Gooseneck

December 10-11, 2009
March 22-23, 2010
Low light photography

Of late, Henry's favorite "perch" is the gooseneck section of a standing lamp that's missing its upper half. The 100-watt full-spectrum daylight bulb in the gooseneck illuminates him from below as he perches on the flexible section. And it casts dramatic shadows, giving off juuuuuuuuust enough light to shoot - at 3200 ISO, with wide open apertures and longish shutter speeds.

Not exactly the most conducive circumstances for clean photography, but it's the perch where he's comfortable in going through his birdy preening routines that have to be caught in the moment.

These images come from a couple of different evenings of shooting Henry by only the light of the lamp bulb. It's a much whiter light than typical lamp bulbs, but overall, there is still a good bit of white balance correction, noise reduction, and very selective sharpening in these images, helping make up for the non-camera-friendly conditions.