White ibises

[PeterAit]

Taken near Morehead City, NC, with a Panasonic G3 and a Lumix 100-300mm.

[armand]

It has a ghostly feel

[francois]

I like the eyes of the scrambling ibises…
Beautiful and spectacular shot!

[luxborealis]

I so enjoy a photograph when it causes me to stop and take a second look.

When I saw the title of the post, I thought, “Here we go with another one of those perfect bird photos.” Then I clicked on the link to see.

Hmmmmm, I thought. This is different. Why would a talented and perceptive photographer like Peter share a photo like this with us? Black-and-white, not entirely sharp, a bit muddy! Strange composition. Peter is challenging my (our) thinking.

As I “lived” with it for a few minutes, it began to grow on me (I’m slow). I must admit, it’s a photo I would have tossed, but my mindset is far too “trophy-photo” oriented. And, if I’m showing a photo of a landscape or wildlife, I want to show to show it at its best. These ibises look panicked.

Thank you, Peter, for sharing this and causing me (and hopefully others) to think outside the box. We see so many “picture perfect” photographs here, it’s so refreshing to see something different, imaginative, thought-provoking.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Well put, Terry.
As you often do, you put clearly into words my own reaction to this image. It took three revisits to it before I started to understand why I kept coming back to it.

-Eric

[PeterAit]

Thanks for the thoughtful comments, which reflect my own opinions on wildlife photography,  particularly birds. The static, technically perfect photos we see so often are impressive but, let’s face it, boring. The birds might as well be stuffed. I find myself much more interested in photos that show the critter doing something, interacting in some way.