Beep Beep

I have never been 'across the pond' to America, but this really seems like a classic road-runner, in its dry, rocky and arid home. An image that communicates that strongly is really worth a second look.

This works for me on so many levels.
The bird is 'doing its thing'. It's easy to get shots of stationary animals - sleeping, perching, etc. But doing their thing - not so much. The legs here say 'run'. The tail up, the balance, all say: moving.
The bird is in its space - the dry stone and grit, the scrubby weeds.

The foreshortening from the 300mm just says 'space'. There must be nearly 100metres of empty space behind the bird (or a slope?!) that give the image the sense of 'desert bird' that I associate with a road runner. And the seed heads giving a sense of scale.

Then there are the great lines - the frame of tail and narrow strip of in-focus image, the framing line of foreground rocks, the faint top dark line. And space for the bird to run into - all the classic elements of a well organised image.

This is not a random shot - this is the result of work, failure analysed and lessons learned. And time spent, waiting, watching.

First rate bird shot, that makes me jealous!

Grant H