Reappraisal

Contemplating those two shots of posts in the sand I now think the one without the figures works better. Jeeez! But that's what the distance of time does to how we evaluate images we make. I dug out some contact sheets just over a year ago that I guess I last looked at in 1982 or thereabouts. Among the frames I had never printed at the time was one that I now like so much it's my only photo I have on the wall. You can't judge images immediately after creation.

That said here's one with a bird in it that I like from today, plus a bird photo.

I spent half an hour, maybe a little more, in a hide photographing feeding pintail this afternoon. I rattled off well over 100 shots and ended up with three that were sharp and pleasing in lighting and pose. It was fun, again, but I prefer ending up with images that I can look at time and again - like the one on my wall. But birds are an easy subject, in as much as you have a good idea where they will be and what they are going to do. While photos of 'stuff' needs hunting down, and more difficult still, seeing. Birds are easy to see, even their behaviour is fairly predictable, but images that are pure abstraction of the everyday world don't reveal themselves so readily.

I guess the only way to remove the temptation of bird photography is to get rid of the long lens. Do I want to? I found some approachable tufted ducks today...

---