10/29/2024
A few months have slipped by without a challenge update. It is getting toward the end of the year, and this challenge will be closing soon. The offer is open to participate again, next year. I have not decided if I will do it or not. It has been fun, and it has motivated me to get out and do some shooting. I cannot honestly think of a reason I would not participate; other than I can lack a bit of motivation, at times. Anyway, on to what I have done. Three months of updates:
August -
August's challenge was to find a perched bird. Before moving houses, this would have screamed "setup". The old house was perfectly situated with a north-facing backyard. This made it easy to shoot birds; using the house as a blind. The new house's backyard faces south. The birds are always backlit. This meant finding an interesting perch somewhere in the wild and actually having a bird perch on it. Which makes for a bit of an interesting story. While in Nome this spring, we were looking for some place to shoot some common birds; things like sparrows, redpolls, etc. My guide/friend, Jamie, had a spot she liked to shoot, and we setup there. There is an old, gnarly, broken-off tree there, and birds were perching on it from time-to-time as they were flying in and out of some nearby bushes. While shooting, Jamie mentioned that she once had a Wilson's Snipe land on the tree. I remarked that that would be pretty cool. Not two minutes later, this snipe plops down out of the sky and lands on the tree. I could not have been more stunned. I suddenly had my perch shot.
Originally, I had this shot a bit more centered on the bird. This created a huge visually-unbalanced image. I did not like it, but I could not think of what else to do. The feedback on the image was to center the post. This did fix a lot of the balance issues with the photo.
September -
September's challenge was to get a shot of a "framed" bird. I had this circled on the list as one of the harder challenges. The definition of framed is a bit loose. In short, it can be any number of things that basically envelope the subject and help separate it from the background. This could be out-of-focus or in-focus elements (like branches or foliage) surrounding the subject. It could also be a contrasting color field behind the subject that helps to separate it from the background. The variety of interpretations was amazing. Some worked a lot better than others. I went for a more traditional interpretation and used an image that boxed the subject within the photo. I also went with a second black-and-white image of the challenge.
I always feel that black-and-white lose a bit of contrast when they are uploaded to social media sites. This looks a little flat compared to how I like my black-and-whites to come out. So, why not color? Or, as the reviewers termed it, "who shoots a Blue Grosbeak and then removes all the color from the image?". Well, me, but for reasons. A Blue Grosbeak is a beautiful bird. It also provides a lot of contrast in its feathers. Not so much in their coloration, but in the way the light reflects from them. The bird will provide a lot of texture, which will draw the eye. The rest of image is fairly green/yellow. While the framing is there, it was not standing out as much as I would like. Converting to black-and-white provided the extra contrast to pull out the "frame" from the rest of the background. My final reason for converting the image was that I had submitted a black-and-white earlier in the year, and I needed a second one to balance out the portfolio. One would have looked odd. The image was well received. The only feedback concerned a leaf on the right edge that was cropped in half. The feedback was to not leave it hanging and remove it. Easy enough.
October -
I had a lot of ideas for October. None really panned out. Actually, I just did not make the effort that I should have to get the shot I wanted. The challenge is around capturing birds at/in water. The shot everyone discussed was a shorebird shot at lakefront with waves splashing in. I... did not go to lakefront. On the other hand, I have been plenty of places with water. I was just in South Africa earlier this month, and part of that trip involved fulfilling a long-time dream of doing a pelagic. Large fishing trawlers operate off the coast, and this attracts hundreds of birds. The trawling seems to generate a lot of "pieces" that float to the surface, and the birds stream out behind the ship for what looks like forever. This White-chinned Petrel was just grabbing a morsel when a wave came splashing in. We will see how it reviews.
There are two more challenges after this month. The next is "flock", and the final is "flight". Flock is not easy, and flight has its own challenges. I think I will end up using shots from South Africa for both. This segues a bit into something that has been on my mind. My unstated goal at the beginning of this challenge was to get out and use local shots for everything. I did not want to lean on travels for photos. I had a list of shots I wanted to capture for the various months. I started strong, but I did not get out to even try for some of them and have fallen well short of my goal. Why? Reasons... various reasons. I am thankful that the challenge has spurred me to get out a bit more than I did last year. It has not been the great motivator that I had hoped it would be, though. It has also provided a bit of pressure at times, which I feel is a bit contrary to the overall purpose. I do not feel that I have to be the best or offer the best photo every month. I would just like to offer something that people find pleasing. Hopefully, I have not missed that mark.
I believe there is an end-of-year portfolio review where we can change things up. I have not put a lot of thought into what my final set of images will look like. Some will definitely get swapped out. Some will stay. Some could be used for a different category than their original submission. Time will tell. Stay tuned for more updates.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
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