R and I both felt that we’d spent too much of yesterday sitting down, and I felt that I’d also spent too much of it standing still in one place while singing, so we wanted to get out for a walk today and really stretch our legs. Last night’s rain had gone over, but there was more in the forecast for later in the day, so we got ourselves together as quickly as we could after breakfast and went off to Stratford.
As usual on a Sunday, the riverside paths were thick with people, but there weren’t many birds around, and I struggled to find something I wanted to photograph. I’d barely finished explaining to R that even though objectively I think they’re very striking birds, subjectively the Canada Geese swimming alongside us didn’t really do it for me, when five more of them appeared, flying low along the river towards us. Immediately, in a kind of photographic Pavlovian response, up came the camera, in went the focusing thumb, and down went the shutter finger.
Less than a second later the geese had swept past us, and I was as surprised as I was pleased to discover that three of the twelve frames from the short burst I’d shot were in focus. This is the nearest point of the flypast and the sharpest image, and though it could be criticised for the fact that the tip of the left wing almost touches the edge of the frame – there is actually a millimetre gap, and I have the raw file to prove it – I’m going to describe that as deliberate creative tension, rather than admitting to having lifted the camera a mite too high while tracking the bird.
I miss owls. I want owls! But in the current sad absence of owls, I’ll keep taking every chance I can to practice my flight photography skills.
R: L2, C2, D10.
