Thursday, June 17, 2010

Flamingo Friday: Frustration


or, Mallards Are Sabotaging My Photoshoot


It was the perfect day to get more pictures of flamingos browsing picturesquely in their pond; the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing--but not so much as to make the water’s surface too choppy--the flamingos were wading. But the flamingos were not the only birds in the pond. No; the flamingos were outnumbered—greatly outnumbered—by ducks.

I have nothing against wild birds enjoying the zoo’s habitats; on the contrary, I’m usually only too pleased to see how nicely landscaped and welcoming the zoo’s enclosures are. But I draw the line at scene-stealing waterfowl.

It’s not just that they were in the background--which they were; it’s not just that they often disrupted quite beautiful reflections with their unruly paddling--although they did that, too.

It’s more that, just as I had trained my lens, and waited, and was finally about to capture a good shot--a propitious combination of light, color, and flamingo position--something like this would happen:


Think it only happened once? Ha! Feast your eyes on these marvelously ruined photo opportunities:



I didn’t fault the ducklings; they got in the way, too, but they were just too cute to get mad at.


Nor did I fault the wood duck, just because, with what I admit is a small amount of bird-snobbery, I consider her less common, more novel, and therefore an acceptable subject of photographs in and of herself.

But the mallards…

They drove me to such a point that, more than once, I uttered a word that is not Zoo Friendly. Luckily, there were no children around (not that the kids themselves would care, but their parents would not be happy with me). Eventually, however, I foiled the fowls and managed to get some halfway decent shots after all:



But I could tell they were gloating.

[note how the lovely flamingo reflections are overshadowed
by this smugly preening mallard]

1 comment:

Anca said...

This is really amusing. I like the ducks a lot, too.

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