Do you take pictures of birds? Do you surprise yourself sometimes when you upload your photos and discover just how crappy some of your photos turned out? Me too, so let’s have some fun with our misfortunes. Today’s Dawn Chorus is all about shitty bird photos.
Before I go further, let me note that there is a wonderful Facebook account called Shitty Bird Photos. If you’re active on Facebook, you might want to check it out. People post their awful bird photos and describe the shot in a humorous way and people comment with generous helpings of satire. Our own lineatus who started Dawn Chorus here years ago is a proud member of the Shitty Bird photos group as am I.
I want to invite you to join in here today by posting your own crappy photos so we can all share in the broad range of shitty photos we’ve collectively taken. If you haven’t kept any of your crappy photos, feel free to post whatever you’d like as Dawn Chorus is always open to all things birdy being posted here. But I’m going to add some crappy photos to get things started.
In my long career of taking shitty photos, I find they fall into a few categories. The most obvious one is the category of Blurry.
This Mourning Dove was obviously ready for her close-up. She’s poised, posed, calm and looking directly at the camera. Not only did I completely blow it with the blurry shot, I managed to almost cut off her tail.
Here we have another category of shitty shot. This Misplaced Focus category features the capture of clear detail you don’t want at the expense of the target of your photo, in this case an egret. But such fine work on the fencing!
Here’s another example of this category. I was taking a picture of this asphalt road and a pair of Burrowing Owls got in the way, ruining my otherwise perfect shot.
It’s pretty annoying when you capture what should have been a great shot if only you hadn’t blown it by not focusing properly. A Great Blue Heron flying off with a fish it just caught would have been a keeper. No such luck here.
Now here we have a dazzler, another Great Egret. Apparently, I decided that swinging the camera in a circular motion was the way to get an interesting shot. You see the result. Not.
Here’s another entry in the Misplaced Focus category. As with the Burrowing Owls, I was taking this excellent shot of the middle of the pond when this Great Blue Heron got in the way.
Another example: Here I achieved perfect clarity and focus on the sapling in this image. Then two White-faced Ibis flew overhead and dangled their feet and wings into my photo frame. Damn birds.
Here’s an example of a new category I call Parts. In this case, the part is an egret wing. Like the pair of headless Canada Geese in the title photo, sometimes you achieve the focus you want, but you only get part of the bird.
Another Parts shot, this one a tail.
Another tail. This one belonged to a Yellow-billed Magpie.
A belly.
Legs and feet.
The final category I’ll share is what I call Too Far Away to Even Know What It Is. This is probably a hawk of some sort. Could be a Northern Harrier. Who the hell knows.
I’m guessing Great Blue Heron.
Quite a flock of somethings.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Finally, a shot I call, “Why did I even bother?”
Ok, the floor is open. It’s your turn to share your crappy shots if you’ve got any to share. Oh, wait. I almost forgot. I have one more category. It’s called What Are The Odds and I only have one photo in this category shown here:
So there I was, standing directly across from a juvenile Double-crested Cormorant perched on a branch. I focused my shot and at the exact instant I pressed the shutter release, this crow flew directly across my line of sight resulting in this shot. What are the odds?!
Floor’s open. Your turn.