![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-9961-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9961-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nand why plain blue skies aren’t my favorite backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Occasionally I get some mild blowback from readers when I say I don’t have much enthusiasm for homogenous blue sky backgrounds in my photos. I don’t dislike them but I do think they tend to be kind of… blah.<\/p>\n
I’ll use the following photo to illustrate my point of view.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is an older photo of a rufous Red-tailed Hawk as ‘she’ was perched in a tree on Goose Egg Island at Farmington Bay WMA. Her wings are raised to maintain stability as she adjusted her feet on the less than stable perch.<\/p>\n I think she’s gorgeous.<\/p>\n In my view the blue sky mixed with clouds<\/em> is one of the primary strengths of the image. If the sky had been homogenous blue or homogenous clouds I’d find the image to be much less interesting. For me plain blue skies are just sort of… there and they don’t contribute much to the overall image, although they don’t detract either.<\/p>\n I thought about including another version of this photo with a plain blue sky substituted for the real one so readers could compare the two versions and make up their own minds but then I realized I don’t even know how to do that. I’m sure I could figure it out pretty quickly but why tempt a bad habit.<\/p>\n For some photographers faking backgrounds is almost standard fare but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even when it isn’t meant to be deceptive to viewers.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" and why plain blue skies aren’t my favorite backgrounds.<\/p>\n