Cover photograph: “Single Black Bird at Dusk” January 2021
As I peruse my photographs made in 2021, I am currently at 82 folders (for creative photography only).
Each folder represents an outing with resultant works. Some are full, others not so much.
This year was a year to dive into bird portraiture, which is rewarding, sometimes very boring, and never easy.
“The Truth of the Matter” is that birds in the wild don’t like humans. Couple that with restrictive access and finding opportunity can be challenging. (Not to mention attaining focus on a moving target)
The Truth of the Matter – Birds are wary of us. Clean portraits are nice, but birds prefer to hide in bushes and trees behind cover.
There is always more to learn with this craft. It forces the artist to push past the “mistakes”. A camera is a powerful tool. It can turn down the light of the sun, blur realities and simply make the user “get up and go make something lovely.”
That is power.
1st Quarter Work Files:
Photographic Impressionistic Illusionistic 
Some of my own favorite images of birds are where much of their surrounding environment is present. It seems to be frowned upon by those wanting to elevate the perfect backgrounds as being the standard of quality. Enjoyed the post!
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Thank you Mark. Photographic philosophies are fine within the context of agreed oppressive photography. The limitations set the bar that everyone can know and measure against. They work for many photographers and are helpful for developing technique. Making those rules the end-game for resulting work affords little artistic thought and should never be the “goal” imo.
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I can appreciate the technical skills in a “perfect” bird photo, but just like Mark Graf, I find the more inclusive images that provide context in the environment more appealing – those photos usually tell much more of a story, and I actually think that moving from the “perfect” photo to telling a story with an image is progress. Story beats technical imperfections any time. 🙂
PS: cool music, as always.
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Spot on observation Alex. Moving forward, I will need to reassess this type of photography and how it will add value to what I typically do. The expense of the longer lenses makes me want to justify the cost with finished pieces. At 10FPS I’m not sure I want to dedicate that much computer time. There must be something in-between.
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These are all amazing. I would say they are worth the effort. Beautiful! I love the mixture of grays in the final one too, very artistic.
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Beautiful slideshow!
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thank you
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