katoplato

Lone Vulture

NIKON D90

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 3200 Shutter 1/4000

upload_date

Sep, 2013

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Behind The Lens

Location

I went to Blair Drummond Safari park near Stirling for the afternoon. It's not the type of place i'm a fan of, non native animals, like the vulture, lions, giraffes et al all being kept in fields. In Scotland. I find it heartbreaking to be honest. My friends daughter wanted to go and i hadn't been since i was a kid, i was also curious as to how it might've changed so off we went.

Time

It was mid afternoon, a typically Scottish overcast day in May. We visited the bird sanctuary, no surprise that the vulture was in a cage, a pretty big cage as they go, still a cage though. My heart sinks even as i'm writing this, these wonderful creatures deserve to be in their natural habitat.

Lighting

Due to the bird being in the cage, there was minimal natural light available. My intention was to isolate the vulture from everything around it, i just wanted the bird alone. I enjoy minimalist photography, so the dark, negative space helps to add isolate the lonely bird.

Equipment

I'm terribly self taught, my knowledge gained over the years has been heavily intuitive, i've been fumbling about in the vast world of photography darkness for a long time picking up a plethora of habits that would disgust many photographers, i'm a bit like a photographic Gollum. As wrong as i get it at times, my love for taking and enjoying photo's far outweighs the issues i encounter on the technical front, making it more fun than it should at times. I freely admit Photoshop has been my life-raft on so many occasions. Some of my most creative photo's have been complete errors, absolutely calamitously awful judgements that somehow i got away with. For many years i've had to declare myself a guy with a camera, not a photographer. One day i'll not be a guy with a camera but a photographer. Hopefully! I used my Nikon D90 with a 70 - 300mm telephoto lens at 70mm, handheld, no flash. There was a fence keeping the bird in so i got as close to that as i could to blur out the fence. My settings - (I did everything inside out...) ISO 3200 (disgusting i know). Shutter speed 1/4000. Aperture f5.6. What a dumpling i was.

Inspiration

I have a fondness for the less beautiful creatures of the world, the first time i encountered one of these birds was in Venezuela many, many moons ago and it changed my perspective of them. I saw a real beauty, dare i say it, an elegance. Vultures get a bad rep historically and i was hoping to highlight a bit of the beauty i initially saw back then. I think i captured the loneliness rather than the beauty but hopefully some people can appreciate what i saw.

Editing

Eh......maaaaaaybe. Ok, yes, my pal Photoshop assisted me as technically, I got it all backwards. I always shoot in RAW (Oh praise the lord for RAW!) so i can be re-assured i may operate if and when required. My ultimate aim is, of course, to know exactly what is required in-camera at source, as opposed to spending too much time on the CS5 operating theatre. When it came to post processing, i up'd the clarity, added some fill light and due to the high ISO, added luminosity to de-grain/soften. I've managed to find a combination that can add a subtle and almost dreamy, ethereal texture to the lines using these functions. I love the smoothness i can get from these options which is evident in the vultures wee white scarf round it's neck.

In my camera bag

My friends often comment on the weight of my shoulder bag, it weighs a ton! Inside on a normal day i always carry my D90, my 50mm and i swap between my 70-300mm, 10-24mm, 200mm macro and 18-70mm kit lens. I also chuck in cloths, my laptop, spare battery, Sometime's i carry the lot. There are days i can't close the flappy bit on my bag. I'm trying to be more disciplined and just take 2 lenses but i love options and find it most difficult when restricting my choice.

Feedback

Yeah, don't follow my advice! ;) Seriously though, if i can take a photo that works, we all can. I feel very humbled and thankful you guys like this photo to be honest, i fight with my own judgement constantly as to what makes a great photo. There are days i'll convince myself a photo i've taken is absolute rubbish then another day i'll see the same photo in a new appreciative light. The subjectivity kills me sometimes. I love photography, my hearts truly in it, even if technically i'm miles away from where i'd like to be at times. Composition is an art and is fast becoming the most important factor to me, one that requires nurturing and constant practise. I don't always know what i'm doing, but the more i put myself into a situation where i don't know what i'm doing, the more i learn. Not advice for shooting caged animals necessarily but general advice for progressing in anything :) sorry if i waffled too much!

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Lone Vulture

Behind The Lens

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