Someday in the future, photographers with better technology than what we have now will look at our images with pity. I’m waiting for the technology that will freeze a bird in place and remove any obstructing vegetation, as well as providing perfect focus.
5 Likes
I’d be happy if I could with a press of a button turn off the wind for a moment while photographing flowers. Use a tripod, they say - well, that doesn’t help in windy conditions at all.
6 Likes
I’m not sure that would be as much fun – or rewarding. Removing foliage could also possibly remove identity cues.
And have you heard of the ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) craze in ‘fine art’ photography? There’s a lot of that going around. Intentional, ‘impressionistic’ blurring of photographs by setting a slow shutter speed and introducing camera motion for effect.
There’s a few big advocates of this in my camera club and I just find, as a naturalist anxious to NOT blur things, the whole thing a bit too much for my artistically-challenged soul.
And some ICMers go out of their way to buy very expensive, high quality but MISMATCHED lenses to give them the effect that they’re after. I struggle to understand this. Heck, buy a cheap lens and a little tube of petroleum jelly and you should be all set, right?
As for future tech – don’t be too sure. I’ve seen prints made from 100+ year old plates that absolutely blow away digital stuff for captured detail.
3 Likes
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/162444780
This one, I had spent the better part of an hour watching it intermittently zoom back and forth but I needed to leave and wanted to get at least a picture
3 Likes
I try to upload just a photo of fur or a foot as the first photo with a disclaimer about graphic content. If i dont have multiple photos I try to use the marker feature and scribble over the graphic parts in a color thats not too distracting.
1 Like
Does your camera have a sports mode (for action shots)?
HMMMMM. yellow belly/tail & spotted brown back
Female baltimore oriole, perhaps? https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Baltimore_Oriole/photo-gallery/306381531
1 Like
It has all sorts of fancy modes and I know how to freeze action using flash. But none of that helps with getting a proper focus lock and controlling composition and angle when trying to photograph details on a plant flopping around in the wind. Pretty much the only thing that helps is holding it so it can’t move which limits the sort of pictures one can take. I usually end up taking a ton of pictures and deleting most of them.
2 Likes
“dog’s nose art” lol I feel you. Can’t get any pics from any windows in my house
1 Like
That’s pretty bad! :-)
1 Like
Any of my Cetacean photos. I live on an island in the Pacific and I still can’t get a good photo of a whale.
6 Likes
Lol, now that’s pretty funny
Infuriatingly, this is the only observation on iNat of this taxa.
16 Likes
I love emesinids!
And yeah, I think the contrast and pattern of fabric is just too enticing for autofocus.
2 Likes
That is truly jaw dropping! Great detail in the seaweeds!
2 Likes
Here’s a new horrible bird picture in the form of a bird ID quiz:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165990573
Early June in Austin, Texas, and the blur doesn’t seem to match any of the resident species of the area.
8 Likes
