June 2021 - Robins at home

It’s officially summertime! I love the change from the cold, and sometimes gloomy, days of winter as they move from a short day with low temperatures back to a long day with loads of sun. Alright, that may not be completely accurate, but Spring and Summer bring with them a huge sense of release from the indoors-ness of winter.

Last year, of course, we were still in lockdown at the beginning of June – and those of us who were shielding stayed that way until the end of the month. We did have great weather, and so I spent a lot of time sitting in the garden with my camera and an iPad. Relaxing and reading but always ready to snatch up my camera if a bird happened to pause for more than a moment or two.

Like most of us, I love robins: they are so friendly and chirpy; very much in your face in their lack of fear. I took quite a few pictures of them that month, but not all of them came out well. Like all birds they can move quite fast and so a lot of my pictures caught a blurred robin shape as they moved away. My first picture shows this happening as the bird came in for a landing. In fact, I rather like it – for no particular reason!

But I did get a few good pictures, and this one illustrates that. I admit that I have cheated here and have put together composite image from several pictures of individual birds in the bush. It was only 4 separate images – if you look closely, you will see that the robin on the left and the one on the right are in fact the same.

I think it’s a lovely picture and is one that I could easily see hanging up in my hallway. Photoshop tricks like this aren’t actually that difficult to do (fortunately) and can make a nice picture into a really good one. I called it ‘cheating’ earlier, but it isn’t really: creating a work of art which is good to look at and is enjoyable doesn’t have to mean ‘exactly as I saw it’. But it is my responsibility to be upfront with the viewers and tell them the truth.