Perceiving nature in action
I am a nature photographer who tends to specialise in bird photography essentially because they are the most available subjects where I currently live. While I will take pictures of ‘birds on sticks’ like many other bird photographers I try to get action shots as they tend to be more enduring and popular with the viewing public. Why are action shots more popular? Most of us have seen birds perched somewhere, seagulls on a wharf, kingfishers on telegraph wires or sparrows on our lawn. With bird in rapid flight although we have seen them flying the wings are just a blur to our visual perception. When we see a photograph of a hummingbird in flight, for instance, we are able to see the iridescent colours of the wings and how they are deployed during flight. Action photographs therefore show us detail that is impossible for our eyes and brain to collate and visualize. Single shots can show us how a flying hummingbird appears in a very short moment in time (severa...