Chickadees taking flight

Chick­adee wings I

Chick­adee wings II

I have been set­tling into a new rou­tine, hav­ing start­ed a new work con­tract in the new year, and part of this rou­tine often includes walk­ing through Edmonton’s beau­ti­ful White­mud Ravine dur­ing my lunch break. The chick­adees in this park have become accus­tomed to humans, and will come in close to see if you’ve brought them any­thing. I couldn’t resist tak­ing a cou­ple pho­tos of them, and the ones I liked best were always just before they took off. I set a high enough shut­ter speed to catch the details of their feath­ers, and hoped for the best. When­ev­er I tried to catch one as it took off, I got a pic­ture of a bare branch—I was too slow. By the time I could react, the bird was gone. I had to watch through the viewfind­er and wait until I thought the bird was going to jump. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I’m shoot­ing dig­i­tal…