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Lest You Think...



I should take this moment to dispel the notion that I am anything like a good photographer. What I am is a tenacious photographer. I take a lot of horrible photos, and then I throw them all away. I did this back when I was shooting film. I would open the envelope of photos, while standing over the trashcan, and almost everything would get chucked.




Photographing diving and dabbling ducks is particularly challenging, and I take a lot of amusingly dreadful photos.




I have to say that I'm totally delighted by the story (from yesterday's comments) of the person who was so frustrated by bird photography, that they resorted to taking photos out of their field guides. Yeah!!!!! That's creativity!



(Okay, I have to admit that I have a weird fondness for the first picture on this page. It is, by anyone's standards, a rotten image, but if fills me with innocent glee. Hurray for Duck Butts!)
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Lisa said…
Those are Northern Shovelers, one of my favorite ducks....I wish you could see their amazing faces!
9:33 AM
Ryan said…
Once, after a trip to the Sierra Nevadas, I took a photo from a magazine, of a bobcat looking out of its hole sneering, and slipped it in with the rest of the photos I took from that trip. The reactions people had when they got to that photo--priceless! =)
10:00 AM
Gina said…
Ah, duck butts.. . . hazah for duck butts! They always make me remember one of my favorite parts of "The Wind in the Willows". (You do remember THAT grand undertaking, guys, right?!?!? grin)

Anyway, this is the little poem that Ratty writes about the ducks after they get mad at him for tickling their chins when they bob under water:

`DUCKS' DITTY.'
All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!

Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!

Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim--
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.

Everyone for what he likes!
WE like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!

High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call--
WE are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!
10:05 AM
jackbear said…
Well, sometimes the bad ones are more interesting aren't they? Bad/good, I don't care, just love seeing them. Maybe you could post up the make and model of camera and lenses you are using sometime so those of us that wish they could take such pictures could learn a thing or two...thanks!
10:06 AM
Anonymous said…
oh Lisa, don't throw them out!

surely there is a "newspaper" somewhere looking for great pictures of a lake monster! ;-)
10:24 AM
Unknown said…
Love them, Lisa! Makes me feel better about the 47 pictures (only a slight exaggeration) I took of the cormorant that wasn't. Thanks!
12:33 PM
Anonymous said…
I have the same problem with any kind of nature audio recording.

These days a few hours of recording will net only a few minutes at a time that are airplane, traffic, human produced noise free...if I'm lucky and parked my microphones at least 5 miles away from the nearest busy road.

It's almost impossible in the US today.

Check out our new Maryland Nature Recordists website:

http://www.dannymeltzer.com/mdnr.html

--greg
6:16 PM
Anonymous said…
Ah, but Lisa my dear: tenacity is what most people lack and what all great photographers have.

OBJuan
9:14 PM
Anonymous said…
Your bad photos are ultrasupermegafantastic compared to any of my best ones.
5:31 PM
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