Today’s post for my dear Lucile’s Photo101 Rehab. I went out today in the sticky heat of Brisbane for a photo session but as I was getting in the car, I saw this little Myna Bird on the fence. I grabbed the camera, switched it on and started clicking, changing settings like crazy and was able to get a couple of good shots.
I was heading out today to try out my new 45mm lens while MissG was at the grooming parlour 🙂 I have to say this lens is amazing. It’s 90mm equivalent, is very good for portraits, but I wanted to try it for general street-style shots. Those shots will come in another post, another time.
So both photos were taken handheld, on-the-fly (pardon the pun) with my M. Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens on my Olympus OMD EM5. The header image was taken at f/6.3, 1/400s at ISO640. The photo below was taken at f/11, 1/160s at ISO640. In Lightroom, I had to crop the photos quite heavily, as I took them from my car, with the window down. If I’d hopped out of the car, he would have flown away – such a flittery little thing. I converted to black and white and increased contrast and clarity, and slightly tweaked highlights and shadows to bring out a little more detail in the black and white.
For the bird lovers, this is a Myna Bird, an introduced species that get together in very large numbers in household gardens. On farms, they are helpful, having been introduced to remove pests from the crops. However, they’ve undergone a reverse sea change and moved to the city, where they destroy fruit trees and seedling plants. They also tend to drive out the native birds through sheer numbers. They make for a pretty cute photo though 🙂 They are black birds with a brown head, yellow beak, legs and eye-area.
I think this guy looks pretty angry. He has that little moustache in the first photo, that cracks me up!
Have a great day!
x desleyjane
Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist 
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