If you have observed any avian gallery for some time you will quickly see a pattern there - lots of images look beautiful at the first glance - scientifically very well executed - right exposure, head turn, nice perch, catch light, eye contact, eye level - *conforming* in general to *well accepted rules* of making image of birds. During initial few years of my avian photography I practiced this a lot. After some time I realized I need to find my own way of conveying how I see my subjects. This led me to experiementing with various compositional possibilities, use of light and shadows, use of habitat, use of "positive space" in the frame amoung other things. Not easy since it is not formula based, I may not be successful always and may end up in a typical BOS or its variation, but when I succeed it is a very satisfying. For me the image above is a typical bird-on-a-stick image without much originality while the below one is not (for my tastes). It is interesting to note though that differences between them are very subtle !!
You may want to click on above images to see them in their actual sizes. Blog's resizing algorithm appears bad and hence some critical details are lost which are essential to relate the point I am trying to make here.
PS : I am out of station durning 25 Nov - 30 Nov and may not see my blog.
- Ganesh H Shankar (Nature Lyrics)
6 comments:
Nice thought provoking post here Ganesh, just before you leave for a "winter vacation" ;-).
Have a safe trip. When you return, we expect some more mutations of BOS images.
Pramod, I am going out on a official trip - so no photography next week -:)
I meant "after you return" :D
Hi ganesh,
Assuming a full frame image of a plain flowerpecker ( size ~ 9cm ) shot with let us say a 600mm + 1.4xTC and a crested serpent eagle ( size ~ 50cm ) shot with let us say a 300mm lens in a BOS composition gives a impression that both are of similar size and height since when we view a image we immly do not look at the specs ( focal length, crop etc ). Sometimes for a layman ( not photography inclined )I have even felt it gives a misleading message. So I have always felt including habitat around the subject gives an idea of relative size of the subject :)
So in field it looks like if we get an opportunity nothing like creative composition but otherwise
subject + habitat + empty space seems better than just BOS.
Having said that ganesh, though i have these thoughts in mind in terms of execution i feel I have a long way to go. In field in excitement or anxiety I end up doing something which is totally orthogonal to what I had in mind :(
Agree with you mahesh, in field we forget what we really want to do. More often than not, I don't want obvious *opportunities*. No opportunity can often lead us towards creative thinking and probably some unique creations..
Agree, Ganesh! Composition is probably the first/simpler of creative efforts with one's photographic tools.
However, it depends on the intent - if it is for scientific documentation, then click-click-click works pretty fine, I guess!
-*-
Loved the little one looking across so beautifully in the second image!
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