By Scott Shephard

You may have noticed that I generally photograph things that don’t move. Once in a photography class I said I didn’t think I had a photographic style. Valerie, an amazingly astute student, quickly said, “Yes you do.” “What is it?” I asked. She responded, “Two words: crisp and quiet.” I was stunned because she had seen something about my photography that I hadn’t. And there is no doubt that things that don’t move are often crisp and quiet.

“Crisp and quiet” may describe many bird scenes but I am not a bird photographer. I don’t have the skills, equipment or patience. But sometimes I get lucky as I did on this foggy morning in the San Juan Islands of Washington state. There was foggy silence on this morning but that eerie silence was ocassionally pierced by the echoing of a myriad of bird calls.

I pointed my camera at this small flock of ducks (?)* as they began rolling for take-off. I took one photo, which I thought at the time was a bit of a failure. Today I kind of like it, though I’m very likely to go back to sharing crisp and quiet photos of unmoving things.

*I told you that birds weren’t my thing. :-)

Canon 5DIII Exposure information unknown