Bird Photography (Attempts)

This is a long-term project that I started in 2004 after noticing a number of failed photographs of birds among the casual snap shots I had taken as a teenager. The impulse to capture the natural encounter had overridden the knowledge that the bird would most likely appear only as a speck in the frame of the photograph. I decided to continue this accidental project and started photographing birds without a telephoto lens or any other specialist equipment. I noted the number of attempts (shots) made in the effort to document the bird. In some of the photographs I am observing the birds from a great distance, in others, the bird sees me and is reacting to my presence. The series has become both an attempt to document the fleeting quality of wildlife encounters and an exploration of the persistent desire (in myself and others) to take possession of animals through documentation and species identification.