Explore #273, 8/22/08.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended my first "Early Hours" event at the San Diego Zoo, only to find out that the aviaries were not open until the regular time, so I decided to shoot the caged birds instead. Turns out it was a good thing I did, because I was able to get some good shots of these starlings for the first time. I had tried several times before and, although I didn't get anything worth posting, I did come to enjoy watching these birds because of their personalities. While I was there, the keeper arrived to clean the cage and feed them and I could tell that she really loved them, too, because of the way she talked to them.
These birds are hard to shoot because of the usual problems of shooting through wire, but also because they are so active. You can't get close enough to the cage, so auto-focus doesn't work because of the wire and it's difficult to hand focus, since they rarely stay in the same spot for any length of time. Prior to opening this series on my computer, I didn't really realize how beautiful they are, so I plan on making future attempts to try to capture that beauty. Besides, it's a lot of fun.
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