This summer (and last) we have had a family of robins nest on the drainpipe in our front yard.
This year, there were three baby robins. Two babies flew away a few days ago, but the third has been hanging around in the nest. Today, though, we found him perched in our front hedges! He seemed a bit surprised to see me, my mom, and my brother standing around staring at him, but he never moved from his perch. So, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of this fearless little guy.
Here he is!
Isn’t he dashing? His little eye tufts and barely-orange-belly charmed me from the beginning.
He watched me the whole time.
I was a little afraid to get too close to him with my darling Canon 60D, but I have yet to splurge on a second lens. Right now, I can only really get any decent zoom by moving closer. Finally, I decided my little friend was being patient enough with me and the noisy shutter that I could really get close if I wanted to.
And even closer! Look at that pose.
I truly enjoyed taking pictures of this little bird. It was a cloudy day, so the lighting wasn’t fantastic, but I didn’t edit any of these photos. I usually hate editing photos. I don’t really mind the process, as I want to make sure everything is just right! But I find something inherently disappointing in changing the original image. I want to use my resources to make the picture beautiful on the first try. I was pleased with the rich colors I got today. (Although, that second-to-last picture is rather over-saturated.) I think part of this stems from my original training in black & white film photography. With film, you only make changes to the original image if you did something wrong while taking the picture. Even then, the changes are pretty minor – increasing or decreasing the exposure of light to the photo paper, dodging, burning, or cropping the image. In truth, though, I hate change. Just like this little bird is being slow to leave home, I want things to stay the same. If things are perfect from the beginning, nothing should have to change, right? But, as my grandmother likes to say, “there’s always something.” For this bird, he has to learn to fly and take care of himself. That’s something. For me, I’ll be living on my own soon, too. That’s something. I’ll have new people to meet at work – teachers, administrators, and students. That’s something. If there’s anything I can keep from changing, then so be it. Today, that unchanged something will be these photos. This enjoyable encounter will always look the way I remember it, nothing more and nothing less. Good luck to all of you on the changes you face every day, too!
