I few years ago I wrote about how my photography evolved from birdwatcher-imagemaker to something more nuanced, in being responsive to the environments I find birds in and making photographs that illustrate them in their context. The longer we work on our craft of photography, the more we develop a ‘style’, evolving around the techniques that we hone and our own personal tastes. Re-reading that old blog post made me think a lot about this process, and how, three years on, I find myself looking at the world with different eyes yet again. It sneaks up on you, it’s a slow evolution, a continuous process developing a style. Our own tastes change, with time. So here’s part two, the photographs I wouldn’t have made three years ago.

I’m making more of an effort to go wide and situate birds in their landscapes (or seascapes!). In the past I’ve had a fear of ‘missing the action’ with a wide lens and stuck to my faithful telephoto. It’s been a hard habit to change, but I’m working on it. Working in different ways. Seeing a scene differently, trying to include things rather than zoom them away.

And getting in even closer! Exploring either end of the focal length spectrum and picking out all the little details that make up the birds that I love. Skin textures and soft feathers. I’ve definitely tried close-ups before, but what has changed is being intentional about there composition and not just relying on the ‘wow so close!’ factor to carry the image.

I wrote a post a while back about adding ‘OOFFE’ to photographs. It’s that creamy softness. A ‘dreaminess’. Basically, it’s making the most of all of the annoying bits of foliage that get in the way while you’re trying to photograph a fast-flitting bird in a complex forest environment. This has definitely worked its way into my style a lot more recently. It’s not for everyone! I’m enjoying playing with it though.

Yep. This photograph. Two years ago I picked up a flash with a wild idea in my head, and since then I’ve been workshopping it into my experiences working with seabirds in the dark. Early results were what is still one of my favourite photographs – and came runner-up in the wildlife category of the 2018 NZGeo Photographer of the Year competition. Pairing this with astrophotography is something I’ve been experimenting with this year. Balancing distant celestial light and a handheld flash fired manually when birds are nothing but scattered spinning shadows high above is a challenge. I love it. I’m going to keep working at it, but I also love this photograph. It’s been amorphously floating around my mind for a while, and I just happened to have the perfect night to attempt to make it reality. I already know what I’d change to improve it. It’s such a thrill.

Maybe I should set a reminder to re-write this blog again in three years. It’s a rewarding thing, to look back at progress and change in our creative endeavours. When I get stuck in a rut, I’ll come back to these and remind myself that change takes time, but it does happen. You can’t force it, but you can persuade it along by being open and willing to try new things. To fail at new things. To suck for a bit, and then slowly improve, to feel the thrill of figuring it out.