There were what must have been thousands of small birds perched on the phone lines near Runnins River in Seekonk, Mass. They looked like ants and every few minutes a bunch of them would take flight and circle the sky in an eerie swarm. Usually we see this type of thing in the fall. There was very little light left in the sky and by the time I had set up my tripod (and replaced hte dead batteries in my camera---urgh!) they had moved off a bit. As they swarmed you could hear their droppings hitting the ground like rain (something that didn't occur to me when I decided to park my car and get a few shots). Miraculously neither my daughter or I were hit.
This isn't the best shot, I realize, but it does show a bit of the eerieness of the swarming birds. I set my aperature to the smallest setting on my camera (unfortunately this is 8.0) for as close to an infinity shot as possible. Of course this caused the blur which I think is kind of interesting, actually. I know this will probably get slammed in the voting because of the technical stuff and the weird composition but I figured I'd share it anyway. It's actually a coincidence that I took this during the Wildlife challenge since I had no intention of entering that.
I actually kind of like the glow of the gas station in the corner as it sort of places the birds in more of a human setting.
I used a tripod as best I could considering the swarm of birds kept moving. I bracketed using an EV of -0.7. I adjusted levels, contrast, and color balance which is about all I can do with my Minolta software. No cropping was done.
Statistics
Place: 230 out of 261 Avg (all users): 4.5138 Avg (commenters): 4.5667 Avg (participants): 4.3178 Avg (non-participants): 4.6101 Views since voting: 841 Views during voting: 430 Votes: 325 Comments: 33 Favorites: 0
Thanks for sharing that...After reading the photographer's description of how he got the shot (two-fisted photography--jeesh!) I feel better about how my turned out. I wasn't planning on taking any photos. I actually pulled over in my car to get the shot. It was really difficult because the move so bloody fast and the camera I have is practically a toy compared to what a lot of folks use on this site these days.
My daughter and I had to dodge a rain of birdshit too. That was something I didn't consider when I got out of the car. Miraculously, we were unharmed.
IMHO this picture would be even more powerful without the colored thingy in the lower right corner (what is that thing?). Other than that I think you did a great job of capturing and the moment and showing the awesome action.
A rich and lovely abstraction, witht the burst of color in the bottom left providing a textural anchor to the cool blur of motion. This is one of my top three, just a lovely peice.
I like the action of the birds and the trees silhouetted against the evening sky, but I would have cropped the lower 1/4 of the image to remove the lighted, err, thingy in the corner.
Such a shame you have the illuminated area bottom right, particularly as this was an advanced editing challenge and you had a chance to remove it. The concept of your picture was great - the flocks of birds are quite spectactular.
I really like the idea, but the UDO (unidentified distracting object) in the corner really takes away from it. I'm not normally one to complain much about noise (I'd rather see a little noise than have something neat imaged to death), but the noise in the sky is quite noticeable even from a distance.
you will probably get this all through the challenge...that thing on the right...aaargh! This looks like the shot that came second in the UK wildlife photographer of the year...I would have cropped it out
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
