Like most people, I’m prone to dismiss common birds with, “That’s just a …” without ever really looking at it. If I were just a “birder,” I don’t think I would have taken pictures of the birds that appear in this blog entry. They are all so common that they hardly get noticed; I suspect that if I hadn’t been looking through my camera I wouldn’t have even noted them.
Luckily, I was carrying my camera because these are probably my favorite shots of the day. There were a lot of American Coots in the Sacramento NWR when we were there, but this one was extremely close and was too busy feeding to scoot away.
American Widgeons might be the commonest duck in the Pacific Northwest during winter, but I love this shot of a male rising up and displaying his wings.
Northern Pintails aren’t as common as Widgeons, but they’ve always struck me as one of the more elegant ducks.
Red-winged Hawks are everywhere, but this one seemed particularly beautiful in the early morning sunshine.
There’s beauty all around us. Sometimes, we just have to pause long enough to see it.
I usually open your posts on my phone, and make a mental note to check back and make a comment, then…what happens?
As for light — (re: your previous post), it makes such a difference, doesn’t it? To my mind, your photographs are art. I compare it to a narrative poet such as me writing out the story of something, then going back over the lines, heightening the sound work, cutting what distracts, focusing more sharply on what I want to get across. I don’t see it as falsifying (I’m not adding a rose-filter, I hope), but attempting to help people see more clearly what I see.
All that to say, I love the choices you make.
Thanks.I actually get more comments on Facebook than I do on my website, but it’s always nice to know that others appreciate what I’m trying to do.