Wednesday 23 November 2011

Did you hear the birds / It’s not about photos or the gear

I had a shorter work day, it’s spring in Melbourne, the day was sunny, bright, shirtsleeve warm and cheerful without being hot for any length of time.

I whipped out the Olympus E-620 and was puzzling about why I had a little trouble with the Autofocus on the weekend. I set it to Continuous AF, Single Point vs Multiple Point and was targeting a leaf waving in the slight breeze and a Rosella sang just over the neighbour’s fence. What’s the point with using a wavy leaf to simulate movement when I have a real live singing bird? So I next start targeting the bird with the 40-150mm kit zoom lens and pumping the shutter release. The bird was quite small in the frame, but the exercise gave me some ideas of the performance of the camera.

Then, a pair of brown feathered bigger birds swooped onto the neighbour’s tall gumtree, and a few moments later, different bird calls. I couldn’t see these bigger birds clearly and paused, camera lowered. The exchange of bird calls grew in frequency, making interesting listening. Eventually, in as many minutes I counted 5 different bird calls.

There are few moments of epiphany in our lives, this was one for me. The photos or the gear subsided in significance. The day was sweet, I’m alive and not in pain and that’s my moment.

From 20111123

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