Photo by Ivan Muller. Larger version here.
Ivan Mueller writes: "After being a die-hard street and documentary photographer my whole photography life, I started my first 'real' hobby in January 2021. I'm 64, so having a hobby was all new to me—before, it had been all about 'serious photography.' Canon released a 'cheap' 600mm ƒ/11 lens and I thought it might be nice to have—my longest lens before that was 300mm. It was also cheap. So I started practicing on the birds in my garden and found it was quite difficult to get a decent shot—they move all the time and fly away on a whim! Soon the birds in my garden became too familiar, and to find more and new birds I visited the largest urban nature reserve in the world (not sure if this is true)—Rietvlei Nature Reserve—a mere 12 minutes from my home by car. And before I knew it, I was hooked. So now I visit Rietvlei two or three times a week, and all my holidays are scheduled around bird photography....
"In the meantime, I upgraded to an EOS R7 and an 800mm ƒ/11—because with birds 'you can never have a lens that's long enough.' My life list stands at an embarrassingly low 268, and it's getting more and more difficult to find new birds, but I only count the ones I have decent images of.
"To put it mildly, I'm a slightly obsessed bird photographer. My website ivanmullerphotography.com has a collection of my bird and other photography endeavours."
Mike comments: I love this. It's a perfect example of what I call project energy or motive energy. When you're a "creative," which I guess is nowspeak for "artist," It's easy to invent a project and a pursuit completely intellectually, but then get bogged down and impeded by lack of real interest. But sometimes other projects and ideas grab hold of you, and you latch on to them, and the work makes you excited and enthused and so you follow your enthusiasm where it leads, for as long as the energy lasts, which can be anywhere from weeks to a lifetime. I firmly believe that a sensitivity to this sort of energy is central to artistic/creative/expressive accomplishment. It's something we all need to be on the lookout for and that we ought to recognize and respect when and if it hits.
Of course, "work is work," and you also have to have the gumption and determination to just get stuff done. I'm not saying that's not true.
And by the way, if you have little interest and no respect for bird photography, two little words: try it. When I had that super-long Fuji lens compliments of Jay, I tried some bird photography. And...wow. It is tough. My respect for successful bird photographers went up about three whole notches...by which I mean a lot, and then a lot more. Of course I had always liked bird photographs.
Ivan Muller has appeared before on TOP, in the post "Baker's Dozen: Pictures Taken with Leica Lenses," 28 November 2017. You have to scroll down a bit. The man with a tiger fish in each hand.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Perfect post for this blog.
Right on message.
Right on length to stop people being tempted to skim (I'm cursed, I can't skim, in case I miss something).
And here was me thinking you were a procrastinator?
Posted by: Kye Wood | Thursday, 19 October 2023 at 10:08 PM
There is one more up-side to bird photography. Bright sunlight, even harsh mid-day light, is not a bad thing. It brings out the colors and details of the plumages. And when you go "birding" you never know what images you are going to come back with, that's for certain.
Posted by: Håkan Andersson | Friday, 20 October 2023 at 04:24 AM
I'd be more than happy to read content like this from your readers. Having seen his website, I'd like to hear more from Ivan and people like him.
Just think Mike, you could take a break then, without worrying that your blog will wither on the vine.
Posted by: Malcolm Myers | Friday, 20 October 2023 at 04:46 AM
He's a cutie
loping
Posted by: David Bennett | Friday, 20 October 2023 at 06:49 AM
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was stuck at home, working from my basement, no assignments. I'd been a lifelong birder but never spent any time trying to photograph them. I happened to have the Fujifilm 100-400mm lens, and so I started photographing the birds in my yard and at the feeders. Plenty of birds that year, or maybe I just noticed them all because I was stuck. at. home. :-)
It was super challenging and lots of fun. While I got some photos I like, it didn't stick as a hobby -- once I was back to shooting work assignments, I stopped photographing the birds.
Posted by: Ken Bennett | Friday, 20 October 2023 at 07:12 AM