I had fun photographing Copter and Mallow for friend and fellow website developer Dave Zille. They’re quite the little characters and can often be heard in the background of Dave’s screencasts chirping away 🙂

The birds I typically photograph are their wild cousins so it was a nice switch to have these two posing for me (there was still some bribery involved to be sure).

They’re both tame and are often free to fly around the house. Only Mallow is hand trained but I’ve been able to get Copter onto a finger for about 5 seconds … once. Neither like to be away from the cage for very long … it’s their safe place.

Speaking of feeling safe … my photographer friends will be familiar with the idea of using reflectors to help fill in some extra light. Guess what … birds don’t like shiny things (except perhaps crows and magpies). Maybe you’ve driven past farms with silver streamers or dvds fluttering in the wind? That’s to scare the birds away. Doug and I have noticed that even silver tripods can be sparkly enough to cause some distress when out photographing wildlife. So yep, leave the silver, gold, and zebra reflectors at home and stick with matte white paper or foam core and try not to move it around too much.

I’ll let you guess which one is Mallow … as in marshmallow …