Assignment 5personal project 2 final.

Birds in the tree.

I love nature photography. Sometimes so often, we take for granted , what is there, And what may be gone tomorrow.

I will start by displaying images of some of the birds that visit this tree.
But first, the fate of the tree.
This tree bears many seeds. I was so happy when I moved into the apartments. To see a tree outside of my window. I have always wanted a tree outside of my window. My first 3 weeks , I started to photograph the birds in the tree, hoping to capture the nest. But the tree was too high. Then one day, by ignorance off the gardener, the whole tree was cut down, to a 3 foot stump. Lucky for the tree, it has good strong roots. As time went by, the tree grew again and the birds came back. Months went past. Different birds; Parent s and young, they all came to the tree to feed. One morning, I felt bad vibes in the air, a feeling that the tree was going to be no more. So I wrote a big sign, out of tough paper, wrapped it around the tree, with tape in a plastic bag. "DO NOT CUT DOWN"  But the locals may not read or understand  English, I thought. As I looked in the Palm tree, by my bedroom window. 

I noticed  a Bulbuls bird had rested on the hanging leaves. local name Parparok

Looking at the tree through the window, I saw, one of the parent birds flying from the seed tree to the palm.  I wondered why she perched there.  I took a look, WOW! there they were! Two baby chicks in a small nest.  I set up my camera fast, 400mm lens and Gorilla pod, so the camera hung from the security bars, on the window, looking right into the nest.
I eagerly got to work, stills and filming, checking what I could I shoot. On the lowest ISO and still get crisp pictures, as the parents fed and sheltered the baby birds.
On my first day of shooting, I saw this straw hat , move under the window, Oh my god I said, loudly.  As I watched the gardener move towards the seed tree, as he clears the  long grass. He looked around him.. And Hack. ! "My tree"!

I shouted so loud, Hoy !! NO! . My voice went rough, He looked at me with a discerning glare. "No he said" , No I said. . I took my camera body of the lens , covering the front, ran down the stairs  to show him the birds in the tree. He realised what’s there and apologised. “Sorry, ok ! Ok!  No chop. No Chop”.

Second day,
I noticed 3 cigarette ends in the tree, by the nest. Second evening, at dusk, I drew back the curtains. Opened the window, and watched the nesting bird. There I sat watching them  against the darkening sky.
As I did, a lit cigarette but hit the nest and rolled off the tree. Again I shout, “Don't throw out the window!”
Its so bad , people do not care what they are doing to nature, and the environment. They only think of themselves.




Now the 10-12  photographs:
These are what I picked out of 9 days shooting. From morning sun rise to night fall. 

Baby Bulbuls PIX: 3

ISo 2500 low light 500th sec F 5.6 400mm 7d Dec 6th

Hungry mouths: their weak little bodies find energy to open up wide for mother and father to feed them . Their mouths shake rapidly, flashing their big red orange mouths.

Pix: 4

ISO 3200 1/400th sec f7.1 Dec 6th

The couple, when mate. Mate for life, and work together bringing up their young. 

Pix: 5 Both male and female.

ISO 640  1/250 th sec f6.3 dec 6th 400 mm
From cold cloudy weather, and then hot sun, feeding all day long, to sleep at night in tropical storms. The Bulbuls birds never stop working.


Pix: 6 The Male with food. 

ISO 200 1/100sec F10 400 mm  TV mode dec 8th

The male again working together with the female, taking turns to watch over the nest. As they do, they clean the nest and the baby birds too.

Pix: 7

                                ISO 200 1/100sec F10 400 mm  TV mode Dec 8th 

 Sometimes the food looks so big, and it is passed from baby to baby until one of them consume the offering.

Pix 8: The female Bulbuls

ISO 200 1/100sec F5.6 400 mm  TV mode Dec 8th 

   
The babies are constantly being fed, several time to gain weight in a day. So it’s hands on and hard work for the parents. Making sure the diet is mixed, with seeds, berries and insects. Only at night they get to rest.

When it’s raining, cool winds or the when the sun shine through. The suns heat may be a threat, They will sit by or on the nest. Taking turns to find food for the chicks. At tis time of year from November to december. its the rainy season.

Night time, and in the rain, one of the parents covers the nest, and tucks their head in for the rough night a head. 

Pix: 9

ISO 200 1/100sec F5.6 400 mm  TV mode Dec 8th  With Flash 

9 days later after heavy rain and winds. The birds over each night, take on a transformation in growth. Day 2 their eyes start to open. Day 4 they look out of the nest.  Day 5, fluffy down, Day 6, The quills strengthen.  Day 7 They have feathers with day 8 spent pruning and prepping, Day 9 Parents prepping for take off.

With baby birds Anxious to get going. They have found voice and wings. With a blink of the eye . They jump from the nest or fall. Flight become there natural instinct to fly. Aided by the parent bird edging them on.

14th Dec The first baby flew in the morning. I had not noticed , As at the time I checked my e mails and made coffee. returning to the window. A shock . Only one baby bird? Not knowing where the baby had gone. Only seeing one in the nest. I looked to the ground. Knowing I should not interfere. I feared the cat that roamed near by, may had been waiting.

I went down stares to take a look in the long grass. The parent birds came to me close. I still could not see the baby. And as I turned. There with father looking over. Close to me, on the fence. was the baby bird. Looking right at me. If to say, I made it, I am ok. They then flew off to another distant tree.

The Whole day I filmed, photographing the remaining baby, I was not going to miss this flight.

Trees swaying, rain and then sun, as a gale blew up. I thought the wind would blow the baby out of the nest. An hour before dark. I almost gave up.

3 or 4 times , I thought the moment had come. But nothing.

As all this commotion,  tension  built up. As the day went on.

A thought came to me!

What if the battery or card reached its limit, just at the critical moment?

So, mid day, as the the wind settled. The baby bird sat back in the nest. Mother rested on top, fluffing feathers to keep the nest cool. Panting to cool her self. As birds do not sweat. I quickly changed the battery and card. Putting the other battery on charge.

Pix: 10

ISO 640 1/60 sec F22
Normally I like to keep a shallow depth of field.
here I wanted to get full depth of the baby ready to fly, being cooled by mother bird. 14th Dec

Then in a flash! After mother bird gave the baby its last nesting meal. Feathers shaking in excitement, Anxious to go. With a jump  off the edge of the nest. Panic, as the baby clutched to the long leaves . Wings flapping, feeling the air. Parents making a noise in encouragement. Then; The rest is History.

Now just an empty nest.

Pix:11                            

ISO 640 1/100 sec f 5   115 mm 14 Dec 

Pix: 12

This last picture. I took from the HDV Video I took. In aperture. I took a frame converter in J peg. Up loaded it to PS CS3 . enhanced re sized.

My Brief and photographers statement.

Nature photography may be one of the most loved yet challenging subjects. Yet where ever I go with my camera. Wild life is there to be captured.

I love photographing nature and events. When I am taking pictures, I hear  a  narrator in my head, as I take each picture. If I was reading a book or watching the event in real time on TV.

When the event happened as stated above. I new this was a sign to capture the events that forgo, un aware. In our everyday lives.

This is how I feel when taking the world in through my lens. Showing the world, what so many miss.

So I have captured, and still capturing what you can now share with me. The beauty of nature. In beautiful colour, and texture. Life in the wild, and what nature has to put up with. With the influence of man.

A story of survival in a concrete jungle. To what may be,  just under your own window.

My Method and work flow to capturing and editing the event.

To Bring this little story together. At fist it was not planned

An act of reaction. At first. As I said, to grab my camera, and start shooting, Then after the first day , the skills I learnt kicked in , Including some extra I picked up watching animal planet. Watch composition. Focus on eyes, watch exposure. Use a tripod when ever possible. After the fist shoot. I looked at he images. I then new what and when to prepare to take the picture. Its about getting to know your subject and habits. In time, A Pattern starts to develop. Although nature is unpredictable.

There is some method to survival. Knowing the laws of  the 3 WWWs    What Where and When!

Not knowing how long these birds were going to take to grow. Before fleeing the nest. I set out to dedicate my self to Bird Watching!

No Plans to go any where. Just to stay, and keep an eye, and capture the moment in time. Depending on the progression of growth. I would record and down load to my Lap top. the images every two days.

At the  time of Building this blog post that acts as my Learning log.

I had taken many pictures. But using the magnifier at 100% . looking to see what, and whats not sharp. Then using tools to brighten and bring out the best of the images.

Next step was to select the best images by flagging.

After that, to select 10-12 pictures. These then, to be opened up in batch, photoshop. To resize and name. Then to up load to this blog post.

Last to re size  . Making all 300 DPI Aprox A4

As each day passed, and as the blog and gallery of events came together. I went over the images again, by going back. I aded other, more exiting pictures that told the story, with more impact. Taking out that that did not look right.  Even when my tutor viewed what I had done. And commented that this was good work. I changed 3 pictures that I played with to improve the power of the images.  Selecting 12 photographs from 470 images taken over 7 days shoot.

This is a sample of my aperture's work flow.  As Proof sheets.

Proof sheets :

Step1

Sample of file including HDV seen a black.

Step 2

• After Flagging. The selected images. They were then looked through again and again . taking out any that did not fit the select 12. 

Step 3

• After choosing a number of photographs that told the story to what I wanted to portray. I then  moved the flagged images to light room :

Step 4

• I then  pick those That told the story. A sequence of events.

Step 5

•  From the  selection, I then up loaded to the page . I went back over what I had and then replaced, And re arranged again. till I was happy with the final 12.

Step 6

 Final 12. 

final Step 7

• This selection was then moved to bulk processing for re sizing in photoshop. 

• An attempt was made to manipulate two photographs , that at the time of taking, the  wind swept leaves in the way. I had removed the leaves in photoshop. I did not think they looked natural enough to ad to my gallery.

• Personal feelings on digital manipulation.

         I don't enjoy doing to allot of manipulation on photographs, Unless the image is meant to be played with deliberately.

I prefer to keep my images as true to what I see when taking the image. Other then slight adjustments in normal adjustments. Id sooner be out there with my camera, working to get it right first time. To much manipulation, I feel is cheating the viewer to what you want to express. What and how the photographer sees the world.  To me manipulation is not photography. Its digital artistry. However: for taking out small unwanted distractions. It becomes a blessing.

• Most of the processing work was done in Aperture and any extreme adjustment, In photoshop. As Listed above with the final shot taken from HDV M

• All the photo under took some sharpening , With  High and low light clipping.

• There were no technical problems , other then I anticipated when the  battery and memory card needed changing.

I have trained my self to watch for the moment and not shoot unnecessarily.

My tutor was more than happy with my second production in this assignment. This  was not expected, as I already had sent the link for the Proboscis Monkey project. I had been given till the 7th Jan 2012 to complete. At the time of writing 11 Dec 2011. I am still keeping a close watch on the birds and other creatures that visit the trees. Photographing and recording, as I go.

Since my tutor wrote his nice report. Some suggestions were given, that I have made adjustments to the above. 

Over all I am more then happy with the assignment, and the way the images came together.
Good feed back has come from others like the Malaysian group. Malaysia wild life. And Sabah photography. To whom I have shown this blog, With out making statement. I was told ,  Just the pictures tell the story.