During a Museum visit:
Dec 22, 2019 18:35:27 #
tommy2
Loc: Fort Worth, Texas
Toured an extensive museum collection of bird pictures done by several photographers in the mid 20th century. Please excuse the perspectives - was shooting around others in the tour group with a cell phone. (Didn't want to exercise the photographers right to occupy a prime shooting location - HA!)
Dec 22, 2019 20:37:51 #
Dec 22, 2019 20:52:14 #
Quite the set-up!
Thanks for posting.
More of his work here:
https://www.moma.org/artists/4700?locale=en
Thanks for posting.
More of his work here:
https://www.moma.org/artists/4700?locale=en
Dec 23, 2019 07:30:14 #
Bigmike1
Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.
Are you sure they were able to get birds to pose for them with all that equipment? Just setting it up must have scared every bird off within a hundred yards.
Dec 23, 2019 07:43:53 #
tommy2
Loc: Fort Worth, Texas
Bigmike1 wrote:
Are you sure they were able to get birds to pose for them with all that equipment? Just setting it up must have scared every bird off within a hundred yards.
Exactly my thoughts is why I posted the photos to read what others thought. I've read that Audubon killed and posed his subjects, could be that was the norm. There was no mention of that in the information posted with the exhibit.
Dec 23, 2019 07:45:20 #
Dec 23, 2019 07:48:41 #
Shooting dead birds would have been the only way to get those shots. Aside from glueing their little feet to the perch!
Dec 23, 2019 09:03:47 #
The birds came back after he left. Look at the shots in the MOMA exhibits that goofy newfie posted. Some show the bird feeding the young. Hard to capture and kill for that shot.
Dec 23, 2019 09:03:51 #
tommy2 wrote:
Toured an extensive museum collection of bird pictures done by several photographers in the mid 20th century. Please excuse the perspectives - was shooting around others in the tour group with a cell phone. (Didn't want to exercise the photographers right to occupy a prime shooting location - HA!)
These are almost hilarious by today's standards....wow. Somebody had to work very hard to get the shot with those rigs. I remember how bulky those old light were and their power packs...horrible ! Stage lighting and the associated connectors & large cables at line voltages were dreadful at times and sometimes a bit dangerous as well.
Thanks for the history.
Dec 23, 2019 14:20:55 #
tommy2 wrote:
Toured an extensive museum collection of bird pictures done by several photographers in the mid 20th century. Please excuse the perspectives - was shooting around others in the tour group with a cell phone. (Didn't want to exercise the photographers right to occupy a prime shooting location - HA!)
Elliot Porter was an ornithologist who picked up a camera to document birds. He went on to become one of the best color photographers of his day. I have some books published by him that I still treasure, more than forty years after I received them.
Dec 23, 2019 19:48:19 #
htbrown wrote:
Elliot Porter was an ornithologist who picked up a camera to document birds. He went on to become one of the best color photographers of his day. I have some books published by him that I still treasure, more than forty years after I received them.
I believe Porter was one of the first respected photographic artists to shoot in color. At his time, I've been told that it was widely believed that color and serious photography were incompatible.
Dec 24, 2019 09:22:20 #
tommy2
Loc: Fort Worth, Texas
The last two post are absolutely correct - Porter was an outstanding bird photographer who also provided much of the art for paintings, murals, prints, crafts and sculptures for government buildings during the depression era WPA. htbrown, you do have treasures!
Dec 24, 2019 09:33:53 #
Bigmike1 wrote:
Are you sure they were able to get birds to pose for them with all that equipment? Just setting it up must have scared every bird off within a hundred yards.
You do know that John James Audubon did most of his bird watching over the end of the barrel of a gun?
He then stuffed and mounted his samples then drew them at his leisure in the comfort of home.
My guess is that these photos were taken of mounted birds placed back in their environments.
Dec 24, 2019 09:35:34 #
Wasabi wrote:
The birds came back after he left. Look at the shots in the MOMA exhibits that goofy newfie posted. Some show the bird feeding the young. Hard to capture and kill for that shot.
Not really. You stuff and mount the birds in the position you want, then add a worm. Not real complicated.
Dec 24, 2019 10:39:11 #
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