The Ones I Like List of 2006 – A Countdown [#9]
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The Giants Stood Helpless… — This photo was taken last winter just before the sun rose on another beautiful Houston day. I had had trouble sleeping that night, so I did what I so often do; I went out on a “before 8 a.m.” photo excursion. I’m always taken with the grackles that invade Houston’s city limits during the wintertime, and on this morning they were out en masse! I had never seen so many birds in one place at one time before that day, and that’s coming from a huge fan of bird photography. I pulled into an empty parking lot adjacent to a motel that had seen better days, got out of my car, and started shooting. I didn’t have a tripod, so I was relying on the available light (what there was of it!), my camera and my cheap lenses to work some minor photographic miracles. That they did. The combination of the high ISO grain, the “swarms” of birds, and the ever-present watertower created an image that I was very happy with — one with just enough edge and just enough “cinematic” appeal to make it special.
Two other “edgy” bird images that just missed my top ten list (one might say…by a feather!) can be seen here and here.
