A ‘common’ bird looking good in a natural setting.
1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Three days ago this immature White-crowned Sparrow was one of the few birds I found during a long and mostly futile birding trip to the west desert. ‘He’ spent most of his time flitting about within a wild rose bush where I could barely see him, but this one time he came out to the periphery of the bush and posed nicely for a second or two.
I won’t list all of the things I like about the photo as I often do, but there are a bunch of them. Just another example of a ‘common’ bird that lots of folks ignore, looking good in the right setting, light, pose and composition.
And guess what?
It happened again. Without trying, when I was cropping the photo in a manner that appealed to me, I actually placed his eye exactly at the intersection of two of the lines conforming to the “rule of thirds”. In a recent post I said that I wouldn’t be surprised if that didn’t happen again for the rest of 2024. Obviously, my instincts were wrong. It happens more often than I thought.
In a comment on another recent post, Kris Eberhard said “I think your visual INTUITION is highly developed after years of practice, and the “rule of thirds” is now only an intellectual checkpoint for what your eye and brain has already perceived.”
When she made the comment I was highly skeptical about its accuracy, but after all these years of cropping and composing photos, maybe Kris has a point. I can be a slow learner but eventually stuff like that tends to sink in.
Ron
Great photo , as usual!
It is a little uncanny how many of your best shots so precisely seem to conform to that rule of thirds. But I’d say that the fact you have no formal art training or background is kind of irrelevant. I’m 100% with Kris on this and I know many artists who would say the same. While most good ones know all the “art rules” they also report that when it feels right it is right. Only when it doesn’t feel right is when they start thumbing through the art rules book to help reveal the flaw/s.
I like your logic, Jim.
“When if feels right” is exactly my modus operandi, unless I’m documenting behavior or something like that where composition becomes much less important than documentation.
I enjoyed your last sentence especially.
Such a nice shot — and crop. 😍 It’s another one of your images that I’d love to have on a notecard.
Thanks, Marty. Now that you mention it, it would look nice on notecards.
Lovely image, yeah rule of thirds!
Thanks, April.
Beautiful photo. The sparrow even looks pleased with being photographed in such a nice setting.
Thanks, Bill. Perhaps he was, who knows…
I agree with Kris.
🙂
I love the sparrow and the photograph!! I just go for those LBJs!
Thanks, Joanne. LBJ’s can certainly have their appeal.
Beautiful! 🙂 Everything comes together in this shot….luv the light on the birds face and a bit of the tail to boot!
Thank you, Judy.
That is indeed an excellent photo and one that also meets the rule of thirds requirements. Well done. We have so many White-crowned Sparrows including about 20 in our back yard that I rarely ever take a photo of them when I am out. Very attractive birds though and always happy every season when they arrive.
Thank you, Everett. I wish I could say I had them in my yard. I may have never seen one there.
I’m so tickled that you’re comfortable with the visual intuition idea!
And now that you are, I’ll posit a further idea: once that point of
intuition is reached and you’re comfortable with it, I think you’ll find that you often experience a subtle sensation, something like a “click” in your BODY, when the composition is “right”– before you even lay a grid over it to check ! The little sparrow is grateful and enchanting.
Kris, given the apparent accuracy of your previous comment, I certainly wouldn’t dispute what you’ve said here. Maybe there’s hope for me after all… 🙂
This picture made me smile. It was bright with the light, the touches of red and the lovely bird.
“This picture made me smile.”
Good. Thanks, Laurie.
You are an artist sir.
My degree is in biology, but I took a design course, oh so many years ago. Some of that stuff still sticks with me. One of these things is a principal in which a work is composed with visible and sometimes invisible lines that draw the eye to one place and then another, but also give the work a kind of elegant balance. The works of Johannes Vermeer come to mind. When I look at a painting or a photo and I feel that it has what I would describe as a pleasing and effortless flow to it, I realize that it is because of the ‘lines’. Many of your photos have that, and this is one of them.
So nice.
You said that very well, Michael. But then, coming from you I’m not surprised.
I’ve never had any art or design training of any kind. I’ve never even taken an art class in high school or college. I was so ignorant of, and intimidated by, anything related to art or aesthetics I filled that academic requirement in college by taking a music appreciation class (from Dave Brubeck’s brother, Howard, at Palomar College in CA.) It was a very good class and I learned a lot, but only about music.
But I do think this rule of thirds thing finally sank in.
Yes, a beautiful composition. Common, tall and it can look regal among the White-throated and Song Sparrows. I miss seeing them here in Connecticut– I expected many more but so far have seen only one, last winter.
Thanks, Kenneth. I’m glad you agree about the composition. I had several options but in the end I chose this one, without realizing how well it conformed to the rule of thirds.