sapsucker feathers

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The Lotus Bud and I, we have collections.  Collections of rocks, feathers, flowers, stems, pinecones, you name it, we've collect it while walking in the woods, on a riverbank, at a local park.  Sometime it can become a mess, but that's usually if it's piling up and sitting around.  If we're touching it, looking at from different angles and using them in projects, the collections are quite manageable.  One Autumn we began making nature collections on poster board.  What we collected in the woods came to hang on her bedroom wall.

This morning, she knocked one down and pulled off the feathers.  I would have despaired but then I remembered that I could preserve them in a photo collection.  So like those two years ago, I pulled out white poster board and laid them out in some random patterns.

The original one that was on her wall was from October of 2012 and it had a note about the first snowflakes of the season.  While I don't remember that day in particular, I do remember finding a lot of feathers that Autumn.  I haven't seen even a fraction of that number since.

These are feather from a sapsucker.  It is quite fashionable with the polka dots and muted browns.  I can almost imagine that splash of red that would of been on her little birdie head.

This project interests me because I"m trying different angles that form shadows and then trying the flash which originally I didn't like.  But that bright intense light brings a different life to the image.

It's the perfect project for these early January days of arctic cold.  With highs projected to be -20 below I need some indoor activity for my sanity.  While she proceeds to rip things off the walls, no doubt a consequence of being confined inside for long periods of time, I find some photographic distraction.

The grey of the background drives me nuts.  I just have to keep working on it.  I wonder why it is that I stick to white.  Perhaps I should try a different color.