The light is appealingly soft and the light angle is just right to throw some interesting shadows on the bird that still have plenty of detail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe fly in the ointment of course is the out of focus vertical twig at lower left. Someone shooting setups would never have allowed that twig in the photo.<\/p>\n
Getting this many things to go right doesn’t happen very often in nature photography. And I’m probably a little too suspicious about things like this after many years of being very active in a bird photography critique forum (Nature Photographers Network). Some photographers in that forum regularly manipulated their settings and backgrounds and baited the perch with hidden food to attract birds to the perfect place without disclosing their methods – all of which was against forum rules and in my opinion is unethical in nature photography anyway.<\/p>\n
Nature is messy and too many photographers are sneaky and less than honest about their shady techniques (which many of them are very, very good at) and that’s a combination that can make my red flags go up. Sometimes it’s a false alarm and sometimes it isn’t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
OK, I’m beginning to ramble. On to something else.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/subscriptions-to-feathered-photography.jpg\" "\\"subscriptions-to-feathered-photography\\"")
<\/p>\n
Two days ago I happened to notice in my blog stats that Feathered Photography has reached 1000 subscribers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/subscription-sources.jpg\" "\\"subscription-sources\\"")
<\/p>\n
850 of them subscribe directly via email and 150 of them subscribe through WordPress.com. Those stats don’t include folks who follow my blog on social media or reach Feathered Photography using search engines or links from other sources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the scheme of things those are modest numbers but they still give me significant satisfaction. When I first started blogging almost exactly ten years ago my intention was to use my photos as sort of a continuation of my teaching career by promoting science, interest in birds and their behaviors and nature and conservation issues in general.<\/p>\n
When I was teaching my audience consisted only of my students – about 160 to 190 individuals each day. So to reach this many folks on a daily basis is rewarding. It goes without saying that not everyone who subscribes reads my blog every day but I still find those numbers encouraging.<\/p>\n
Hopefully Feathered Photography and the feedback from my readers, many of whom are enormously knowledgeable, have had an impact.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And a new milestone for Feathered Photography.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n