Current Topic: Macro

Up Close and Personal with a Kookaburra

During Christmas, I had the pleasure of bird-sitting a friend’s Kookaburra, Hinckley, while they were out of town. Aside from being a very cool bird to have in the house, he gave me some pretty good photo ops. For the most part, the days were dark and overcast, but when it was sunny out, Hinckley enjoyed sunning from the cat tower.

Hinckley, The Kookaburra

His eyes fascinated me, so I tried for some macro shots using my 17-40mm lens with a 20mm extension tube attached and took photos from up close. It was tough to get his eyes – who wants a lens in their face anyway? So while I tried for the perfect shot, I took some feather detail photos.

Nape Detail

Tail Coverts Detail

Feather Detail

Forehead Detail

Until finally, he stayed still long enough for some eye close-ups. This one is my favorite:

Eye Detail

By the way, Hinckley liked to try to eat everything, including my lens cap – and his favorite perch? My scope’s tripod head.

Hinckley Loves Canon