My job kept me at the desk almost the whole week but I couldn’t resist to grab the camera and make this photo out of the window in my home office. This Mourning Dove enjoyed a few warm rays of the sun on a branch across the yard at the edge of our timber. This is as close as I can get without cropping the heck out of the photo, something I try more and more to refrain from in my wildlife photography. This one is nevertheless slightly cropped in order to make the borders a little less busy.
Why will this photo not make it into my galleries, even if it is sharp and the light is really lovely? Well, it is the background that sucks. It is way too busy. You may also notice that a branch comes right out of the bird’s head. Shooting from a window does not leave much room for a different position. It is the hint of warm light in combination with the cold snow in the background that tells a story about survival in the winter here in Iowa. It is the visual story telling that I saw in this scene and that made me grab the camera and make the click. If this would be a bird I have never photographed before, I would probably introduce it in my Iowa wildlife gallery. But we have the Mourning Doves here all the time and the picture that will replace the existing one has to be better in any way.
