February | 2014 | DivineMayhem Studios Blog

I happened upon an odd scene while photographing the other day. Hundreds of seagulls decided to visit our fair city. I was walking around the Clemente bridge on Saturday the 15th, noticing all of the other photographers that were out and about. It was a beautiful afternoon. The temperatures were still pretty low, but the sun was shining, bathing the downtown side of the Allegheny in a wonderful light. I was walking past the steps near the center field entrance when a very excited gentleman asked, “You see all them birds!!!”. My response was, “Yeah.. there’s a lot of them”.

I chuckled to myself and kept on walking through the outer PNC Park area, looking at the light slowly creeping up the buildings on the other side of the river. It wasn’t until I got most of the way to the opposite gate that I saw a group of people huddled together with what looked like spotting scopes. I peered over the wall and saw the largest collection of seagulls that I’ve ever witnessed.

They were -literally- chilling on some large sheets of ice that were floating back upstream in the wind. I made my way down the steps and attempted to figure out the angle that all of the spotters were looking, as to not get in their way. I switched lenses to my 70-200 and started snapping shots.

I had seen a few seagulls on ice sheets a few weeks back, but the sheer number of birds was a bit overwhelming. I got right to the edge of the sidewalk without scaring them away. The light and the reflection from the bridge was amazing. Most of the river was in a cool shadow of blue with the exception of the vibrant yellow reflections from the Clemente Bridge.

Another photographer wandered past and moved in for a shot. I took the opportunity to switch lenses and capture her in the shot.

Shooting Birds On The Banks Of The Allegheny

As she moved closer, an entire group of birds abandoned their ice floe and took to the skies. It was like a scene from a Hitchcockian masterpiece.

I’m not sure where they came from or how long they will stay, but, as a gracious host, I did suggest that they try a Primanti Brothers sandwich while in town.

I needed a break from staring at my computer, chugging away at work, so I went downstairs (work-from-home day) and saw some really nice light in the backyard. I got 20 kinds of excited, grabbed my camera and 105mm micro lens, threw on my snowboarding coat and snowpants, gave the wife a kiss, and said that I was off to play in the snow for a bit.

I surveyed my “studio”. There were small leaves embedded in the snow and they were casting really interesting shadows. Photographing in the snow is difficult due to the brightness. It is hard to keep detail in the really white areas without making the snow look grey. I decided on my plan of attack. Even though my eye was drawn to a few leaves in the middle of the yard, I knew that if I wanted to preserve a pristine, untouched background, that I needed to have some patience and work my way toward them, photographing everything else that I wanted to along the way.

I didn’t hesitate for a second to plop right down on my side and start composing shots. The snow was cold, don’t get me wrong, but that was the angle I wanted. I was looking to be at ground level with my subjects and catch all of their tiny details.

The fun/frustrating thing about macro lenses is the absolutely tiny depth of focus. Even at a small aperture (f/11 and up) you still get a sliver of what is in focus when you’re that close to your subject. It is also hard to give a proper sense of scale with objects that vary in size. I thought of this and snapped a quick “thumb for scale” on one of my tiniest models.

I worked my way across the yard and found myself laying on my stomach to get the angles that I wanted. I was very happy to catch the long shadows coming off of the tiny subjects.

The individual granules of snow sparkled in the sunlight.

I’m sure that my neighbors have come to terms with the fact that I’m an odd fellow. Just 2 weeks ago, I carried a ladder out into the snow covered back yard, leaned it against a tree, and came back to climb it, camera in hand. I needed to get a higher perspective for the shot I had in mind. This time it probably went, “There he is again, Missy. He’s just laying in the snow, taking pictures of leaves.”

Autumn's Remnant Casts A Cold Shadow — Autumn’s Remnant Casts A Cold Shadow

I’m fine with it. I was sure to give them one of my calendars as a holiday gift. Perhaps that will alleviate some concerns for my mental state.

DivineMayhem Studios Blog

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Monthly Archives: February 2014

For The Birds!

Macro fun in the snow!