Twitcher
Some time back I purchased a rather absurd lens; a 500mm f5.6 monster. Obstensively, to add a new angle to my landscape photography. I shoot a lot of intimate landscape and that lends itself to a longer lens.
Some time ago asked what focal length one would shoot for the rest of their days. He chose 35mm. I said 135mm to which he said ‘bold move’.
This I suppose reflects my shooting style. I can and do shoot the grander landscapes with wider lenses. It is wonderous when the light is right and the scene set.
Intimate landscape are images that don’t tell you where you are located on the planet. Most of the popular landscapes one could geolocate very quickly. In intimate you get a sense of the climate, the season but most of them could be any number of places.
Intimate landscape also means you are rarely in someone else’s tripod holes. There are to be sure tropes as there are in all photography.
I suppose the other magic of intimate landscape is that it values attention and a slower pace. The eye is looking all the time, at least the habit is developed in that direction. Consequently there is a value in a slow pace.
A good day of photography means one is lost in the multitude of moments as one advances step by step through a landscape. The focus and absorption can be so complete.
Humans have the charatceristic, perhaps unique, to name and classify everything. Especially things in the animal and plant kingdom. (We have Carl Linnaeus to blame for this.) I have sometimes been on the fence on naming things in the wild world. Does it distract from our appreciation and enjoyment? Does it force us into left brain work and leave the right brain to rot? Does this in turn stifle the creative urge.
I cannot answer with certainty but in the end I have ended up in the identify camp. If only because it works for me. You won’t find me zealous on the subject. I think however that it does lead to some personal classification. I have now begun to think of myself as a naturalist. Which I realize now was an ambition of my childhood. This just seems to be where I am curious about the natural world and thinking about how it all works.
When I arrived in North Idaho I wanted to know what one particular tree was. I learned it was the white pine and while I decided it was my favorite tree it also turns out to be the state tree of Idaho mainly however because of its commercial value.
This lead me to identify the lodgepole, mountain juniper, pacific yew along with ponderosa, douglas fir, aspen, cottonwood, red cedar that I was already familiar with.
The mammals are easy, bear, deer, elk, moose, squirrel.
So clearly I have a history and it should not come as a surprise that if I get a long lens I will photograph birds and I will want to identify them. So a long lens is a gateway drug to becoming a twitcher or birder as they say in the US. See we even classify ourselves.
I also blame Merlin which when I first heard it was either a wizard or a small helicopter in the British Armed Forces. Is also the name of an addictive app which in turn (tern?) is named for a small raptor two of which nest every spring across the street from where I live. God it really is bad isn’t it.
Merlin allows one to enter a description of the bird and location and it serves up a list of likely contenders. The genius is that it can listen to bird calls and make very good guesses about which birds are singing.
And this maddeningly make things much worse. A walk in the woods leads to listening to bird calls; then the phone is out and Merlin begins spewing out a list of tantilizing little pieces of bird shaped candy on the screen. All of which are in earshot. Most of them are too shy to see easily while others flit away at the first glance.
The next mistake I made was to sign up for a Merlin account and now I have a life list. Which seems now more like a life sentence. It really does get crazy now. Everywhere I go is a chance to expand that damn list.
Think carefully about going down this path. Do you have any idea how many of the feathered bastards there are? There should be a warning printed somewhere about this. Consider yourself warned.
