Mike Powell

I love to try to fill the frame with my primary subject by using a telephoto zoom lens or a macro lens. Getting as close to my subject as possible helps me to capture an incredible amount of detail in some of my photos.

Sometimes, though, it is not possible or even desirable to zoom in on a subject, because I might then lose a sense of its context and environment, i.e. “the big picture.”  Last week I caught sight of a pair of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) in the woods while I was wandering the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. They were pretty far away and the light was far from ideal, but I decided to try to take some shots anyways.

The first photo shows a female bluebird. When I started to work on the photo, the first thing I noticed was that the eye was nicely in focus, one of my normal goals when capturing images of living creatures. The second thing that really delighted me was the red buds that were sprinkled about in the background—many of the trees are now starting to sprout buds and blossoms.

The second photo shows the male bluebird. He was in the shadows, so his eye is not very visible. However, the blue color of his plumage was very prominent and stood out against a very neutral background. In this image, I tried to take advantage of the natural framing of the tree trunks and branches to draw attention to the bluebird.

Some of my fellow photographers like to shoot only when conditions are ideal, but I am willing to take a photo of almost anything that captures my attention. The resulting photos may not be amazing, but they can be quite pleasing, as was the case with these two images of distant bluebirds.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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To crop or not to crop? Quite often I will crop my photos of small birds so that the bird is more prominent in the frame. This is especially the case when the background is cluttered.

Last Thursday, I captured an image of a male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) in which the background was not at all cluttered. The bluebird was perched on a the skeleton-like branches of a small tree. The composition of my image was more or less as you see in the first shot below, with the tree centered in the frame and lots of “white space” surrounding the subject.

What do you think? I cropped the same image closer for the second image below, with the bird now larger in the frame and pushed to the right a bit, almost following the “rule-of-thirds” guidelines. Do you like the second image better?

As a final experiment, I did a square crop that retained some of the symmetry of the first image, but chopped the branches off on both sides. From an artistic perspective, I like the first image best, but suspect that the third image might be the most popular with the majority of viewers.

So do you have a preference for one image over the others? Does the aspect ration make a difference for you? In case you are curious, the aspect ratios of the three photos were 3:2, 5:4, and 1:1. Different social media platforms display images differently, so the same photo might have a different “feel” when posted on different platforms. I know, for example, that Facebook will sometimes add a color border to the sides of some of my images or display the image with a crop.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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As winter progresses, the sumac plants are slowly being picked clean by the birds at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, but there are still plenty of berries that attract several species, including one of my favorites, Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis).  Each time that I visit the refuge, I make sure to check out the patches of sumac at several different locations and last Tuesday I was delighted to spot some colorful bluebirds at one of them.

I love to watch the bluebirds zooming in and out of the stalks of sumac. Much of the time they have their heads down, mostly blocked from view, but occasionally I will get a clear shot of one when it lifts its head. I especially like the pose in the first photo, in which the bluebird has its head cocked to the side, giving us a wonderful view of its profile. In the second image, I like the way that you can see the blurry second bird in the background, which, based on its coloration, could be the mate of the male in the foreground.

Best wishes to you all for a Happy Valentine’s Day, however you choose to celebrate (or not to celebrate) this day—may your day be filled with love and with joy.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I finally managed to venture out of my snowy neighborhood for a visit to my favorite photography destination these past few years, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. There were lots of birds—mostly sparrows—pecking about on the trails that had been exposed by the sunshine and warming of the days since the big snowfall.

I was absolutely delighted when I saw a flash of brilliant blue among the drab sparrows on the ground and tracked the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) to some nearby vegetation. There is something really specially about seeing bright colors during the wintertime, when the world often seems colorless and monochromatic. With lots of snow still on the ground, the intensity of the colors of cardinals and bluebirds seems to be magnified even more.

I was able to capture an image of the bluebird as it perched for a moment before returning to foraging. Later in the day, while I was exploring the edge of an open field, I spotted another bluebird in the distance. He was perched high on a slender stalk and seemed to be calling out to his friends or maybe to his partner.

I zoomed in as much as I could, but the little bird still filled only a small part of the frame. However, I really like the way that the final image turned out. The minimalist composition really helps to draw the viewer’s eye to the bluebird and its expressive cry. The vast expanse of white space in the shot helps to emphasize the sense of isolation that this bird may have been feeling.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bluebirds never fail to make me feel happy—there is just something really positive about their attitude and their colors.

These Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) made it a little easier for me to capture their images by perching on the tip of  branches this past Saturday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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This male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) seemed to be pretty happy to have found a batch of little red berries on which to munch on Friday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I am not sure what those berries are, but they undoubtedly were a welcome source of energy for the little bird on a frigid morning.

I am in somewhat of a contemplative mood this morning on the final day of 2017. Five or so years ago, before I started to get more serious about photography, I might have looked at this image and wondered how it would be possible to capture a shot like this. How could I get close to such a small bird? How could I compose a pleasing image? What would I need to do to separate the subject from the cluttered background?

At the start, I needed to think consciously about all of these factors and it was somewhat overwhelming. Now, thankfully, I have had so much practice that most of these factors are second nature to me and I know how to produce an image like this. There is, of course, still lots of room for improvement, for sharpening my eye and my skills, but objectively speaking I have can see a gradual progression in my photography.

What does 2018 hold for me? I have no formalized plans, no set goals. I often describe myself as an “opportunistic shooter”—I like to walk around and photograph whatever I happen to spot. Location, though, does really matter and I anticipate visiting a few new places this coming year. I am starting to realize that I enjoy my wildlife photography most when I am more or less on my own. Popular locations often have too many other people for my personal sense of comfort. When faced with the choice of going to a place with more wildlife (and more people) or one with less varied wildlife, I increasingly find myself opting for the more isolated area.

Best wishes to all of you for a blessed 2018. Happy New Year.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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