a couple of birds

I have a very small collection in Lightroom called ‘birds’. It was called ‘Birds flying’, but I have decided that is al little to specific for me. It is growing more steadily these days once I became cognizant of the photographs I was collecting. I am pretty sure I wrote recently about one offs, and that for a long time I thought the photograph was just a lucky shot. As they start growing in numbers I started to realise that it actually a project.

Bellow is this first one where I had the beginnings of a project.

Bellow is yet another very early bird photograph. Those astute readers will quickly notice my obsession with photographing trees and having the bird as an interesting feature, that seems to just fly in. Well, that is almost what happens. But honestly it isn’t quiet that simple. You see I soon notice these beautiful birds and I am actually often panning with them, and clicking the shutter when the trees come into frame just right.

I am taking more misses than hits… well actually so many more misses to hits. Interestingly when I put my camera onto continuous shot mode, my hit rate deteriorates even more.

Sometimes they just won’t take off and fly for the camera. Smiles.

These two are white bellied sea eagles. The second largest raptor in Australia. We found them in the Tarkine, in North Western Tasmania, whilst out on boat photographing. I think we came across the same two a little bit latter on the following day on a different river. I can’t imagine there being too many of them about. They are listed as vulnerable in Tasmania currently, which probably means a couple short of endangered.

These two are also white bellied sea eagles.

As you can see, my project has an incredible amount of work to do on it yet. But hey, you have to start somewhere. Do you have any projects that are only just starting? How do you know you have the beginnings of one?

Well, I would say, that you will know like I did. You start with one lovely photograph, and think to yourself, wouldn’t it be great if it had a friend. You ad another and then another. You look back through your work and discover you have a few more in there that fit into the project. You start a collection. After a while you start a collection set with the same name, and start sorting them out. (note for you lightroom users, you can’t have a collection and collection set with the same name, so you have rename one)

And there you have it, you have started something. How do you know if it has legs? You keep returning to it. It keeps growing… It really is very simple.

Photograph what you love. For me it is trees, with beautiful birds.

Photographs and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2021