A Fence For Two and a Story In One (Shot)

Birding has been a part of me ever since I was 11, both as a passion and a way to de-stress. While I’ve taken many photos with my phone’s camera, in all of this time, I’ve never done so with a proper camera, let alone on film. Once I got my tele primes for my Contax, I tried many times, but it was more difficult than I expected at first. Aside from being skittish, they’re small, and are easily lost in a scene. Lining up a good shot is hard and for a while, I wasn’t getting any successes. Until one day, everything finally came together. This shot is the story and result of that day.

One cloudy noon at the start of fall, I was out on a walk during my lunch break, bag of primes & Contax 167MT around my shoulder, loaded with a test roll of Adox Color Mission in case I saw anything that I wanted to photograph. This is a film stock that I really have wanted to try for a while, as I love saturated, rich colors in C41 films, but unfortunately, I missed the first time it was around. So, when rolls from this new batch unexpectedly became available at Fotoimpex, I took the shipping cost hit, and ordered some across the pond.

I lug my camera almost everywhere, and along the trail, I ended up taking a few pictures. But, on my way back to my car, I saw this prize of a scene: a blue jay and a mockingbird, perched together on a fence some distance away. Nothing in between us that could ruin the composition, the birds were staying still, and the background was vast and distant enough for some good bokeh. Exactly the kind of shot I was dreaming of!

For once, I had the right tele with me – my 180/2.8 MMJ Sonnar. This hunk of brass and glass weighs as much as a Contax RX body, so I don’t always carry it! But it is an amazing lens, and in this case, it was just the right length for this shot, as I couldn’t get closer without scaring them. But then, I needed a faster shutter speed, to not blur the shot. But it was a rather gloomy, rainy day, so there wasn’t much light to be had. Agh! I opened it wide fully, focused on the blue jay that kept eyeing me nervously, and prayed that it would come out well.

Admittedly, I was a bit antsy in waiting for the results to come back from the lab. I’m not much of a bokeh or nature photography guy, and between the tougher conditions and the first time using this film, I really didn’t know what to expect. But, after seeing the scans, I am very proud of how everything came together in this image. The composition, bokeh, microcontrast, colors, everything, came out better than I could’ve guessed.

It may seem simple, but as my first bird on film, especially with the bit of extra difficulty that I went through to make it work, I will treasure this shot always.

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