Pine Siskin, early light

Yes, there’s an element of artificiality to photographing a bird at a feeder. Not as much work on the photographer’s part, however—at 74, I’m not going to be picky about how and where I find birds to photograph.

This was shot a year ago, and is part of my continuing effort to fill in the missing year (I stopped posting photos here about a year ago). My heath was not great, my stamina was minimal, but I did get out and take some shots when I could. So in their way, these more quotidian photos are more precious to me.

I like this one because it feels intimate. I readily read emotions into bird behavior; this Siskin looks a little shy, perhaps simply tired after a short summer’s night. Siskin’s are aggressive little bastards, but this one earns my respect.

Shot with my professional equipment, which I recently sold in favor of more classic photographic hardware. That was the Fujifilm GFX 100S II, a beast of a camera with incredible resolution, fantastic color, big brightness range, etc. etc. Honestly? It did a lot of the work, reducing bird photography to something more like ‘point and shoot’. Even so, the moment has a real feel to it that modern technology can only reveal. :)

Which is sort of to say that mood, if not everything in a photo, is more important for an emotional photograph than perfect focus, although this has both.