Every Picture Tells a Story.

Well,,, in my case every picture tells a story of gross incompetence, and this has been highlighted in the last couple of weeks by my abysmal shots of birds. I've been forgetting the lessons that i learned long ago, and my togging has shown it. Lessons like,,,, 'the sun should be at your back', especially in winter.  My first howler is this shot of a Meadow Pipit. Bad idea to take shots of birds to the east, in the morning, or at noon. This is the result,,,, dark on one side, and blown on the other. I know you can pull shots like this out in Photoshop, but it always has grain and moire consequences. In short,,, you gotta get it right 'in camera'.

My next mistake is one i fall for again, and again,,, and that is,,, 'subject too small in the frame'. In other words ,,, i'm not close enough to the subject. I don't care what lens you have,,,  getting close is all important. A lot of toggers i know seem to think that a long lens lets you off of getting closer,,, not the case. No lens can beat getting closer. I was too far away from this Redstart on Portland at the weekend.

Turnstones are seemingly easy subjects for the wildlife togger,they are so fearless and trusting birds, and look great in bright sunlight. This said,,, my shots of them in the dark weed around Portland harbour were flawed. The bright sun, and the dark weed conspired against me to make my shots look like 'flash' photography. Note the dark borders around the bird.

On the same day here were a lot of Rock Pipits on the beach, and i always struggle to get nice shots of these. However on this occasion i did manage fairly well. Note the differences between 'rocks' and 'meadows' .

Of course i was glad to have made fewer mistakes when recently encountering a Great Northern Diver in Portland Harbour, but that's not to say i was completely satisfied with my efforts.

Thanks for looking at my BLOG, and i hope you make your fair share of togging mistakes as well. Whatever,,,, its a great hobby,,,,, don't you think?