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Thread: Gods little angels

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    Default Gods little angels

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    Something a little different.

    The Short-billed Corella invades much of Australia in their tens of thousands seasonally, and the outer suburbs of Adelaide are no exception. Every year, mostly during the warmer months they swarm over suburbia causing an amazing amount of damage with their obsessive behavior of chewing anything and everything...not to mention copious quantities of poop, and a 24/7 maddening screech noise that drives one insane

    Seen by many as a pest and in need of serious control/culling, a very controversial bird whose population has grown immensely as a result of deforestation and cereal crops they love to feed upon. They have become a health issue and costing communities much money in the damage and anguish they cause causing people to move house.

    This small snippet of a flock over the suburbs was taken on the way to the railway station one morning...the sky was actually filled with them as is often the case....not a particularly well composed or thought about shot, more of a snatch shot on the fly { pardon the pun }, but effective I think .

    Nikon D300 + Tamron 28/75....28 mm, f 7.1, 1/2000, ISO 320, pattern metering, no flash, hand held

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    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    Hi Phil - It's often tough to get a flying flock shot. Unfortunately, I find my eye drawn to the steeple and the larger, partial bird above it (and find myself wishing that the whole bird was there) so I don't think the comp works here. Sorry.

    TFS,
    Rachel

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    Good one, Phil! It is my opinion that the selective slaughter of animals is a true indicator of humanity's inability to live harmoniously with nature. The decision to cull also bespeaks our species' self-loathing; after all, we are part of nature and ought not distance ourselves from it, as if Nature is merely something pretty to enjoy and observe. Finally, humanity's need to master the creatures around them suggests a disturbing collective megalomania. Just look at our incessant anthropomorphism; the very thought that animals can be "like us" tells me that we are one wackadoo species! Please excuse my rant. I'm finished now! Moving on: what a beautiful pest to have around. God's own angels, indeed. Jeepers! This image tells an effective story. I'd love to see a shot of the sky filled with these beauties and houses underneath. How could that be achieved? A fisheye lens? Anyhow, again, thank you for sharing your picture and your words!
    Last edited by Jack Breakfast; 07-26-2012 at 09:07 AM.

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Hi Phil, the bird in the ULC shows us nicely what these guys look like, but I too wish you had all of him in the frame. Since you have probably cropped this to size, I would have spent that little extra to straighten the tower.

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    Lovely composition with one exception; I would straighten the building, to be parallel to the side of the frame.

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    Like the idea of this image! Great story being told. Well thought!

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    Besides story,which nicely narrated,

    Phil,
    This is wonderful image.Beautiful sky with nice gradation in blues and birds in the flights from top to bottom gives superb 3D effect to image.Just loved it.

    Satish.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stuart Bowie View Post
    Hi Phil, the bird in the ULC shows us nicely what these guys look like, but I too wish you had all of him in the frame. Since you have probably cropped this to size, I would have spent that little extra to straighten the tower.

    Taa Stuart....No it's not been cropped at all, so not much I can do about the angle on the tower

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rachel Hollander View Post
    Hi Phil - It's often tough to get a flying flock shot. Unfortunately, I find my eye drawn to the steeple and the larger, partial bird above it (and find myself wishing that the whole bird was there) so I don't think the comp works here. Sorry.

    TFS,
    Rachel
    Taa Rachel, cant please everyone I guess, but this image has got amazing reviews on other photography sites ....... the whole idea of this image is for the eye to be drawn to the church tower, hence the title and to illustrate the invasion on suburbia, though yes I think it's a pity the tower is not straight.

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    Taa for looking and opinions folks....the whole concept of this image is not so much to show what a particular bird looks like, but merely to indicate their impact on suburbia.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Satish Ranadive View Post
    Besides story,which nicely narrated,

    Phil,
    This is wonderful image.Beautiful sky with nice gradation in blues and birds in the flights from top to bottom gives superb 3D effect to image.Just loved it.

    Satish.

    Thanks Satish, I also like the 3D effect with the birds disappearing smaller into the distance

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    I like the image and the story. Thanks for the information. The leaning tower was bothering me a bit so I thought I would try to straighten in out. Hope you don't mind.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Crosswell View Post
    I like the image and the story. Thanks for the information. The leaning tower was bothering me a bit so I thought I would try to straighten in out. Hope you don't mind.
    Cheers for that...briefly how did you do that

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    Quote Originally Posted by PhilCook View Post
    Cheers for that...briefly how did you do that
    I used the rectangular marquis tool and selected the tower and birds around it. Then I selected edit then free transform, moved the selected area over to the right and rotated it. Then I filled in the areas left blank with the clone tool. Hope this explains it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Crosswell View Post
    I used the rectangular marquis tool and selected the tower and birds around it. Then I selected edit then free transform, moved the selected area over to the right and rotated it. Then I filled in the areas left blank with the clone tool. Hope this explains it.
    Yep it does, why didn't I think of that ...thankyou Jim, you're a gentleman

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    Very well seen and executed, Phil. Great vision here, I would most likely have missed this shot (fumbling to single one bird out of the flock :)
    I enjoyed this a lot. TFS.

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