Birds As Savages

My birding skills are mediocre at best, but I do have somewhat of an addiction to bird photography. I'm not really interested in shooting traditional bird portraits though. While I do shoot some for stock photography, many people can do those much better than I can with much better equipment that I can afford. What I am interested in is photographing the chaos and action in a bird's life. My approach is similar to that of a photojournalist. The birds are territorial and hostile toward each other and I wanted to photograph that. The L.A. County Arboretum is a great local place for photographing active waterfowl. I sat there for hours yesterday watching Wood Ducks and mallards fighting over food with squirrels. A bird I had never seen before, a Black-crowned Night Heron and an immature breed were hunting for fish infront of my face, inbetween perching in a cypress tree and from the shoreline. I was fascinated.

Photo: Black-crowned Night Heron Immature (Nycticorax nycticorax) in Cypress Tree Stalking Fish in Lagoon at Los Angeles County Arboretum, Arcadia, California

I have always been a fan of the National Geographic style of wildlife photography and that is what I tried to incorporate into my photos with just enough mixed ambient light flash to stop action with a slight motion blur. What do you think of BirdsAsSavages.com for my new website? :-) Wood ducks aren't so cute when they are angry...

Picture: Aggressive Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) Chasing Another Duck, Los Angeles County Arboretum, Arcadia, California

See my New Photos gallery soon for more birding photos.