{"id":577,"date":"2010-09-26T16:46:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-26T22:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.wordpress.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2011-05-29T09:11:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T15:11:59","slug":"the-frustrations-of-unnatural-perches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/26\/the-frustrations-of-unnatural-perches\/","title":{"rendered":"The Frustrations of Unnatural Perches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most bird photographers prefer their subjects to be on natural perches.\u00a0\u00a0We are, after all, nature<\/em>\u00a0photographers.\u00a0 The definition of just what is “natural” becomes a slippery slope for sure but for my purposes I’ll define a natural perch by exclusion –\u00a0it does not include buildings, telephone poles and wires, chunks of concrete, signs,\u00a0or most anything else that is obviously man-made.<\/p>\n

Now for my exceptions.\u00a0 Some objects that are man-made\u00a0and have a “rustic”\u00a0quality are often acceptable.\u00a0 Weathered fence posts, old barns\u00a0and rusty barbed wire\u00a0would be examples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the\u00a0major frustrations of bird photographers is to be able to finally get close to a beautiful subject in good light but the bird has chosen an ugly or inappropriate (for us) man-made\u00a0perch.\u00a0 It is typically very difficult to approach many bird species close enough\u00a0to get excellent detailed photos, even with big expensive lenses.\u00a0 So it can be aggravating in the extreme to finally get close enough\u00a0but the bird has chosen an\u00a0unappealing perch.\u00a0 Some folks choose to\u00a0largely avoid this problem by shooting at “setups”\u00a0where the bird has been unnaturally lured into an artificial situation by provided food with attractive perches arranged close by.\u00a0 To many of us this is not nature photography but more like studio or zoo photography.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Good bird photography ain’t easy.\u00a0 If it were it wouldn’t be\u00a0nearly as satisfying when\u00a0I do finally get the shot I’m after – even though the pursuit has often been frustrating.\u00a0 Below are some of the situations where I’ve been frustrated by these unattractive, unnatural perches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most bird photographers know just how difficult kestrels are to approach.\u00a0 This one let me get very <\/em>close.\u00a0 Naturally, he was on an ugly square post.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Only once have I EVER been able to get close enough to photograph a Ferruginous Hawk.\u00a0\u00a0It chose this perch at a bird refuge and then looked at me disdainfully.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This\u00a0Sage Thrasher perched on a pipe gate and let me get close.\u00a0 At\u00a0least the pipe was rusty…\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sun was just rising as we approached this Short-eared Owl on a road construction post at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This Cooper’s Hawk knocked this dove out of a perfectly attractive and natural tree and flew with it to my ugly roof (yes, with satellite dish in background) to pose for its photo.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/em>Barn\u00a0Owl in freezing fog.\u00a0 It chose\u00a0to perch on the same sign as the Ferruginous Hawk.\u00a0 They were in cahoots against me.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This roughie chose a trail marker sign at a local bird refuge.\u00a0 He redeemed himself (or herself) by letting me get a flight shot after he left the post.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Male Northern Harrier.\u00a0 Yup, probably the same sign. \u00a0Obviously a conspiracy…<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ok, enough.\u00a0 I have lots more examples but you get the picture.\u00a0 This “perch frustration” probably happens to me more often than it does to\u00a0many bird photographers because as you can see I shoot a lot of raptors and raptors in particular are attracted to these kinds of perches.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0love my birds\u00a0but have been known to cuss them at times too.<\/p>\n

Ron\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most bird photographers prefer their subjects to be on natural perches.\u00a0\u00a0We are, after all, nature\u00a0photographers.\u00a0 The definition of just what is “natural” becomes a slippery slope for sure but for my purposes I’ll define a natural perch by exclusion –\u00a0it does not include buildings, telephone poles and wires, chunks of concrete, signs,\u00a0or most anything else that is obviously man-made. Now for my exceptions.\u00a0 Some objects that are man-made\u00a0and have a “rustic”\u00a0quality are often acceptable.\u00a0 Weathered fence posts, old barns\u00a0and rusty barbed wire\u00a0would be examples.\u00a0 One of the\u00a0major frustrations of bird photographers is to be able to finally get close to a beautiful subject in good light but the bird has chosen an ugly or inappropriate (for us) man-made\u00a0perch.\u00a0 It is typically very difficult to approach many bird species close enough\u00a0to get excellent detailed photos, even with big expensive lenses.\u00a0 So it can be aggravating in the extreme to finally get close enough\u00a0but the bird has chosen an\u00a0unappealing perch.\u00a0 Some folks choose to\u00a0largely avoid this problem by shooting at “setups”\u00a0where the bird has been unnaturally lured into an artificial situation by provided food with attractive perches arranged close by.\u00a0 To many of us this is not nature photography but more like studio or zoo photography.\u00a0 Good bird photography ain’t easy.\u00a0 If it were it wouldn’t be\u00a0nearly as satisfying when\u00a0I do finally get the shot I’m after – even though the pursuit has often been frustrating.\u00a0 Below are some of the situations where I’ve been frustrated by these unattractive, unnatural perches.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most bird photographers know…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[340,344,6,380,377,341,379,356],"tags":[28,45,95,138,225,226,234,246,269,271,279,310],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-kestrels","category-barn-owls","category-bird-photography-methods","category-coopers-hawk-diurnal-raptors","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-northern-harriers","category-sage-thrashers","category-short-eared-owls","tag-american-kestrel","tag-barn-owl","tag-coopers-hawk","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-natural-perches","tag-nature-photography","tag-northern-harrier","tag-perches-in-bird-photography","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-sage-thrasher","tag-short-eared-owl","tag-unnatural-perches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-9j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}