Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/05/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dr. Ted Grant wrote: >>> >George Lottermoser OFFERED: >Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Diego > > >>Doug Herr wrote & showed:: >> >>> Diego is a young adult Red-tailed Hawk at the UC Davis California Raptor >>> Center: >>> >>> http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/accipitridae/rthawk06.html >>> http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/accipitridae/rthawk07.html >>> >>> Diego is unable to fly apparently due to wing injuries so he would not >>> survive in the wild. Ordinarily a healthy Red-tailed Hawk in the wild >>> will live up to ten years but in captivity Diego's life expectancy is >>> about thirty years. > >And George said: > >> One of the many remarkable attributes >> which subtly differentiate your photographs from other wildlife >> photographers >> is the individuation of the subjects. >> >> I often marvel at photographs of various species from many different >> photographers >> and think, "that's a fantastic photograph of "an elk" or "an otter" or >> etc. >> >> Your discipline of waiting for (or editing for) "the look in the eye" >> more often than not seems to make me think, "that's a fantastic portrait >> of 'this individual'." > >Hi George & Doug, > >George, "You took the words right out of my voice box!" :-) Couldn't be >said >better! > >And Doug, "Once again a beautiful capture !" thank you. >cheers, >ted > Thank you George and Ted for your observations. The title for last month's gallery show, "Portraits of American Wildlife" was intentional :) Portraits of individuals is my goal, and as an aside, captive animals don't necessarily represent the species in the wild because captive conditions often make the animals look and behave differently: feathers, beaks and toenails wear differently and the yellow cere (nostril area) and gape indicate a captive bird's diet of day old chicks from poultry farms instead of the wild diet of mice and gophers. So a photo of a captive truly represents that particular animal and not the species in general whether that comes across in the photo or not. Regardless of the animal's living conditions I do a lot of editing for eye contact. I'm looking for something that suggests a connection between the animal and the viewer, something besides "Hmmm, you look tasty!" Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com