After taking hundreds of pictures of birds (and other moving things) last weekend, there were obviously quite a few shots I threw away. I mean, out of about 500 pictures, I kept 14. Either I suck at this, or the birds are really difficult, or then it’s the combination… the good news is that with digital, it doesn’t matter how many hundred you shoot if you just get one that you’re really happy with. Out of those 14 I kept, there are 3 I’m really happy with. And another 3 of them should go to the recycle bin because of motion blur and other defects, but I felt that the pictures weren’t completely without merit so I’m keeping them. For the joke factor, if nothing else!
A pre-cheating era Terje Hellesö would’ve received loads of appraise for these. If you take blurry pictures with cropped-off body parts and claim you did it on purpose and call it art, you’ll be everyone’s hero. If you’re a no-name like me and confess that these are pure accidents, then you’re everyone’s zero. I mean c’mon, the least you can do is to get the whole animal in the frame and god forbid if you miss focus on the eye!
It’s a fine line between art and the recycle bin…
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The crested tit picture came very close to the recycle bin. The lack of sharpness in the eye is a real bother but I think it’s also fixable – I could pick up the face from another picture and paste it here and .. well, then the missing wingtip would be a real bother.
The great tit has an even more blurry eye, but I think a lot of blur is better than a little bit. Both wingtips are missing, but the bird’s body and the wings make two opposing diagonals that I thought was nice and saved the picture from the Bin.
And finally the squirrel. No eye in sight, although I swear it was there when I pressed the shutter! But honestly, how could I possible delete this one? I think it’s hilarious and it’s gotta be a 100 times more unique than any other squirrel picture I’ve ever taken!