Record shot my arse
There is a Twitter account named 'Record shot my arse'. It features photographs tweeted from birders across the country that bemoan the quality of the images that they have shared, even though the said pictures are very good indeed. False modesty, fishing for compliments or bloody-minded perfectionists - you decide. The image that I share with you today is, without a doubt, a genuine 'record shot', that is a photograph that has little quality beyond being proof that I did indeed see what was before me.
Taken through a small opening in a barn door, in the dark and at distance, the image never really had a chance of being anything other than poor. This Barn Owl has been roosting in this same barn for several weeks and seems to be settled. The barn door is by a footpath and the owl is quite happy to have the odd birder peeking through at it. Whilst I was watching it, a pack of dogs ran past barking, which made the owl shuffle along the strut and hide in the barn's extreme corner, almost totally out of view.
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A while ago I posted images of a Little Bunting on my blog and called them record shots because to me they are. They would never grace the pages of a magazine or calendar and dull, flat lighting resulted in dull, flat photo’s. My yardstick is that if it was a very common bird would the picture have any merit and the answer was no. Not false modesty, not fishing for compliments, just how people like me see their photographs.
I looked at the twitter site mentioned and can only say that it’s yet another reason to add to why I dislike social media.
Sorry if it sounds like a rant but I would much rather someone criticize a picture I like than say that I’m looking for compliments for calling a poor picture a record shot.
I'll go and crawl back into my hole again now ;)