The Quiet Picture

After getting the crested tit portrait last week, I feel like my bird portrait quota is full. So I decided to try something new and catch the birds in flight, or at least with their wings raised. Now that’s a challenge for sure! I stood a little bit further away than normal to give the wings some room in the frame and then when a bird sat on a perch, I kept the finger on the shutter to catch the moment they take to flight. And then of course the bird would just sit there until the buffer was full and lift off right after that… But even when the buffer didn’t get full, it’s incredibly difficult to catch the right moment. I also found out that the 40D is not fast enough, and all too often I would have a sitting bird in one frame and an empty perch in the next, because the bird flew off in between the frames. That’s how quick they are! And stuff like getting a sharp eye, I can just dream about it. It wasn’t the brightest of days and I was working with shutter speeds of about 1/500 which would be plenty enough for the portraits, but for the birds on the move it’s not enough and there was motion blur in the eye.

So doing this perfectly, in natural light in the late autumn, with the 40D, is borderline impossible. I could of course keep shooting hundreds and hundreds of frames and at some point the numbers would tip in my favour and I would get that perfect shot, so we’ll see… until then, I’ll settle for this compromise where the eye is sharp for a sitting bird, and the wings are spread for a bird in flight. I had no idea I had caught this until I saw on it on the computer!

After taking hundreds of pictures of birds (and other moving things) last weekend, there were obviously quite a few shots I threw away. I mean, out of about 500 pictures, I kept 14. Either I suck at this, or the birds are really difficult, or then it’s the combination… the good news is that with digital, it doesn’t matter how many hundred you shoot if you just get one that you’re really happy with. Out of those 14 I kept, there are 3 I’m really happy with. And another 3 of them should go to the recycle bin because of motion blur and other defects, but I felt that the pictures weren’t completely without merit so I’m keeping them. For the joke factor, if nothing else!

A pre-cheating era Terje Hellesö would’ve received loads of appraise for these. If you take blurry pictures with cropped-off body parts and claim you did it on purpose and call it art, you’ll be everyone’s hero. If you’re a no-name like me and confess that these are pure accidents, then you’re everyone’s zero. I mean c’mon, the least you can do is to get the whole animal in the frame and god forbid if you miss focus on the eye!

It’s a fine line between art and the recycle bin…

* * *

The crested tit picture came very close to the recycle bin. The lack of sharpness in the eye is a real bother but I think it’s also fixable – I could pick up the face from another picture and paste it here and .. well, then the missing wingtip would be a real bother.

The great tit has an even more blurry eye, but I think a lot of blur is better than a little bit. Both wingtips are missing, but the bird’s body and the wings make two opposing diagonals that I thought was nice and saved the picture from the Bin.

And finally the squirrel. No eye in sight, although I swear it was there when I pressed the shutter! But honestly, how could I possible delete this one? I think it’s hilarious and it’s gotta be a 100 times more unique than any other squirrel picture I’ve ever taken!

I had a great day at the feeder today. I’ve finally figured out which angles to use when it’s a sunny weather so I can avoid the the shadow/highlight nightmare that has previously bogged down my sunny day bird shoots; the trick is to shoot up so the background is made up of tree crowns which are more evenly lit than the tree trunks. And I’ve also figured out how to get pictures of those more jittery customers like the crested tit. There’s no point in trying to chase them because by the time you’ve spotted the bird and moved the camera in that direction, the bird will be gone. After a while of doing this, I finally noticed that the crested tit stopped at a specific spot on the perch a couple of times. So I thought, if  it’s done it twice, then maybe it will do it for a third time. I pointed my camera at that spot, kept looking through the viewfinder and ignored everything else… until the crested tit settled on that same spot again! I was sure that this was the last time I was going to see it perched, so I started looking around again and catch some other birds.

So I got the greenfinch, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, willow tit… basically, every bird I get at the feeder except the nuthatch (blurry pictures don’t count). And the squirrel. There’s no doubt about it, the camouflage works because suddenly I noticed that the squirrel was eating on the ground just a couple of metres in front of me. I was even able to change position (slowly shuffle sideways for a better angle) and it didn’t scatter. So maybe I should start thinking about a set-up for the squirrel as well; the perch I’ve been using for the past few years is getting old.

And then the crested tit came back and settled on another perch. Happy!

Oh boy I’m excited, I had two crested tits for visit! I’ve only ever had some fleeting encounters with them before, but today there were at the feeder all day and they were completely fearless. They didn’t mind me moving around and they happily flew so close to me that I couldn’t even try to shoot, but the biggest problem was that they like to forage the fallen seeds on the ground and very rarely sat on any proper perch. And even when they did, they move too fast to catch them in the viewfinder and focus and shoot. I thought that the nuthatch is a difficult bird to photograph, but it’s downright pedestrian compared to the crested tit! I was happy I got anything at all, and I learned from the experience so I’ve made some changes to the feeding site and I sincerely hope that they will be back tomorrow. It is such a fascinating bird… not very colourful, but the pattern is exquisite and then there’s of course the crest.

I was wearing full camouflage today. For some of the birds it doesn’t make any difference, for example the willow and coal tits don’t care what I wear. The great tits are somewhat more suspicious and the greenfinches even more so, but today I got some nice pictures of a greenfinch. And a great tit sat on my shoulder! Even the squirrel came for a visit, it kept giving me the eye but it didn’t find anything to worry about because it came down a tree just a couple of metres away from me.

It is another gorgeous day with nothing but sunny blue skies and frost in the morning. I felt it was pointless to try and top yesterday’s shoot at the lake so I stayed home and waited for the light to fall on the bird feeders. Even when I knew that sunlight is the worst kind of light at this location, I mean it’s not that it makes the birds look bad but it sure makes a mess of the background. I’ve taken great care that my background is far enough from the feeder, but when the light falls on some trees while others are shaded, it’s just a nightmarish contrast that’s impossible to work with. Not that I would let that stop me from trying, all it really means that I throw away about 200 frames because they’re either underexposed or overexposed or both at the same time. And then of course I throw away another 100 frames because they’re blurry… it’s a numbers game for sure!

I’m starting to give up that I can get any variety of birds at the feeder, it’s just the same small birds I’ve had every year. Last year I had huge numbers of greenfinches for a few weeks (I read somewhere that if you let your feeder run out of seeds, the greenfinches leave your feeder and don’t bother to come back) and I’ve seen a few of them now as well, but they are very skittish. They even react when they see me in the window, and when I approach they fly away. This year I have food hanging from two trees, and when I was shooting the birds at the main location, the greenfinches finally came back to eat from the feeder behind my back. But then when I turned around to look, they flew off again. Very un-cooperative! The small birds like coal tits and willow tits don’t mind me at all. I usually stand 2-3 meters from the feeder and they don’t care, and I could stand even closer but it would be too difficult to shoot then!

I’ve had the whole summer to prepare a new bird feeding setup but since I’m a master procrastinator, I didn’t get it done while I still had plenty of time. Now it’s already October and the set is still not complete… But I did hang up have one seed dispenser and I know there’s plenty of traffic, because it needs refilling every day. That’s the way it normally goes, I get plenty of birds until about the snow when other people put up bird feeders as well, and then it’s more quiet. With nothing better to do on Sunday, I had a go at shooting the birds even if it was a bit too dark to my liking. The result was nothing special, but it was nice to observe the birds so close and I look forward to many more weekends at the feeder!

Finally taking a closer look at my vacation pictures. Found one HDR which needed processing, did it manually because I didn’t like the result that any HDR software produced. It still needs some work but I’m undecided if it’s worth the trouble. I was waiting on Flatruet for the sunset to happen with glorious colours, it didn’t do it but a herd of reindeer came running by. In the low light, I got some serious motion blur but it was a concious choice, I wanted to see how it works out.

It was nice to see the pictures from the unforgettable evening at Måns-Erstjärnen. I’m well pleased with some of them, but they all remind me of what a wonderful experience it was. I can still feel the warmth and hear the eerie cry of a loon echo from the distance… just amazing.

In fact, I think I’m still basking in the glow of the vacation. My shutter finger isn’t itching yet, although it did feel good to shoot the white waterlily today. One thing I wonder though, where are all the mosquitoes? There weren’t any at the lake. But… I’m guessing I will find them in the forest. I have some orchids to shoot there and I also need to find some blueberries and raspberries to pick… and I need to get my exhibition ready, it opens on Saturday. Nervous!

There’s a gravel pit along the road between Funäsdalen and Mittådalen. In one pile of sand which has been there for years, a flock of swallows have dug out nesting holes so the pile looks like swiss cheese. The birds don’t mind people so it’s possible to stand right next to the pile and photograph the swallows. The nests are high up on the pile though so they are well out of reach and I guess that’s the whole point – the birds can feel safe up there and there’s safety in numbers as well. My problem is that I keep forgetting to take my 300mm lens with me so this morning I was standing there with my 150mm macro. But at least it gave me an overview of the nests and a lot of birds flying around, although I do have to get there with the long lens before the birds leave the nests!

We continued to Anderssjöåfallet because it looked like we would be spared from the rain that was forecast for the day. At first it even was sunny, which dampened my enthusiasm to shoot the water while I was walking up the falls. But then, higher up after the last big fall, I finally got the shade I needed so I was able to start shooting.

Mr S. drove back home in the afternoon, so I needed to find my own inspiration for the evening’s photography. It was going to be a calm evening with a good chance of sun, so I drove to Måns-Erstjärnen and this time I had a 300mm lens with me, because the swallows’ nests are on the way there. It was overcast when I got there so I didn’t have a lot of light to work with, but I tried anyway. It looks like the young swallows are flight-ready because I’m sure I saw some of the young leave the nest and then come back again to beg for food from the parents.

When I got to Måns-Erstjärnen, there was a little wind so I didn’t get the calm water I had hoped for, but maybe with a little bit of luck it would calm down (before the wind would pick up even more, because it was going to be a windy day tomorrow). This is the second time I was following the shoreline and I was even more impressed than I was the first time. There are photo opportinues almost after each turn, all I needed was the light and the calm water. But no such luck… so I looked the other way and found this little brook meander through a bog with the peak of Ånnfjället in the background. I had to wait for a while before the sun came out again but it was great when it did! The light lasted all of one minute and when I looked back towards west, I saw that the group of clouds had only increased. So my chances of getting that wonderful evening light were reduced, but at least I could do some scouting. At one point there was a ridge with not many trees on which got me curious so I walked up to see what’s on the other side. A small lake, that’s what – and this one was calm! But still, no light. So I walked back to the bigger lake and continued my hike around it. When I had walked a long stretch without any photo potential, I was going to turn back but had second thoughts and continued ahead anyway. It turned out to be a bad idea, because of course the sun would come out now when I didn’t have any use for the light. I half ran to the small lake with the calm water and just when I had the tripod set up and was ready to take a picture, the light disappeared again. I only caught the last of it, but now I wanted to wait instead of walking around and missing the next opportunity. I waited for half an hour and the clouds in the west persisted, so I decided to give up. And about half a minute after I had put the camera in the bag, the sun came out. I swear. And I swore. But instead of setting up the gear in the same spot, I made the fatal mistake of getting back to the bigger lake and try to catch those spots that I had scouted earlier. But by now the wind was picking up again so nothing worked and I just walked back to the car feeling very crossed with myself. I mean… I had waited at the same spot for half an hour. Why couldn’t I wait for one more minute and actually get the picture?!

By the time I got back to car, I had calmed down. I will have another opportunity here, and it will be even better and it will not be down to one minute either!

Snow leopard.

Snow leopard in the Orsa Björnpark Zoo.

I’m so there! Snow leopards are my favourite felines and I really, really wanted to see one. The last time I saw a snow leopard was ages ago back when I lived in England and it was love at first sight.So on this visit, I hoped I could at least see a snow leopard and maybe with some luck, get some pictures as well.

Since we’ve already had good opportunities to see wolves and lynx and other Nordic animals at Järvzoo, we walked right past the “domestic” enclosures to get to the tigers and leopards. I found the tigers a bit difficult at first, just couldn’t get a good angle, until this one tiger was kind enough to sit down on top of the hill with some forest far back in the distance. It’s probably my favourite picture from this trip, even if it required some editing because there was small tree sticking up from behind the tiger and I needed to get rid of it.

So what about the snow leopard then? It was starting to look like I wouldn’t get any pictures of it. It has a hideaway in the middle of the enclosure and it wasn’t in any hurry to come out. The closing time was approaching and half of our group had already headed back to the exit, but we still had a few minutes until closing time so we made a last effort at both the persian leopards and the snow leopard, neither of which I had any pictures of so far (I’m not counting the snow-leopard-in-the-dark-hideaway frame).

And so our persistence was rewarded – the snow leopard made an appearance!  I could hardly believe my eyes. Then of course I found out that my 300mm lens was too long to fit the snow leopard and its long tail in one frame, so I had to try stitching. I thought I had it, but then at home when I attempted the stitch, it didn’t work at all – it turned out that the leopard had moved right at the moment I reframed for the second picture so nothing was matching in the pictures! But this cat is sure worth the effort, so I took those two pictures and at first I matched the backgrounds. Then I just simply extracted half the animal and re-fitted it in the background and quite amazingly, it actually works. It’s still not a good picture by any means, but it wouldn’t be a good picture even if the stitch had worked straight-out, that background is nothing to cheer at. But honestly, it’s a snow leopard. I’m happy!

This is very exciting. The crane pair that I wrote about a month ago have a hatchling! Every day I have seen one of the cranes lie down and incubate, but this morning I saw the crane stand up instead. So I was fairly sure that the baby had hatched, and even more sure in the evening on the way home when both of the parents were standing in the same place. I haven’t seen the two of them at the same time since the breeding season started in April.

So when I got home, I took the camera and drove back. Try as I might, I couldn’t see the baby but that’s where the photographs come handy – I was able to see some interesting detail in the full res picture. It’s a baby, for sure!

And please note that I stayed in the car, on the shoulder of the road, while taking pictures. As nice as it would be to get closer to the young one (or at least get an unobstructed view), I would never try to approach it and I sure hope nobody else will, considering how easy it is to spot the birds now that they are standing up and mobile. They actually lay down while I was looking and they disappeared in the grass so effectively that I wouldn’t have seen them if I didn’t know exactly where to look.

So congratulations and good luck to the proud new parents!