More good shots.

Sky Rats: back around 1970 at Cal State Univ Los Angeles we had a campus overrun by pigeons. Some guy who had been breeding them got tired of the hassle and turned a couple hundred loose on campus. They continued breeding, there was an estimated 1-2,000 on and around the campus, and most considered that a low ball number. A student from back east, New York I think, called them that, said it was what everyone where he came from called them. It stuck! The raptor population in the area went up and they were so well fed they could barely fly, didn't seem to make a dent in the numbers. Those things would land right on the outdoor tables and snatch food people were eating. The tables, chairs, benches, etc had to be hosed off multiple times a day. Everything suggested either didn't work or got turned down because it was "mean", "cruel" or might hurt them. One professor was said to be trying to develop a birth control pill or the equiv. to put out with feed. A few times campus security caught guys with air guns using them for target practice. (25% Vietnam Vets in the student body, tended to be direct in their methods of controlling pigeons)

Thank you for the details Tony... you use conditions very close to my "flower settings" except flowers do not fly and I can get close. I am going to concentrate your details in my note book along with the UHH reference address.

For flowers, I set Manual, f-8, 1/400, ISO 80, on-board flash. Power of flash controlled by distance or tissue or in a couple of times finger in front of part of flash. In the brightest of sun light there is not enough time to show much back ground.. it is dark. At 1/400 hand shake, gusting wind, nothing maters all is fixed at a 400th of a moment in time... like Twilight Zone TV.

Your work is a realistic fine detailed recording of work of nature. Too bad you missed the Passenger Pigeon. Interesting story about the "sky-rats" thanks of the history.

I must confess when a youth, some one mention, with a sigh, that he fancied a girl who had hair the color of bronze. I wondered why her hair was green, the color of bronze in the park where we were. I did not have the nerve to ask why.

Tony stated in part: I found your comment about placing your fingers in front of the path of light from the flash quite interesting.
Yes, I did too! Just tested that out statement and it darkens a bit the left side of the photo. Puzzled, what do I actually do??? :oops: At times we do things automatically and so do not consciously think about what we do. "Retrograde Falsification." (Unconscious distortion of memory) :?:

Oh! Here is what I actually do. I hold my index finger on top of the flash holding paper towel portion that hangs down in front of the flash. That paper mutes and lowers the intensity of the flash. The other technique I use is to move back from the subject relying on the inverse sq law for less intensity. Sorry if I mislead... even my self! :oops: