New "old" Sage Thrasher photos

It's been almost 3 years now since I've been to Malheur NWR and the birds along the way. So I definitely want to spend some time photographing birds in the rimrock, marshlands, and junipers among the sage this spring and summer.

I still have several "undeveloped" images from my last trip to Malheur in May 2010. I shoot digital in RAW format and "develop" the immediately obvious "best" photos in my "digital darkroom" and upload them to my pBase photo gallery. Some near duplicates I skip and will either delete or work on later. Cloudy winter days are a good time for that.

In 2010 I came across an obliging Sage Thrasher at a livestock pen that allowed numerous photos from my car as I used it as a blind. It seemed he was as interested in me as I was in him. I had to keep moving the car to get the best background. And I had to crop this photo rather closely. The green gate on the left side is not too distracting, is it?

Sage Thrasher. Malheur NWR. May 30, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

This bird then moved to the nearby fence line where I got a couple more photos. I thought the following photo showed the tail to great advantage.

Sage Thrasher preening. Malheur NWR. May 30, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

The above two photos are all that I created out of about 10 shots on this date--until now.

Once the bird reached the wire fence (above) the bright sky against distant darker hills created quite a distraction. But by cropping rather closely I was able to get the following image, never before seen.

Sage Thrasher. Malheur NWR. May 30, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

Sage Thrasher songs are one of the characteristic sounds of the Great Basing desert in spring. They sound somewhat like Western Meadowlarks, with a few clear whistled notes within the song. But these are interspersed with garbled bubbly noises, raspy notes, and short trills all thrown together in rapid succession that seem to lack any pattern to make them easily remembered. Fortunately, the only other similar songs you have to remember in the sage desert are Brewer's, Sage, Vesper, and Lark sparrows.

OK, let's go back to the wooden fence and see if I can get any more usable shots there. As I said the green gate with its horizontal and vertical bars make a distracting background. But here goes... This next photo has a bit more of the green gate showing, but is still cropped heavily. I would like to show more of the wooden fence, as its texture and shape is so interesting. But I also want the thrasher to be the focal point, which usually means putting more space above the head and in the direction in which the bird is looking. One doesn't have to follow this convention, but is helps make the image more pleasing. I threw away a lot of photo on the left in order to get rid of as much of the green gate as possible and balance the photo. I could have put the bird in the upper right of the frame, but thought it looked out of balance there.

Sage Thrasher. Malheur NWR. May 30, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

There is one more photo I can create. It is actually the first photo of the series. The bird was on a taller pole, and then flew nearer to the wooden fence. I will work this photo up, but I'm not sure whether this is really one that should have been deleted. It's a bit soft in focus on the face and was a bit distant.

Sage Thrasher. Malheur NWR. May 30, 2010 by Greg Gillson.

Well, that turned out better than I expected. Three new photos from an old shoot!

I wonder how many other gems I have in "undeveloped" photos saved on my hard drive?