Life is funny. We all get busy with the hustle, bustle, and tussle of keeping our heads above water, only to find out that we're actually standing on dry land. Nonetheless, we still strive incessantly towards "staying ahead".
I was recently in west Texas on assignment, with temperatures in the later day well above 100F, sometimes 105F. Despite being a "dry heat", that's darned hot ! And in that heat, inside, outside, and travelling between, I was running flat out to try and complete the work of the moment.
One of my colleagues mentioned that he knew where some birds were nesting but that he couldn't identify them, asking my help in telling him what type of birds these were. I agreed, and drove over to the location with the sun yet high in the late afternoon, no breeze, and absolutely no cover near to the nests.
Looking at the adults, I quickly saw that these were Western Kingbirds, highly territorial, and extremely unhappy at an interloper in the area. They immediately flew above my head with fast chattering calls of disapproval. I walked around several nests in various stages, some with birds crowding the nest, closely intertwined to stay perched within the boundaries of the nest, some with larger nestlings keening for food, and then...
I spotted one nest with small movements, few sounds, but the occasional flicker of colour, and realised that these were very recently hatched chicks. I took a number of photos with different angles, but one chick in particular was insistent in its actions, drawing me back to it as a subject again and again.
D100, 200-400mm AFS/VR, TC14EII (net 640mm), f/8, 1/160s, processed in NC and PS, uncropped
And in an instant, all of my trepidations about what work I had to do that evening, the next day, and the weeks to come fell away like last autumn's leaves dropping in a flurry. Some moments are indeed wondrous.
Always shoot.
John P.
I was recently in west Texas on assignment, with temperatures in the later day well above 100F, sometimes 105F. Despite being a "dry heat", that's darned hot ! And in that heat, inside, outside, and travelling between, I was running flat out to try and complete the work of the moment.
One of my colleagues mentioned that he knew where some birds were nesting but that he couldn't identify them, asking my help in telling him what type of birds these were. I agreed, and drove over to the location with the sun yet high in the late afternoon, no breeze, and absolutely no cover near to the nests.
Looking at the adults, I quickly saw that these were Western Kingbirds, highly territorial, and extremely unhappy at an interloper in the area. They immediately flew above my head with fast chattering calls of disapproval. I walked around several nests in various stages, some with birds crowding the nest, closely intertwined to stay perched within the boundaries of the nest, some with larger nestlings keening for food, and then...
I spotted one nest with small movements, few sounds, but the occasional flicker of colour, and realised that these were very recently hatched chicks. I took a number of photos with different angles, but one chick in particular was insistent in its actions, drawing me back to it as a subject again and again.
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D100, 200-400mm AFS/VR, TC14EII (net 640mm), f/8, 1/160s, processed in NC and PS, uncropped
And in an instant, all of my trepidations about what work I had to do that evening, the next day, and the weeks to come fell away like last autumn's leaves dropping in a flurry. Some moments are indeed wondrous.
Always shoot.
John P.