The little lake off our back deck attracts an amazing array of birds! From our back deck, it’s not possible to zoom in on these beautiful birds with my 300mm because it just isn’t long enough. Even on my DX. So the day I had my momentous walk around the lake, I had my 300mm in tow and tried to get a bit closer. Bird photography is quite different from the landscapes and macros I’m used to. I quickly realized I needed a very fast shutter speed, especially for the egret in flight. You can even see he is wearing his “golden slippers” as they call them. I got about four shots of him before he flew off into the tree. I thought it so funny that he sat in that small tree.
The number of birds I’ve already identified is quite extensive! For bird lovers, the list is (and I know there are many small birds that I haven’t identified yet): Great blue heron, great white egret, green heron (juvenile in November), robin, bluebird, black phoebe, scrub bluejay, finch, anna’s hummingbird, sparrow, plover, red shouldered hawk, white tailed kite, kingfisher, crow, mallard duck, merganser duck, comorant, buzzard, northern flicker, northern harrier (juvenile in Nov), Turkey, Canadian Goose.
The last image I tried a blur technique. You may have seen this expertly done on the Mythical Horse blog, but I thought I’d give it a whirl. I hadn’t read up on how to do it yet, so I just sort of tried to create it myself with the photoshop knowledge I already have. I would love to explore this further because I think the results can be quite beautiful.
Laura Macky Photography 