Day 107--Urban Chickens

The lesson I learned today was this: If you take your camera, take your tripod. I was sneaking one last look at the chickens my brother-in-law and his wife have in their northeast Portland yard, when I saw that they were roosting on the fence between their house and the neighbor's. It was getting dark, and my first few shots were underexposed, so I tried using the flash. That didn't work very well either. My first position was so far away, the flash wasn't effective, and when I got closer, it washed out their feathers. I tried slower and slower shutter speeds, but the sun was sinking so fast that by the time I got situated for photos from a good angle, I needed one full second exposure, and that was at ISO 1600. My choices were (1) feathers washed out from the flash, (2) photos that were way underexposed, (3) blurry chickens, or (4) using the flash on tight shots, which worked better for the feathers, but didn't show the fence. Not great photos, but great fun--and I learned that chickens like having their pictures taken almost as much as they like spying on the neighbors.