So here's the thing about being a mediocre photographer: You can still make something good out of a so-so photo. It just takes a lot more time.
Now, for many people, that means spending some time on Photoshop, getting rid of stray elements, sharpening up the focus, punching up the color a bit. I keep meaning to spend more time getting to know Photoshop, but so far my skillz are more sad than mad.
Fortunately, I've been drawing since I was a kid. My dad gave us rolls of paper instead of coloring books, something I've been eternally grateful for. I'm going to be spending today working on a drawing and decided to share a few earlier ones with you.
A t-shirt I did a few years back. It's faded and the shirt has a few living-with-parrots holes, but I couldn't possibly part with my lineatus.
All of these are drawings I did for the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, either for publications or t-shirts. I did shirts for 7 or 8 years, then took a few years off before doing another this year. This was the first of the bunch, a juvenile Cooper's Hawk in flight:
The t-shirts always feature birds in flight, and are based on photos by other GGRO volunteers (past and present). Our organization has been blessed with a number of talented photographers over the years, and they have been generous in sharing their photos and adding to our collections.
The osprey was featured on a shirt and now keeps me company at my drawing table. [side note to martyc35: sorry, these shirts were done about ten years ago, so none left.] Other shirts included juvenile redtail and White-tailed Kite.
This year's shirt was based on a photo by Walter Kitundu of one of my favorite raptors, the ever-feisty Merlin. We batted around the idea of adding a dragonfly for the merlin to chase, but it got too complicated. I may go ahead and paint one in on my shirt.
Since 1995, I've also done drawings for our Season Summary, a publication produced in time to hand out at the post-season volunteer banquet, then distributed elsewhere throughout the year. In contrast to the t-shirts, the summary cover is always a portrait. The first one I drew featured a Northern Harrier; I'd just banded my first one that year and took a lot of pictures (and this was back in the days of film).
Some of the covers featured our most common birds - redtails, coops and sharpies - and some featured high-profile exotica. Most were based on my own photos (this is where mediocre photography becomes art) but for some of the truly cool birds, I had to get images from the people who were lucky enough to share their blind with a goshawk or a roughleg or a golden eagle or a first-ever-California Eurasian Kestrel. (I am still kicking myself for not having my cell phone that day - I could have been there from my office in twenty minutes if I'd just got the call!)
Last year's cover featured a juvenile sharpie. It was an odd year, disrupted by road construction, with low numbers overall and no real highlights. It seemed like a good time to feature one of our "bread and butter" birds. I love sharpies because they don't understand that they're small - they're every bit as fierce a predator as their larger cousins, but not quite as high-strung.
Long before I knew this place existed, much less that they'd be my namesake here, I made a cover girl out of a particularly dramatic lineatus. As mascots go, you gotta admit she's impressive.