The Birds That Fly

I have been looking back at my own collection of photographs lately and discovered a consistent subject which I have been actively hunting. No, it was not the cats on the streets, I have talked about my love for street cats and how they always become the center of my street shooting attention in my previous blog article here (click). Unexpectedly, I have been shooting birds, almost as much as I was shooting cats on the streets.

A while ago, a good friend of mine questioned the "zoo animal" photographs being unrealistically fake and uninspiring, not only because the animals were caged, but the close up shots of the animals do not portray what they instinctively do in the free, wild world. A free bird will not just perch on a branch for the whole day, the bird will spread the wings and fly, and a shot of the bird doing that is a lot more dramatic and real. Another friend of mine, who is a visual artist and a prominent local comic blogger has shared that he drew birds in his sketches and comics as a symbolism of freedom. Perhaps, these important people have influenced my thoughts and inspired me to take a closer look whenever there were birds flying by near my street hunting grounds.

I fully understand that not all the images taken at my street photography sessions are actually street photography, but lets bring that to a different discussion on another blog entry. Including a flying bird in a shot of a local landmark adds a different mood to that framing altogether. I think there is always a human fascination of a flying subject, and men always wish they can fly (I wonder why we were not given wings). Also, if you look at some of the amazing street photography by other established photographers, birds can be quite popular too in their work.

All the images shown here are compiled from my shutter therapy session for the past one year or more. I thought placing all of them together can form an interesting montage, creating a consistent visual story.