• Starlings here...
  • As are these...
  • And, well you get the idea.
  • Thought about a cropped version to remove this patch, but it seemed too interesting to remove, even if a little distracting.

Mass Migration (Starlings), Hoohill

Please do hit "L" to view on black!

Not sure there's any way to view this large enough on Flickr - suffice to say there are *lots* of birds in the frame! It's probably my last posting from my Christmas Day "golden hour" session, which consisted of a mad ten minutes getting one shot of twenty different things.

These are some of the 100,000 starlings which roost under Blackpool's North Pier, returning en masse as the sun surges westward and away. So not really a mass migration, and apologies to any offended zoo- or ornithologists. My lawyers will cite poetic license.

This one is technically SOOC, shot in RAW with just the auto WB setting. I state that mostly because this shot made me realise what a nonsense this concept is nowadays. My in camera settings for this shot included +3 saturation and +1 contrast (I'm to guess by eye that the camera's "+1" is equal to about "+5" in PS, or "+10" in LR). Clearly this is processing - the fact it has been down inside the black box that is my camera, rather than the white box that is my laptop, is, to my mind, utterly irrelevant.

Yet an email I received today from my first university mentions an alumni photography competition which demands submitted images be SOOC. i.e. processed by the "picture style" command, rather than LR/PS. Surely this is madness? Do they really intend the rule to create a situation where people with expensive cameras can, without skill, process images - rather than letting everyone entering apply skillful processing. Am I alone here?

Rant over!

In closing, many thanks to everyone who was kind enough to view, favourite and/or share their thoughts regarding my last photo - Beyond (World Trade Center), NYC [Film Scan]. I am delighted that it made a brief appearance on Explore's Front Page, ten years after it was shot. Thank you everyone. Though I am struggling to catch up with everyone, I love putting people's kind comments in context by seeing their work and enjoy sharing my thoughts in return. Thanks for being patient while I catch up!

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    Theophilos, Laureos, andreaskoeberl, .Terry Cheng, and 55 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. WoodWalker#1 (29 months ago | reply)

    Wonderful shot Matt !!

  3. Theophilos (29 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful sky, great colors! So many birds!

  4. Laureos (29 months ago | reply)

    Creating a new texture of the sky!
    Great colors!

  5. Moe de Triana ® (29 months ago | reply)

    So great!

    ; )

  6. Carl Mick (29 months ago | reply)

    now are you sure you don't need to do some dust spotting .lol.
    that is one amazing sky and the tones of orange are fab, to me the birds are an added bonus.

  7. Clément Behra (29 months ago | reply)

    Fantastic, well done!

  8.  David.Keochkerian  (29 months ago | reply)

    nice job my friend

  9. see_another_side (29 months ago | reply)

    Wow. Beautiful sky!

  10. andreaskoeberl (29 months ago | reply)

    amazing clouds, colors and birds! what a great shot!

  11. aries1935 (29 months ago | reply)

    Migrating under a orange sky! Great shot!

  12. .Terry Cheng (29 months ago | reply)

    Lovely capture of the flock of birds. Beautiful sky. Wonderful colours!

  13. Jamie Morrissey (29 months ago | reply)

    Thats a lot of birds :-) great shot

  14. mtdvetter (29 months ago | reply)

    WoW an amazing phenomenon! Gorgeous tones, excellent capture!

  15. areyarey (29 months ago | reply)

    that is amazing ..sounds a little bit silly the competition rules, the only rule I normally go by is whether I like what I see, and this one is excellent

  16. John Hitchings. Photography (29 months ago | reply)

    Great shot matt, Beautiful Sky, Love the starlings,

  17. DomiKetu (29 months ago | reply)

    Gorgeous tones and show!

    --
    Seen in my contacts' photos. (?)

  18. davidnc82 (29 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful tones and composition! Great shot

  19. Raheel Adnan (29 months ago | reply)

    Nice shot!

    --
    Seen in my contacts' photos. (?)

  20. Sadloafer (Hans) (29 months ago | reply)

    Love the light on this image, well done.

  21. michaeliao27 (29 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful sky, great colors!

  22. LoubR photography (29 months ago | reply)

    wow amazing

  23. Le***Refs *PHOTOGRAPHIE* (29 months ago | reply)

    wow! nice capture , the migration of bird !

  24. Mikaela Mueller (29 months ago | reply)

    Awesome, great shot!

  25. NESIHO (29 months ago | reply)

    fantastic capture and sky color

  26. Elena Kovalevich [deleted] (29 months ago | reply)

    So wonderful!

  27. imaniwillfly; (29 months ago | reply)

    wow, wonderful shot <3
    the sky looks so beautiful!

  28. Hsin Tai Liu (29 months ago | reply)

    wow.. nice catch! cool framing!

  29. JoGo... (29 months ago | reply)

    Fantastic capture! Awesome amount of birds and gorgeous glowing light from the cloud!

  30. Irene2005 (29 months ago | reply)

    Ohhhhhh...I so wish for a different computer screen right now! This should be seen in HUGE, not in large! Incredible! And the orange clouds create a perfect backdrop!

    And this is so true about the processing. SOOC doesn't mean anything these days and I don't understand all the "rules" about purity of the image. Who cares as long your end result is good? A lot of my images are taken with an iPhone camera and processed with 20 different iPhone based applications. Now, if I am to follow this logic, I can argue that these images are SOOC (as technically they never left iPhone), in spite of the fact they are heavily altered, right? :-)

  31. dbalyoz (29 months ago | reply)

    incredible. i would love to see this one day. :)

  32. Nanagyei (29 months ago | reply)

    Superb shot.

  33. SRApix (29 months ago | reply)

    They look like pepper in the sky!

  34. Liamfm . (29 months ago | reply)

    quite an amazing sight

  35. Dyker_The_Horse (29 months ago | reply)

    An amazing mass array of birds in an awesome sky! Excellent shot!

  36. C. Dastodd (29 months ago | reply)

    oh wow! that is a great capture! so many birds!

  37. Juan © (29 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful brother, well done
    Juan

  38. © Maats Dark Editions (29 months ago | reply)

    Great sky !

  39. ـــاريAlAmmariالعـمـــ (29 months ago | reply)

    So small ! Thought that was dots from the photo !

    Though the colors and the shot is Excellent !

  40. Beachmite (29 months ago | reply)

    WoW!!! So many!! Lovely colors too!

  41. liuliuba 69 poco presente..... (29 months ago | reply)

    che spettacolo!!!!!!!!

  42. @JuCumerlato (29 months ago | reply)

    Show! lo

  43. Ayman Alnajem (29 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful compose. Great detail. Excellent shot
    Thanx ...
    FAV ★

  44. bmalarky (29 months ago | reply)

    Amazing, just amazing!

  45. gbrummett (29 months ago | reply)

    WOW I see them I see them

    Amazing!

  46. Jay fotografia (29 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful shot !!!!

  47. Vincent_Ting (29 months ago | reply)

    another amazing shot
    Fave it++++++

  48. Kerry Wah- Crazy time at work! (29 months ago | reply)

    Wow! This is amazing!!!!! Great capture!

  49. jyotsnapathania [deleted] (29 months ago | reply)

    lucky you, right place-right time, amazing catch, beautiful image, what a composition

  50. Aramix (29 months ago | reply)

    Wow...too much...where are they going?

  51. Haider Λli (29 months ago | reply)

    WOW! this is ............................ no words.

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