Bird Patterns

As of late, I think I can safely say that I am not an animal/nature photographer, but while sitting adjacent to Plazza Cavour in Rome, sipping a nice glass of local red wine, I could not help but notice the huge flock of birds flying directly above, usually in random patterns, but then occasionally flying in close formation and creating these floating, dense masses in the overhead sky. It was amazing, because the flock kept getting larger and larger and these fast-moving and odd-shaped patterns kept rapidly occurring. I  recall a photobook that is/will be published (sorry, the name of the photographer escapes me) about just this, photographing flocks of birds and the resulting patterns that they had created en mass.

So I found myself trying to photograph some of these bird pattens, but it is a lot harder than it appears, especially with a limited field of view. I guess that I had found it hard to believe that birds would/could do this, and was thinking that perhaps a little photoshopping was going on, but I saw it occur with my own eyes. Amazing.

And to prove that I only had one glass of wine, I have this one photo to show, not by any means the best or most intricate of the patterns, but probably the best one I was able to capture.

Best regards, Doug