Photographing the Commonplace

Female House Sparrow

I remember a photograph that I saw in an exhibition some years ago that made a great impression on me.  It was a close-up image of a male blackbird.  Blackbirds are so commonplace that usually no one will take the trouble to point a camera in their direction.  The photographer had chosen an angle that shed new light on a familiar subject and produced a memorable image.

Male House Sparrow

I cannot pretend that I have the imagination and creativity to emulate the photographer whose image I recall, but I was moved to grab a few images of the familiar house sparrow last week on a visit to Orana Park, our local wildlife park.  While we ate our lunch, watching the giraffes in the background, these little sparrows hovered expectantly awaiting the inevitable dropped crumbs.  We are careful eaters, so they soon moved off to another table occupied by several young children, but not before I had their likeness in my camera.

Squirrels

I love photographing squirrels, and intend to write more about them later.  For the moment, I am posting images of three very different squirrels: a tree squirrel, a ground squirrel, and a chipmunk.  Marmots and prairie dogs are also ‘squirrels’, and more closely related to ground squirrels than are tree squirrels.

This tree squirrel is a Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii), which has been feeding on pinecones in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. 

The ground squirrel pictured here is a thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), which inhabits the prairie country of the central United States.  It hides the entrance to its burrow by taking the excavated soil away, and tamping down the disturbed area around the entrance.

This little Uinta chipmunk (Tamias umbrinus) was photographed in the pine forest on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Uinta chipmunks are unusual in that they often nest in trees, rather than on the ground like other chipmunks.