I didn‘t get out as much as I wanted to last week. I messed up my back cleaning my wife’s car and I had trouble functioning for 4 or 5 days!!! So I actually did something intelligent and took it easy for a few days. (yeah I know right?)
So far this year has been a bit of a letdown, at least as far as waterfowl goes. I have not seen very many Woodies or Hooded Mergansers this spring. I don’t know if last year was an exceptional year or this year is a lean year. Thank God the usual suspects are back. Plenty of Orioles, Grosbeaks, and Goldfinches too! And my buddy the Otter popped in for a quick appearance the other day! He always seems to show up when the light is at it’s worst!!! So what do you do when things are a bit slow? Practice! Go out in your backyard and practice your birds in flight, or construct a setup so that the birds come in where YOU want them to. None of the following pics are all that impressive, especially the Otter! But to be good at this game you have to do the best you can with what you’ve got! And find some beauty in the ordinary…… Now get out and shoot!!!

Practicing DOF…. Your eye has a tendency to look right past the branch in front because it is out of focus..

All in all, nothing to write home about. But if every image was perfect it wouldn’t be much fun now, would it???

Subscribe to Creek Talk - Long Creek Photography