Tag Archives: feathers

Crow Plumage is Gorgeous in the Right Light

When people think of photographing birds, the more exotic types are going to probably be of more interest to many. While I am obviously (if you follow this blog) partial to photographing an eagle or an owl, I also find the more common birds cool. A pigeon has some amazing flying capabilities, gulls can look elegant in flight and crows have fantastic feather coloration. One of them was sitting on a fence very close to me as I sat in the car. The light was glinting off the feathers making the subtle colors show up nicely. How could I not photograph it? You might dismiss the average crow, but they can look very cool.

Stalling On The Back Of A Duck

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Watching the bird flying around Juanita Bay can bring out the aero guy in me. I was watching some ducks flying across the water and coming in to land. While the wings were working hard, it was also possible to see the feathers fluttering on the back of the duck just below the neck. Clearly, the flow is separating in this location when they are maxing out the lift and the feather get disturbed by the separation. Does anyone else but me care? Probably not so maybe no one is even reading at this point!

More Luck With Hummers/Iridescence at the Right Angle

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My obsession/interest in photographing the hummingbirds in our back garden has continued. I mentioned my poor early attempts in this post but things have gradually been improving. I have decided to compromise on quality a bit by shooting from indoors. The birds are clearly not enthusiastic about me being there with the camera so I decided that shooting through the window was an alternative. Obviously double glazed windows are not optically ideal but they are surprisingly good it seems. This has allowed me to get a number of shots I am a lot happier with.

One thing that I have seen much more of when shooting from this location is the way in which the color of the feathers varies so dramatically depending on the angle to the light. The birds normally look very gray. The backs can start to be green when the light strikes at the right angle but the most dramatic changes are for the head and throat. Here a gray feather can suddenly transition to a pink of bright red. It only takes a very small change in angle for this to become apparent.