-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), September 08, 1998

Answers

My instant impression is the sparrow is falling backwards off the post! I assume it was coming in for a landing, but that's not the feeling I get from the image. Other than that the compositon is haphazard, with the wire going off to the right, the fuzzy stuff to the left and the bird dead center horizontally. There really isn't anything to make this image stand out from the pack.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), September 08, 1998.

The bird is too small. With some work and time, you should be able to get a frame filling shot of a sparrow with a 200mm lens or less. At parks where people picknic the birds will come to within a couple feet of you.

-- brad mills (dbradmills@aol.com), September 08, 1998.

I'm sure it's a photograph of the bird as it lands, but it looks very strange because the bird's wings are already folded up. I guess it's an indication of the landing expertise of the bird, but it looks strange. My first thought was that it was a dead bird on a nail - but it's eye is open and shiny. My second thought was that the bird froze in fear and fell of the fence post backwards - but that seemed unlikely. My third shot was that I should shut-up because I don't take many bird photographs.

-- Pete Dickson (dickson.pn@pg.com), September 08, 1998.

Bob says "there isn't anything that makes this photo special", but then we all wonder and comment on the perceived movement of the bird. Is he landing? Is he falling? To me the fact that you captured precisely this ambiguous moment does make the photo special!

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), September 09, 1998.

As a good, pure nature photo perhaps this image is not to good. The little twitchy monsters are difficult to photo, I guess that makes them a challenge. I have a photo, to blurry to post, that shows the instant before this. The wings are in a close folded, near triangle configuration, twisted to align to the airflow. Get rid of the wire (photoshop). I would suggest that the folks that think the sparrow was falling backward should study the photo for awhile, but that would make it an interesting photo or bird behavior although not a seriously beautiful one.

Thanks Ben

-- Ben Lanterman (benl@anet-stl.com), September 09, 1998.

Thanks to all for your helpful comments. I agree entirely that in terms of lighting, composition, etc. that there is nothing remarkable about this shot. I just thought it captured a neat moment. I'll keep trying...

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), September 09, 1998.