The trick with photography and other pricey hobbies for me has always been to make it worth the expense. I have to learn and get better, but mostly just be good at it in general. I've recently started scrapbooking (Oh dear... I guess that adds another hobby that can be pricey) and I've found that my photography hobby has REALLY paid off! I certainly don't regret taking dozens of pictures when I'm going back to record my memories and have a large selection to choose my favorites from. I especially like how pictures help me remember the things I've done and the people I've gone on adventures with. Side note: why is it so easy to forget what you did with people? It's like I can remember their personalities and facts about them so easily, but can't easily remember the experiences we shared.
I find that, ever since I got my wonderful new camera, I've used it mainly for concert photography. This is great because that's also the main reason why I upgraded my camera, but I find myself really wanting to sharpen my skills in other areas as well. I've also started hiking with my camera and having it on me when I'm with friends more, but this hasn't been much of an upgrade as my old digital Nikon was great at photographing people too. Landscape photography is pretty cool, but I still believe that it's the people who really make the hiking shots special.
So, clearly, I need to continue to branch out and find things that are interesting, but will stretch my skills. Yesterday, one such subject presented itself. There's a tree that the woodpeckers love that stands very near where I park my car. I get home from work in the afternoons and, both today and yesterday, I found a lovely, Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus rubber) there. I call it a woodpecker, but technically, it isn't one. They're classified together though, so it works for me. If you look, you can see that they drilled nice, straight horizontal rows into the tree and even have sap on their beaks! Yum?
Nice, sappy beak. Lunch must have been tasty.
I only got one picture of this smaller (skinnier?) woodpecker. This one had a bit more vivid coloring
So, my camera lens actually doesn't zoom in this far (these have been closely cropped) and I had to get pretty close to the birds for my pictures. I tried to mot be very threatening, but I did end up scaring them both off in the end. The larger one stayed close by in a different tree and watched me, waiting for me to leave. I was watching him back, waiting to see if he'd come back with me still there, but he would not. After a while, he even chirped at me and sounded very annoyed. He was clearly telling me that it was time for me to leave them alone so they could snack. I don't think he appreciated me coming back today either.
What a handsome new friend I have! Too bad the feeling isn't mutual.
Feathers got a bit ruffled today when I came back for more pictures and got too close again. I would hate to be a greedy little green pig around this angry bird!
This concludes my latest adventure into photography. I hope you liked my pictures and my experience trying to be a friend to nature and failing! I'll have to find more opportunities to harass sweet, innocent birds during their lunch soon so I can practice getting animal shots some more. I also learned a few things about this neat type of bird! So worth it to make new friends!
