[mikullashbee]

Sometimes birds just get too close. I often feel as though they are encroaching on my comfort zone. I start to get rather fidgety, beads of sweat form on my brow,can't they see i'm in discomfort. Finally i get that teleconverter off. Still too close. Have they got no regard for my needs, i have 600mm here with a DX body. Please for the love of gods green earth give me some room. I will have to settle for a portrait this time.lol. Here are a few from situations like this where we place ourselves in an optimal position for that lovely 'full body with a bit of environment shot' and our feathered friends find yet another way to challenge us.

Blue Duck

Yellow-eyed Penguin

Kea

Pukeko

Salvin's Mollymawk

Wrybill
Thanks for looking
http://www.mikeashbeephotography.com

[courtjcam]

Wow! All incredible - the Mollymawk especially grabbed me...great character!

[Fancy]

New Zealand certainly has some very odd-looking birds - the Wrybill shot is awesome!

[birdergirl]

Sometimes birds just get too close. I often feel as though they are encroaching on my comfort zone. I start to get rather fidgety, beads of sweat form on my brow,can't they see i'm in discomfort. Finally i get that teleconverter off. Still too close. Have they got no regard for my needs, i have 600mm here with a DX body. Please for the love of gods green earth give me some room. I will have to settle for a portrait this time.lol.

Mike, I miss going birding with you here in BC but I can see why you love it so much there in New Zealand boy those shots are out of this world incredible. I especially love that Mollymawk and Blue-eyed Penguin!!!!


Please keep sharing these magical shots, my friend!

Cheers,
Mel

[markj]

Excellent photos I wish I had that problem more often. Lol


Mark

[Nigel]

Gorgeous shots Mike. Not in my experience do birds get too close!!! That's just good photography and birding skill!
Those shots are just fantastic!
I'm impressed with the blue duck, they are rare and threatened.
That Mollymawk shot is something to die for!
Nigel

[Jeremy Gatten]

You're such a photo princess sometimes, Mike! Oh boohoo... the awesome birds are being cooperative!

Nice work, even if you are being a weenie about it!

Jeremy Gatten
Saanichton, BC

[featherweight]

You're such a photo princess sometimes, Mike! Oh boohoo... the awesome birds are being cooperative!

Nice work, even if you are being a weenie about it!

Jeremy Gatten
Saanichton, BC

Ha! Love it! When birds get too close I like to call them "portraits!"
Your full frontal shot of the Mollymawk is quite arresting! They are all, as usual beautiful!

[mikullashbee]

Maybe a little melodramatic at times, but a full on 'photo princess'. OUCH!! Weenie even. Looks like i'll be crying my big fat head to sleep tonight.lol Thanks for looking and commenting everyone. Really is my pleasure to share.

[Isaac]

Gorgeous photos Mike! Incredibly sharpness and clarity! The Blue Duck and Mollyhawk especially stand out to me, they are all awesome!

[birdergirl]

Had to come back and check the thread out again the feather detail on that Kea is stunning.


Cheers,
Mel

[revs]

Maybe a little melodramatic at times, but a full on 'photo princess'. OUCH!! Weenie even. Looks like i'll be crying my big fat head to sleep tonight.lol Thanks for looking and commenting everyone. Really is my pleasure to share.

No, it's our pleasure, we get an abundance of central and south american bird pics posted from time to time and while those birds are always amazing i like to see shots from other parts of the world as well (like NZ or Australia for instance), a lot of these birds i see for the first time, and that gives me ideas for future birding trips.

Portrait shots for me are usually the ones where the bird gets too close as well

[nealdoan]

That is one great series of closeups. Amazing shots. Thanks for sharing these with us. Cheers.

[Jeremy Gatten]

I will say that I have recently found a couple situations where I actually wanted to take portrait shots. First, at Esquimalt Lagoon I wanted to take close-up shots of the juvenile Tundra Swan's bill to study the shape compared to Trumpeter Swan. Next, I have been studying gulls and their orbital skin colour. There are some pretty interesting comparisons to be made between Thayer's and Herring, so it helps to not only look at the bill and head shape, but also back it up with the colour of the orbital skin - pinkish-purple on Thayer's and orange-yellow on Herring. And then you might have to go back to the drawing board when you get a petite Herring x Glaucous-winged.

So... portrait shots can serve a purpose, but there is something much more inspiring about a shot of a bird in its environment. Even if it's just a photo of a bird on a branch, you can sometimes get a branch of a plant that is representative of a certain habitat. For instance, Mike, you recently put up a photo on Flickr of a Phainopepla on ocotillo. How perfect do those two go together? A southwest species on a rather iconic plant of the southwest... so good!

Keep up the good work, near or far (from the birds or from us)!

Jeremy Gatten
Saanichton, BC

[mikullashbee]

Thanks all for taking the time to look and comment on this post. Jeremy i hear where your coming from while studying the finer variations amongst the complicated gulls of the northwest. I have several head shots of strange hybrids gulls. It really became un unhealthy obsession looking through giant flocks of gulls in hopes of something unique.lol. I am lucky(sort of) we only have three species to deal with in NZ and not many reports of stragglers. Kinda wish there were 12 possible gull species.
Cheers
Mike Ashbee
Christchurch,NZ