{"id":13779,"date":"2012-09-08T15:24:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T15:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefreequark.com\/?p=13779"},"modified":"2022-04-28T20:32:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T20:32:54","slug":"steam-as-bird-backdrop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/?p=13779","title":{"rendered":"Steam as Bird Backdrop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My affection for wildlife in urban and industrial settings brings me the subject of steam. There are obviously a lot of distracting elements in urban photography. Although I lean toward a photojournalistic style of realism when I encounter them, I also find it challenging to show the grit of these scenes while retaining some aesthetic and balance in the shot. That’s when I’m shooting wider, contextual shots.<\/p>\n

For closeups, even in the city grind, I can often find great backdrops or natural frames that use urban components to enhance the shot (well, at least in my humble opinion). My most recent example:<\/p>\n

\"Double-crested<\/p>\n

I saw this Double-crested Cormorant<\/a> perched against a Seattle shipping dock where the clutter of the background is also what makes the setting visually interesting to me: Fishing boats, super yachts, cruise ships, Coast Guard Zodiacs and Seattle police on water patrol are elements of this “natural” environment.<\/p>\n

The cormorant was perched and preening on a piling in front of this chaos, but I noticed one sphere of murkiness behind the silhouette: Puffs of steam wafted in the background. I positioned myself so that the steam shrouded the maritime activity behind the bird.<\/p>\n

I shot one frame wide to show the whole scenario, then zoomed in for the more isolated shot of the cormorant, to show the contrast in point of view.<\/p>\n

My previous favorite bird + steam shot was Gull of the Revolution<\/i>, photographed on a winter day at the Seattle waterfront, framed by skyscrapers, steel girders and cloud puffs from the Seattle steam facility in the background. I converted it to almost-sepia:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gull<\/p>\n

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