Several times when making plans with friends or fellow photographers, I’ve had people dismiss a location or plan because the main attraction was birding and “birding/photographing birds was boring”. I guess I can understand from a certain….well, no…not really. Fact is, I find birds endlessly fascinating. Photographing birds, I get a sense of the ‘character’ of certain birds. Perhaps its my imagination and the way it anthropomorphizes birds that makes them so interesting to me. But, I can’t photograph an eagle without thinking how grumpy he looks and how he’s likely annoyed at my presence if he notices me at all; or a pair of mallards without thinking how sweet they look together and imagining how long they’ve been married.
Or, gulls….Gulls, man.
So, here’s the three gulls. The momma, the juvenile and the seemingly aghast dude watching the rude antics of the begging offspring.
The onlooker looks away, muttering to himself over the behavior of children…
…while Mom cast a glance my way that clearly says “I can’t believe this is my life”.
EVERYONE looks away as the kid tries to get mom to cough up some fish.
And when she does, right out there in the public for all to see, the kids is thrilled and that one guy is just aghast.
Shocked and aghast.
Shocked, I tell.
SHOCKED.
Seriously, how can you not like photographing birds? Maybe I’m doing it wrong…