The Joy of Bird Photography
by Brian E. Small
While writing my bird photography column for WildBird magazine, I
tried to help the readers gain a better feeling for some of the
tools and techniques that have helped me improve my bird
photographs over the years. However, it wasnąt until I wrote this
piece that I touched on one very important aspect of what helps
me photograph birds successfully. In fact, I think it may the
number one reason why both you and I take pictures of birds. The
beauty of our subjects inspires us, we love being in the great
outdoors and we simply enjoy taking pictures of birds.
Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced
photographer, I think we all share a similar passion for bird
photography. From what many of you have told me, once you pick up
a camera and begin photographing birds, it gets in your blood and
is hard to put the camera down. That passion is the driving force
that will get you up at three in the morning to go sit with your
camera on a bitterly cold grouse lek or to wait for the dawn
chorus at the edge of a marsh at sunrise.
Over the years, I have had to contend with Grizzly Bears in the
high arctic, rattlesnakes in the desert southwest, mosquito
swarms in the Florida everglades and horrendous weather in south
Texas. But these obstacles only help me appreciate how wonderful
it is to be experiencing all that nature has to offer when I am
trying to photograph birds. Bird photography can be a real
challenge and I think that is one of the reasons why it is so
rewarding when you take a really great picture. I find a lot of
satisfaction when I visualize a photo in my minds' eye and then
am able to go out and take that exact photo.
You never know where that first spark of inspiration for birds
will come from. Roger Tory Peterson used to tell the famous story
of the time when he was a child, he unknowingly flushed a
yellow-shafted flicker out of a tree. The bird exploded out of
the tree in a blaze of golden feathers and that was it, he was
hooked on birds for life.
My inspiration for bird photography came from spending time
watching my father photographing colorful Neotropical migrants at
a desert water hole. I had been birding with him many times as a
child, but 10 years ago on one special spring morning, something
just clicked for me and I knew I wanted to photograph birds. Do
not be surprised if someday you have a specific photographic
experience that somehow touches you that one time but lasts you a
lifetime.
One of the best things you can experience through bird
photography comes from meeting other people who share your
passion. Whether you photograph at your local parks and refuges
or travel the world looking for birds to photograph, you are
bound to run into other people doing the same thing. Over the
last 10 years I have made some of my best friends while I have
been in the field photographing. I now have bird photographer
friends all over the United States who will help me find
outstanding photo opportunities when I am in their part of the
country. It is also a great feeling to have a network of friends
who can understand and share your photographic frustrations as
well as the wonderful experiences that come with photographing
birds.
During April of 1998, my good friend Alan Murphy and I were at
High Island, Texas hoping to photograph migrant songbirds. I had
met Alan the previous year and we became fast friends because we
shared the common bond of loving to photograph Neotropical
migrants. We spent our first couple of days mostly working on
shorebirds because we weren't having much luck with the
songbirds. Then one night as we were about to go to sleep, we
began to see lightning flashes and to hear distant thunder.
Within a matter of minutes the approaching storm was right on top
of us and the howling north wind and driving rain shook our motel
room as if a hurricane were coming. I was truly scared that we
might not get through the night in one piece.
When morning finally came the winds were still blowing hard out
of the north but most of the rain was gone. Alan and I looked at
each other and both thought the same thing--perfect conditions
for a "fallout" of migrants. The morning was actually slow for
birds, but at about one in the afternoon we began to see the
first waves of desperately tired birds coming in from the Gulf of
Mexico.
Within and hour, the High Island woods were loaded with colorful
warblers, thrushes, tanagers, grosbeaks, orioles, vireos,
flycatchers and cuckoos. The open fields adjacent to the woods
were covered with literally thousands of Indigo Buntings. It soon
became apparent that we were in for what Texas birders would
later call the best fallout of migrants in 15 years!
The fallout conditions lasted the next four days and we were able
to take many wonderful photos together. It became a much more
rewarding experience for me because I had a friend to share this
once-in-a-lifetime avian spectacle with. A friend made because of
bird photography.
I am fortunate because I make my living from lecturing about,
writing about and photographing birds. However, if I never sold
another photo or wrote another article, I would still take just
as many bird photographs because it brings so much joy to my
life. Photographing birds gives me a reason to travel all over
the country, a productive way to spend my time and best of all, a
great way to make new friends. I hope you will not only strive to
take beautiful pictures of birds, but to also find inspiration
through your photography and your time spent in the outdoors.
Brian E. Small
Phone: 310/440-9443
Mobile: 310/849-0306
E-mail: BSmallFoto@aol.com
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