For the obvious reason, February is the bane of all bloggers with a quota. Rather than take the extra time for the prep on some projects I’ve been working on, figured we’d just close out this short month with the last set of Indianapolis Zoo birds. Don’t think you are out of the woods (err the zoo) yet. There’s one post left based on some elemental mammal experimentation, but for now… let’s go with the pinks.
There is no mistaking these birds and I’m pretty sure they are universally known. They can be seen at a majority of zoos, wildlife sanctuaries and even Vegas if you look hard enough. They have even been known to show up in the yards of unsuspecting new homeowners. In case you have your head in the sand, we’re talking about the Flamingo. These aren’t just your everyday Flamingos either. No sir, these are Flamingos that have been shot in harsh light. That would be a clever way of stating these shots are not going to be making it into competition anytime soon. I threw all the recovery I could at it, but the conditions were just not the greatest when we made our way to their little pond. The thing about shooting Flamingos is they are relatively skinny and can be very long. Good characteristics for a model, but this forces some creative composition decision. You can choose to go close and draw out detail in the head by cropping down as in the image above. Rather than just throw a decapitated head out there I kept some of the body to provide a foundation for the shot – see, I’m learning from all those composition questions I keep asking you about. I actually like how that shot turned out – yeah, I followed the rules of thirds which is pretty common for me. In truth it is more about giving the subject room to breath in the frame – tight crops put a virtual cage around animals which tends to grate on us wildlife photographers.
If you are feeling a little cruel, you can relax your composition a bit to provide a sense of height. Pulling back a bit you can incorporate some of the leg structure into the shot. Now you have more of a visualization on the tall stature of the bird, but at a cost. You lose some detail in the face and it starts to get lost in the vastness of the surroundings. The other downside… is it essentially whacks off the rest of the bird’s legs. The unwritten rule is you never crop a person’s legs above the knee – trust me, it just looks wrong. Although this is not as severe, it still bothers me a bit. I will say, having a small part of the knee helps some.
Hit the jump to read more about this pink birds … and you get a BONUS!
Life Intrigued 