but apparently those seeds weren’t ripe enough so almost immediately he moved back to the other flower.
I spent eleven minutes with this bird and took 562 shots while he was on the thistle so by the time it was over I was a very frustrated photographer.
1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
But that’s only part of the story. While I was photographing the goldfinch this Downy Woodpecker flew into a bush almost directly behind the thistle so I had to choose which bird to focus my lens on. I ended up going back and forth and as chance would have it missed all opportunities I might have had with the woodpecker while it was more in the open and didn’t have annoying shadows on its face. This is the best shot I managed but its bill and part of its chest are in deep shade.
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
And in the middle of it all a couple of Lesser Goldfinches landed in a tree almost directly behind the woodpecker bush. They were the first Lesser Goldfinches I’d seen this year so I’d love to have been able to get a few nice shots of them but they were far too distant for anything but documentary photos.
When I eventually left this spot I’d taken 626 photos but I’ll probably delete nearly every last one of them. And for a variety of reasons my luck didn’t get any better for the rest of the morning.
Every bird photographer on the planet has had days like this but knowing I have company doesn’t make it any easier to take.
Maybe bellyaching about it will help me to move on.
Ron
You summed up my most of my experiences lately!
Frustrating isn’t it!
I don’t mind those shadows at all. I do understand your quest for perfection, but my aspirations are (quite justifiably) a lot less perfect.
I am also a firm believer in ‘give us this day our daily whinge…’ Sometimes it is an essential.
While I marvelled at and enjoyed all of your shots I hope today is/was a much better one for you.
Thanks for the pep talk, EC. I’m over it.
Some days are just like that Ron. My plans for today have gone completely awry. I’m hoping for a better tomorrow and wishing the same for you! That said, you’re way too hard on yourself, and while i truly GET that quest for perfection (you should hear me with my words!), sometimes you just gotta let the day happens as it will and move on again 😉
“Some days are just like that Ron”
That’s true, Laura. Especially when it comes to bird photography.
It may be time to change Venues !! Hook up the camper and go for a ride………….
I’m hoping that will happen sometime in early fall, Gary. Lots of things have to come together though…
Sounds like ol’ Murph was with you yesterday. Bummer! Of course, I’d be thrilled with any of these shots. 😇 I actually didn’t notice the butt shadow until you mentioned it because the goings-on at the front end were so interesting. Love the “What the hell is that?” look on Woody’s face as he’s deciphering that odd lump on the bush. I like the composition of the Lesser shot — how did you manage to get those two lone berries to line up exactly with his beak? 😃
“how did you manage to get those two lone berries to line up exactly with his beak?”
I put in a formal request to the gods of photography and this time they complied!
Actually I was more surprised that all three, the bird and both berries, were sharp. It’s not often that all three would be in the same focal plane.
You’re too much, Ron! 😉
To paraphrase Judy, “…a day not destined to conform…”, I would like to nominate this for some sort of recognition as I find it hitting home with a relentless resonance.
Shadow-wise, I find the first shadow to be in the offensive “bad shadow” category, it is not welcome to stay.
The woodpecker’s shadow has not made itself unwelcome on my screen.
I am sorry to hear that the feathers of Feathered Photography have been ruffled, but I guess its unavoidable given the maelstrom of obstacles Ron faces every day.
Yup, it’s unavoidable but with bird photography it comes with the territory, Dave. Sometimes it just gets to me when there’s to much of it on the same day.
Interesting collection…the flower on that thistle is quite interesting, rather pretty actually, I like the cute way the thistle plume ‘photo-bombed’ the goldfinch for several shots, the single berries at the tips of the twigs, but that black knot is most interesting to me on the branch with the woodpecker. That was a frequent question I’d get at extension…’What is this thing on my tree that looks like ‘doggie poo on a stick’? Black knot…a fungus that is specific for trees in the Prunus species… plums, cherries and a few other stone fruits.
All in all an interesting set of photos even though you may delete them all. 🙂
Doggie poo is a pretty good description of it. There’s quite a bit of it in the mtns. Thanks, Kathy.
Kathy, thank you for answering my question about the fungus, it really drew my eye. I wonder if woodpeckers help transfer it to other plants?
Day just not destined to conform to what you would like! 😉 Been there, done that, more than once…… Still interesting photos of the bird’s activities.. 🙂 Woodpecker looks like it’s interested in what we call “black knot” that REALLY likes to raise hell with chokecherry bushes. Hope it goes better today………. 🙂
Yeah, I think it’s black knot too, Judy. I think it went a little better today but I won’t know for sure until I look at my images.
OK, I understand your artistic distaste for items (stems, branches, etc.) getting in the way of the bird. However, this viewer loves habitat shots and especially the woodpeckers interest in the fungal? disease? growth on the tree. I really like these shots for they show birds in their natural habitat doing what they do, finding food. Its all about survival. Great post, thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Dick. It isn’t so much the “stems, branches etc.” that annoy me. It’s their shadows on the bird.