Remember? I had argued once that to see you should be looking. Now, as you know there was a time I was looking for birds all the time, and I was seeing lots and lots of them around me. then it was insects.. and to my own complete surprise, it was human world next.
When I stopped looking for birds I saw... photographed less of them. Fortunately however, I never lost connect with them. and so even when my active focus shifted, company of so many of them become part of life. It was kind of lifestyle upgrade. Not just my family of 30-40 individuals, less familiar or complete strangers too come and say hello sometime as if we knew each other for long.
It was evening already, light was falling at rapid pace. by now all the birds should have been gone but I hear an unfamiliar, sweet, soft, happy, kind of calm - not excited or over energetic call. Source was outside the window. I glance outside and there it was.. a Blue capped rock thrush. Its not just a beautiful bird, but its chances of seeing it are fairly small - you need to catch one when it stops for a small break while migrating from Himalay to Westen ghats or back. Even when I was constantly looking for birds, I had seen it only twice in some 4-5 years. So I was happy that one of it had landed outside my window and was calling happily.
He was drying its feathers after a refreshing bath and took no adverse notice of me or camera. After a while even shifted to a better perch to allow me take this shot. Its at ISO 12800, 1/25s, (400mm), manual focus (metering kept showing more than -2 stops and refused to focus for most of attempted shots)
Less exotic, Resident but not backyard bird - Spotted Munia too had come and posed few days back. Every year he comes and takes grass from here but builds his nest somewhere else. (My home surrounding is completely unkempt - grass or anything else that wants to grow, can do it obstructively. elsewhere things are kept beautiful). This year though he chose a nearby spot to build nest too.
So, it seems once you connect, you no longer need to be looking to see. I suspect direction in which I am looking is slowly changing again but its unlikely that I will go back to previous state of not seeing human world at all. Sufficient connect has been established for that to not happen.
New area I am getting interested in? hope to talk about it sometime soon.
