Duck Rescue

One of the pitfalls of wildlife near urbanity is that we don’t always consider how our architecture and infrastructure affects wildlife. The other day I saw a young duck proudly posing for me, so I took out my camera to snap a picture. If I hadn’t stopped, I wouldn’t have noticed that she actually had six ducklings with her that she was trying to lure out of a flower bed surrounded by concrete walls. In hindsight, I think she posed for me to avert attention from her babies, like any good duck mommy would do.

It had stopped raining and so I lingered to watch her teach her young how  to overcome the obstacle of the concrete walls. That’s when I realised that it was physically impossible for the young chicks to jump or fly over the wall. It’s was just three times their height. All they did was stare at it and tweet loudly up to their mom who was waiting on top of the wall.

I don’t know how they ended up in there – perhaps it was raining heavily the night before and the water level in the flower beds rose enough to make it look like ponds they could easily get in and out of – but it broke my heart to watch momma duck trying to encourage her young to follow her, not understanding it was physically impossible for them. At first, I thought I’d just scoop them up one by one and place them on the concrete wall. I know it’s not good for them, but since this thing happens frequently, Wildlife Control told us it’s ok to do it. Duck mum would take things from there. Well, let me tell you those little duck babies are faaaaaast!!!!

I looked around for a wooden plank or some boulder that I could place to decrease the height of the wall, so they could tackle it in two steps. No such luck. I went to two nearby stores and came up with a makeshift plank, consisting of a dustbin and a high stack of old newspapers. The ducklings were unimpressed and gauged the new object with suspicion.

In the meantime I had roped a police officer into helping me help duck mum getting her young out of the concrete prison. They brought boxes and carriers so they could relocate them some place safer – but neither duck nor ducklings were cooperating. In fact, duck mum went from looking unimpressed with our rescue efforts to downright pissed off later on when the ducklings got separated from each other.

It took them a while and many failed attempts launching themselves into the concrete wall, rather than jumping on it, but eventually they got the hang of it:

I wonder what’s on the other side of this wall? This better be worth all the troubles!

The following pictures are actually stills from a video I took with my camera. The quality is not as good but the ducklings make up for it in cuteness:

Look mum! No hands!!

Never mind! This is gonna hurt, I just know it!

Some of them seemed to be more interested in reading the newspaper:

Let’s see what’s in the news…

The Ducks lost again! Why, God, why?

I can do this!

Just A Little More! Hey, can one of you guys give me a little shove?!?

I AM SPARTACUS!!

If a duck with the velocity of v…

…tries to overcome a wall with a height of h…

…it will land squarely on its ass!!!

But in the end all six ducklings figured out a way to use the dustbin as a stepping stone to conquer the concrete wall of evil! Some by accident like this one, some simply figured out they could just walk up the dustbin and then stretch a little and jump…

The first one to conquer the wall, is the brave little fellow below. He looks totally proud of himself, doesn’t he? One by one, the ducklings climbed the wall. The last three were rather scared and it took them about half an hour to work up the courage to use the dustbin. At some point duck mum ushered her young down the other side into another concrete flower bed, at which point, the nice police officer and I just gave up. Now we had three ducklings in one flower bed, three in the other one – and all surrounded by concrete murals. By now it was pouring and my clothes were drenched.

Look at me. Am I not the cutest thing you’ve seen all day?

We hung around long enough to make sure that the little duck family was reunited, but then left with little objects strategically placed as steps to make it easier for the ducklings to climb the walls again.

Hello? Is there anyone home?

The last ones make a beeline for mum and siblings…

Wait for me, I’m coming, mum! I did it, I did it!

Next day, I walked by and sure enough they were back in the same original flower bed I’d rescued them from. I decided to stop messing with them. Public safety returned with nets and pet carriers to capture and relocate them for good, but I didn’t have time to watch nor help. They definitely couldn’t stay in the flower beds. First, they’d be too exposed to predators; second, they’d hurt themselves crashing into the walls. As much fun as it was, watching them trying to overcome the concrete wall, it felt a bit cruel, too.

At least this reminded me that spring means young animals, so I’ve taken my camera along to hunt for duckling, goslings and other baby animals – pics to follow soon!

Black & White Photography

This last month I’ve switched my digital camera for an old 35mm film Canon Rebel camera, as I’ve learned how to develop my own black and white film as well as make contact sheets and prints. These four pictures are the first I’ve ever made, but I shot like 4 rolls and a total of ca. 100 pictures the last month so be prepared for more to come as I continue to make prints when I’ve got time.

Obviously this first batch of pictures isn’t perfect as I’m figuring out developer, stop bath and fixer, but I think they’re quite good for a first shot at b/w photography.

The first photo I ever developed myself and I was quite please with the details and nice contrast I achieved in this one. Perhaps the lower left corner could be a bit less dark but overall I like it a lot. Framewise this one proved to be rather tricky because in order to get the shadows I couldn’t center the object in the middle or the sun would have blinded me.

This one took a little patience until I figured out how to get the details in the lower half of the picture. Turns out this one was wrongly exposed (Here comes a shocker! LOL). I literally turned around from taking the shot you see above and there it was. This big, awesome tree that just screamed at me to take a picture of it. It’s quite dominating the picture, but I like how its trunk leads you down from the brighter upper half into the darker lower half.

What I really like about this image are the clear lines of the glass front of the building, but also the level of detail you can see: people passing by, trees lining the sidewalk, clouds brooding in the background, relfections in the glass. When I walk bike this building (almost every day), it doesn’t impress me nearly as much as it is looking rather majestic in this shot.

And my favourite one among this first round of prints I developed. I almost gave up on this one. On the negative this was the most crisp and clear image you could imagine, but every time I tried to print it, continuously increasing the exposure, it would just come out until this ominous dark glob. Then I got introduced to the magenta filter et voilà, this spectacular photo appeared on my contact paper.

I particularly love how I composed this shot with the tree trunk and branch framing the squirrel dead center. I think I’ll go back to developing another print of this one, where I bring out the bokeh of the tree in the background better, which at this point I didn’t care for anymore. I just wanted a nice, clear image of my squirrel. LOL But just for comparison, I’ll go and see what the bokeh would do to the overall composition of this picture. Again the level of detail astonished me, you can not only see the bark of the tree, but the contrast is good enough to distinguish the squirrels tail from the bark, its hands from the nut it’s holding, etc. Very very pleased with how this one turned out!

Reflections

Today was a very rare occasion. This foreign, bright object appeared on the sky of natives and bathed everything in a cosy atmosphere and fuzzy warmth. This wouldn’t be the Pacific Northwest, if this foreign object, in other parts of the world known as sun, played hide and seek with the natives, frolicking among clouds. A great side effect however were absolutely fantastic reflections on the glass fronts of the local buildings.

This picture has an interesting vanishing point in the left side of the composition. The straight lines of the trees on the left side and the edges of the building converge in the lower left half. Equally fascinating I find the reflection of the trees, clouds and even the silhouettes of the buildings across the street. I had to touch this picture a little bit up because I had forgotten to re-adjust the exposure, after I’d purposely played around with different exposure for another object, and I still feel this image is slightly underexposed.

This real building and trees are mirrored in the surrounding water. Without intention, it appears that I have chosen the horizontal line to be in the middle of the image, effectively creating an almost symmetrical mirror image in the water. This was not planned but makes this image more interesting. It definitely makes up for the overall composition of the photo, with which I am not very happy. The background behind the trees is too busy and the depth of field was chosen unwisely. I tried to get everything to mirror, when I probably should have just focused on one or the other.

We all know it by now. I just love cloud formations – especially when they’re reflecting so fantastically on this glass facade. I couldn’t get this shot without the sun’s reflection as well and I love that little spot where the water and its reflection in the window front glitter.

Have you ever noticed that when you walk and see a reflection in a puddle along the way, it is always upside down? Truly fascinating I think and prompted me to finally take this shot today. I would’ve tried an experimented with this further during the heavy rain of the past weeks but I’m too chicken to get my camera wet – the blue hairline is annoying as it is (and I’m still saving up for the Canon G12, which will hopefully become my new baby).

Flowers

Ever since I’ve discovered the macro function on my camera, I’ve been getting up, close and personal with the botanic life around me. I don’t know the name of the flowers and pick them solely on the basis of shapes and patterns.

I was really amazed by the crisp detail of my P&S Canon DS 850 in this picture. The focus is on the wasp and parts of the flower petal, whereas there’s almost a slight bokeh on the rest of the rose and the background anyhow. At that time I didn’t even know what bokeh meant. LOL

What really struck me about this flower was the symmetrical and even pattern of the flower petals and the nice contrast of yellow and orange against the green.

The color is so vibrant it dominates the whole picture I think. Only at the second glance you notice the shape of the petal and the small drops of dew on them.

Another one of Mother Nature’s incredibly powerful patterns, especially because it is not perfect. I sometimes wonder whether from the perspective of insects the most colorful flowers are also the tastiest ones or if that is a deception tactic to ensure the not-so-great flowers get to spread their pollen as well. Or maybe it’s just really a crapshot…

It had rained overnight when I took this picture early in the morning of my parents’ garden. The morning sun had not yet dried the raindrops on the flower petals and I thought it made for a great photo. Again, nice detailed macro shots of the bloom and soft bokeh in the background.

What Do You Think?

Building Bridges

It must be the idea of connecting remote places with each other, which makes photographing bridges so fascinating for me. Yes, some bridges are architectonical milestones, but I think besides that bridges are symbols for overcoming obstacles, for reconciling differences. With a bridge, it is possible to reach the other shore, explore the other side of a river without losing the option of coming back. That is unless, you decide to burn bridges.

I chose black and white for this picture because this small bridge leads over an equally small sluice. The mechanical equipment felt rather old school to me and thus I figured b/w and vignette would convey the nostalgia of a moment like this better than a color shot.

The John A. Roebling Bridge connecting not only two cities(Cincinnati and Covington) but two states (Ohio and Kentucky) across the Ohio River. This was one of the first suspension bridges built in the U.S. Personally, I just love the blue paint job and the massive steel construction dominating this picture.

Brooklyn Bridge is probably one of the most famous suspension bridges in the world. The construction is very different from the previous one, though. What I liked about this frame is that the picture is dominated by the wires converging in the top center. They create a pattern that just draws your eyes really into the picture, I feel. I took it in color but it looks equally good when converted into b/w.

Manhattan Bridge, another suspension bridge in Manhattan, is thoroughly different from the stonemason-style Brooklyn Bridge but equally impressive. This image was taken at sunset and the light conditions were sub-par but when converted into a b/w/ image it looks actually quite decent. I find this photo to be pattern-driven as well because of the geometric shapes dominating the composition. There are triangles everywhere, small big, equilateral, obtuse, isoceles…

Another very iconic suspension bridge, Golden Gate in San Francisco. This was a very fortunate moment because the sun bathed the bridge, so it cast a shadow into the bay and brought out the colors very vibrantly. Unlike the other pictures, I captured the whole bridge in this frame with the hills of Sausalito as a backdrop.

What Do You Think?

Cloud Formations

One of the things I remember most clearly about the first days here, after I moved halfway around the globe, was looking up into the clear blue skies. It was a scorching hot late summer and not a cloud in sight. I think it is a trick the Pacific Northwest pulls on unsuspecting victims, showing itself from its most brilliant side to lure hundreds of people to the region every year, convinced to move here because it must be a little piece of paradise on earth. And then November comes and the weather gods share a devilish grin, high-fiving each other, “Ye fools! Gotcha!”

As I walked around my new town, getting acquainted with neighborhoods and infrastructure, I would glance up at the skye every once in a while, marveling at how much my life had changed and yet somethings stayed the same, as for instance the sky. Still in the northern hemisphere it didn’t seem different at all. Except… cloud formations seemed bigger and more impressive than ever. And let me tell you, with the load of rain we get here annually, there’ve been some helluva cool cloud formations I’ve seen over the past five years.

Last week was another such day, and luckily, I’ve finally taken to carrying my little point and shoot camera with me everywhere to never experience that dreadful moment, when you know you’re missing out on an awesome picture opportunity.

What I like particularly about this shot is the sun reflecting in the glass front of the building and the cloud formation almost looking like flames licking at the roof of the building. What I am less happy about is the awkward angle of the building.

I don’t know why but this one (and the one before) are my favorite shots taken in that session. I think the trees/building/lantern frame the picture much more nicely than just trying to take an image of the cloud formation itself.

What Do You Think?