17 February 2012
Some time ago I bought an external drive for my computer and embarked on a project of loading and classifying all of my digital photographs. Everything is categorized by date and location, and where possible separate files are created for males, females, family groups, fledglings etc. Not only are birds covered but every other organism I have photographed, plus numerous other topics. When it comes to items such as wildflowers, grasses, sedges, acquatic vegetation, molluscs and so on, the unidentified species file is quite large, especially for species seen on other continents!
Obviously the task at hand is not for the faint of heart, and it will be at least another year until it is complete. It is pretty rewarding, however, when I am asked whether I have a picture of a gull, for example, in a certain plumage, resting, or flying, and I can click on one file where every such image that I have is there with details as to where and when it was taken.
What this process compels one to do is to look carefully at all the pictures one has taken. This series of pictures was taken during a trip to Chile in 2012.
An adult Southern Crested Caracara Caracara plancus was seen feeding on the carcass of a skua sp. - an interesting juxtaposition of one scavenger feeding on another.
It was not long before a juvenile spied the feast and joined the adult to secure its share of the booty.
Whether the young bird was an offspring of the adult there is no way of knowing, but there was very little squabbling when the young bird horned in on the carrion. In short order they were feeding side by side in apparent harmony.
I have already seen several other interesting sequences and I have little doubt that many more await discovery. It's a great way to relive the excitment of a trip.
What a task you've taken on! Good luck with that. What software are you using?
ReplyDeleteI use Picasa to edit my pictures and simply transfer them to the external drive.
DeleteIt can be rewarding to go through files again - and good luck with your project - and this was an interesting interaction. I find that if I'm disappointed with images just taken, if I look again next day or week, they've improved! They mightn't be as good as I might have hoped, but they're better than that first look!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHello David,
ReplyDeleteVery good shots.
Amazing to see them with their prey.
Greetings, Marco
Superb pictures
ReplyDeleteHi David. What a fabulous sequence! And what a fabulous bird too!
ReplyDeleteI have disciplined myself to do a very similar excercise at the end of each year - it usually takes me the whole of January! I think that Lindsay's convinced that I never re-visit the photos I've taken, but she couldn't be more wrong!
Best wishes to you both - - - Richard
Un ave extraordinaria el Caracara huppé, me imagino que tu viaje por Chile en 2012 fue fabuloso. Las fotos son magníficas, me han gustado mucho. Un abrazo desde España David.
ReplyDeleteThat is a time consuming task you have done there David. But it must be so rewarding to be able to find in one click what you are looking for.
ReplyDeleteThe captures of the Caracaras are bautyful. What a amazing birds.
Regards,
Roos
Regards,
Roos
It looks dangerous! :)
ReplyDeleteNice photos!
Hello David,
ReplyDeleteThese photos are beautiful again, nice to see these caracara.
Your photos are well organized in handy, I've done that myself.
Best regards, Irma
What a beautiful moment and what a beautiful photos David.
ReplyDeleteVery nice to see it that way.
Greetings Tinie
Amazing post David.
ReplyDeleteJohn.
Great subjects David..............
ReplyDeleteI use Lightroom to sort (and process) my images, keywording makes it a breeze. You don't even need to copy or move anything.
Dearest David,
ReplyDeleteWell, you are determined for completing this mega task and it will get done and in a correct way. Only after completion you can reap the many benefits.
Lovely photos from the South of Chile where we had our Church wedding.
Sending you blessings and in about one year I too hope to have managed scanning all my albums, slides (are done already) and negatives. A mega task too but worth it. I too sort by country, by subject and by date. But not like you about lots of beautiful birds.
Hugs,
Mariette
Beautiful birds, David. Very nice shots. Archiving is an underrated activity, but once done, it is a blessing.
ReplyDeleteGr Jan W
The Caracaras are very common bird where I live, thy eat carrion usully but sometimes kill little animals as pigeon, rodents or lizzards. I some places could kill newborn lambs and another domestic animals, giving them no very good reputation.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Oh beautiful, the Caracara are brilliant, well done David.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures.. Congrats my friend.. ;-)))
ReplyDeleteYou will be busy with your archive classification I know. I hope you can stick to your quite strict rules and not complete it in such a lackadaisical way as I do. My only regret is that digital photography was not available many years ago when buying, developing and mounting rolls of film and slides was both time consuming and expensive.
ReplyDeleteSo far so good, Phil. I am on the very last of 2012 and have stuck to it so far. I am going back one year at a time. And I echo your comments about the days of film.
DeleteThis bird I've never seen. You have a beautiful array of made to share. Beautiful color, too.
ReplyDeleteVery good that you have an external hard writes bought there you beautiful photos in safeguarding and categorize everything.
Great shots of these handsome birds. Good luck with the classification work!
ReplyDelete