Day 118 - Baby Steps

fat bird don't fly

Look, I know this is getting a little same-y...I'm boring myself, at this point.

So it's another shot of a bird...well that's what there is around here - birds, and lots of them.

Ok, there are also sheep, and the odd cow and whathaveyou...but mainly, birds...lots and lots of birds...

There's wood pigeon (or woodpigeon as Anna likes to call them), blackbird, robin and wren...

There are blue tits, great tits, coal tits and long-tailed tits...

Throw in the odd great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, nuthatch, tree sparrow and house sparrow...

And who could forget the crow, jackdaw, magpie, rook and raven?!

Or the buzzard, sparrowhawk, little owl, barn owl and tawny owl?

And of course the finch family - chaffinch, bullfinch, greenfinch and goldfinch...

And then the mistle thrush, song thrush, starling, fieldfare and redwing...the collared dove, a swift, pheasant, swallow, house martin and lapwing...

I could go on!

No, no I couldn't, that was a lie...I ran out at that point.  

(tho' I did spy Anna hiding in there again...sneaky, she is...)

But I feel my point is made - there are lots of birds here!

When taking photos this evening, I was more interested in trying to get a good picture.  Not least because the most interesting birds won't hang around to be photographed.  I watched a beautiful pair of goldfinch chase each other around the garden, apparently in close combat (or something!), but there was no way I could find them, focus on them, frame them and photograph them in the odd, brief second when they landed on the hedgerow, before immediately setting off on another game of chase me.

(Ooh look at all those f's...find, focus, frame, fotograph...tho' to be honest it was more like "find....fii-iii-iiind....fuck! They're gone..."!)

Anyway this pigeon sat around for a bit (fat pigeons sit around a lot), and I quite liked the focus on this shot. 

Of course the other bird that's happy to sit there having his photo taken is the robin, and he kindly obliged me too. 

not batman

Not quite such a good photo, but still I think I'm making a little progress, albeit slowly. 

I'm not really sure why I'm getting so interested in photo quality...I have no requirement to take decent photo's other than for this blog.  I guess I've just become intrigued by it, and I find I'm interested in the creative aspect.   Of course the only way to express yourself properly is to master the technical side of it too...if you don't have the skills, knowledge and ability to operate the required equipment, you don't have the means to be creative, even if the muse is with you.

It's very similar to playing the guitar, in that sense...without a solid foundation in technique and theory, it's hard to be expressive, in a musical sense at least.

Or writing a blog without first understanding a reasonable number of words (and how to spell them), and the skills to operate a computer and keyboard...all of this is a prerequisite, before you've even broached the somewhat trickier issue of actually having something interesting to say. 

Thus, at this stage of my photographic development, I'm trying to familiarise, understand and practise with the technical elements of taking a photo.   Once I'm really comfortable with the technical stuff, I'll be free (or at least freer) to focus on creativity and expression.

So consider these two images as baby steps on my journey towards creative expression through photography...perhaps tomorrow I will encounter a great photo opportunity, and will be marginally better equipped to get a nice picture from it.

Gotta stick with the positive thinking, eh?!

;-)