Nearly 12 years ago, way back in the waning weeks of 2012, I took this photo of a mockingbird outside the Spears School of Business building at Oklahoma State University. I had my Nikon D200 slung over my shoulder, 50mm lens firmly attached to its front, and if I remember correctly I think I was running to and fro from one building to the next while my coworkers and I got things ready for the annual chili cook-off. The air was biting cold despite the rising sun, and this bird was hanging out on a bush while morning crept over the Oklahoma plains. It was, and still remains, one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken–not because it’s so awesome, but because it helped me realize that yes, in fact, I could take cool photos with my fancy-pants new (used) camera and 50mm lens. It ignited a confidence in me that remains to this day, and I suppose that’s probably one reason why I have it printed, framed, and hung on the living room wall.
Well, fast-forward to the fall of 2023 and I once again found myself at the exact spot on campus where I took the photo of a mockingbird more than a decade earlier. Instead of my D200 and 50mm lens I had my D750 and 105mm macro lens, but other than that things were pretty much the same. The bird was the same, (though perhaps not the same, as the original bird is probably not around anymore. But who knows?) the location was the same, the background was the same, and even the weather was, you guessed it, about the same. I couldn’t have planned it any better, and I wanted to try to get a photo if even there was just a small chance. Turned out, there was :)
I followed this bird for a few minutes as it flew from here to there, always staying within the perimeter hedge, and was able to get close enough to snap the shot you see here. It’s pretty good if I don’t mind saying so, and much improved over the original in almost every measurable way, but there’s also no way I would have ever thought to snap this. Basically, you gotta give credit where credit is due.
Full disclosure though, I did cheat on this just a bit. Even though my lens was a longer focal length compared to the 50mm that I used on the first image, I still had to crop in quite a bit to get the shot you see here. Then I made use of the Super Resolution feature in Lightroom to mitigate the loss of detail and sharpness that happened due to the cropping. Is that taking things too far? I’m not really sure, but I think that’s one of the best things about modern digital photography: we have tools available to us that we can use, whether hardware or software, and it can be good to employ them when needed.
I didn’t hear the mockingbird sing this day, nor did I when I took the original, but I have listened to their songs on many occasions and at the end of the day I’m just glad we have these creatures in the world :)
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