Arty by accident

I am definitely not talking about my art skills in terms of painting and drawing in the title of this post- I dropped art at GCSE level for a reason! In fact, I am talking about taking photos of birds... Isn't it funny when a photo doesn't turn out how you expect it to, yet still looks good in a different way. This happened on many occasions yesterday and I thought I could base a posting on it. I found that it most often occurs that you get a strange but arty photo when you are trying to be creative with the camera. The light was fantastic yesterday, so I took photo after photo in the evening. I was bound to get a few unusual shots from the 60 odd that I took, and here they are...

The first picture below is of a Wood Pigeon in flight. Would you have guessed it- probably not, but thats just what I think makes it an interesting photo. I was attempting to get a photo of it in flight, but the shutter speed on my camera is quite slow on automatic mode, so it blurred the wings of the bird. I was actually trying to take the picture so that the pigeon was in the middle of the shot, but by accident, it ended up in the bottom left of the photo. I was surprised with the good effect.

Again, have a guess what bird is in the photo below. In fact, how about I don't tell you what it is... it makes the photo even more intriguing. Have a guess if you like as to what bird it is. I bet some of you keen birdwatchers know birds by their shape. As a clue, this is a common garden bird which likes to feed on sunflower hearts. With the fading evening light, the birds were silhouetted against the sunset, and created a great effect. Again, completely by accident, but an effective shot, if I do say so myself.


You should be able to make out the bird in the photograph below. It isn't the same bird as the one in the photo above, by the way! The Goldfinch often visits quite late into the evening, and even in the fading light, it is still easy to make out the bright colours of the bird. Not so much of a silhouette shot, but similar to the photo above. Also, not quite as shy as the more bossy Greenfinch, so easier to photograph.

So, all in all, I had great fun taking these weird shots by accident. Why not have a go yourself!