Bird Bits

Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you I am deathly afraid of birds. Whilst I have become a little more self-restrained over the years, I still shudder when I walk past a dead bird with its feet in the air, and have to surpress tiny screams if one should happen to fly near my head. Which is why decapitated bird pieces may seem like strange subject matter for my photographic folio.

Having already shot the landscape and model for this series, all that was left was to photograph detail shots of nests, eggs, and feathers. Nothing too labour intensive. I borrowed the pieces from my amazing prop person, Ros, and got to work setting up a makeshift dark studio in my boyfriend’s apartment. (To be honest, he set up the whole thing and I watched from afar, eating muesli.)

Because these objects are so small, and my lights so huge, I planned to use a torch and long exposures to light each object. But to do so, I first had to remove them from the tupperware box and arrange them carefully on black card. And that meant touching them. It took me a good ten minutes to work up the courage to pick up the wings, but I couldn’t go near the sparrow feet. Bird feet are the worst part of the bird, in my opinion. They look too much like dinosaur feet.

I ended up carefully tipping the objects out and using a stick to manoeuvre them into place.

What a whimp.