I’ll contribute a headless kingbird with a barely visible tail. No known
photos of the beer-bottle grebe are available, which is a good thing.
Now let’s all remind ourselves that this is July, not February. Put. The
keyboards. Down.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com
On Jul 20, 2017, at 9:22 AM, Wayne Hoffman <whoffman@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Good idea, Robert.
I can contribute a photo i took years ago at Ramsey Canyon of a White-eared
Hummingbird that was departing the feeder as I pressed the shutter. The
image is pretty well smooshed across the frame, but the prominent white
streak on the head and the red smear of the bill make it still (just barely)
identifiable. At the time I considered starting a contest for the worst
still-identifiable bird photo.
Wayne
On 7/20/2017 6:53:50 AM, Robert O'Brien <baro@xxxxxxx> wrote:
What about a bad bird guide? It could have a combination of fuzzy photos
and illustrations with questionable proportions and colors that are a little
too garish. These could include little arrows pointing to random spots on
the bird. The descriptions could have occasipnal misspellings (sic) and
lots of apostrophies. I'd be happy to write the first draft if there is
sufficient interest. I already have lots of appropriate photos and I'm a
terrible artist so I'll use stick figures whenever possible. I'd be doing
the photo IDs for the first draft myself so naturally there would be lots of
latitude there. It could be priced low and sold at Walmart.
Bob obrien (Just an idea, and now it's time to get some coffee.)
On Wednesday, July 19, 2017, Tom Crabtree <tc@xxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:tc@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
And, of course, Paul, you never have bad looks at birds when you are out in
the field. And never have fleeting glances. And the birds always look
perfect like the best images in the best books. (And things were always
better in the good ol' days, but that's another story).
Unfortunately, that isn't reality for most of us. We learn more pushing
the
envelope, challenging us to go beyond our comfort level and having things
so
they aren't wrapped up in a box with a little bow on top. That's why some
people study empids and come up with ways of separating them. Or sub-adult
gulls. It's why we don't have only "confusing fall warblers" anymore. A
recent Birding photo quiz showed the underwing patterns of some birds with
their heads chopped off. They point was these are similar looking birds,
can you ID them without the obvious advantage of seeing the whole bird.
Bad photos are good challenges and separate those willing to stretch their
ID skills rather than have the answers handed to them on a plate.
My 2 cents worth, with all due respect.
Tom Crabtree
-----Original Message-----
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ;<mailto:obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] On
Behalf
Of Paul Sullivan
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2017 10:07 PM
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: larmcqueen@xxxxxxx <mailto:larmcqueen@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] teaching with bad photos
Larry, with all due respect,
I am strongly against teaching with bad photos. If you want to educate
people on what birds look like, I think it best to marshal the best images
you can. Isn’t that why we make field guides? Don’t artists aim to
capture
the true color, shape, jizz, etc of each species – at various seasons and
ages? If you want to teach mathematics you don’t begin with insoluble
puzzles.
I’ve been to presentations where marginal photos are offered as examples of
what a rare species looks like. I’ve been to birders’ nights where quiz
birds are offered up. People talk about “challenge” and some folks enjoy
the back-and-forth. It is a place for the people who already know a lot to
show off, to get (or guess) the right answer. It is a place for the
presenter to say, “I know the answer, bet you can’t guess what this is.” I
think these kind of experiences intimidate or confuse people more than
teach.
I don’t think such sessions really educate people. I think if you are
going
to take someone and lead them along, you need to move in an organized
progression, showing field marks, explaining habitat and behavior,
illustrating your lesson with the best images you can muster. Echoing
your
comment, I believe the living bird on a field trip can teach in a few
minutes more than can be captured in any series of photos.
That’s my two cents.
Paul Sullivan
----------------------
Subject: Re: digest non-attachments
Date: Wed Jul 19 2017 22:32 pm
From: larmcqueen AT msn.com <http://msn.com/>
Joel and all,
This is of course, another lesson on the difficulties of photo IDs, and
this
was an especially challenge one, due to limitations. Most aspects of the
field are not present in photos, and these were reduced to nearly minimal.
The fun of it is the challenge, and we could be playing more with the
challenge. How about others deliberately posting bad photos on this list,
as a teaching exercise?
Larry
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