To Flip or Not to Flip

Today’s Post By Mildred Alpern

To flip or not to flip, that is the question. On my Olympus-E-M5 Mark II camera. The articulating screen or flip out screen is a useful addition. Having ignore d its practicality, I seldom used it, but recently I did.

To my surprise, a robin built an ingeniously woven nest over a looped water hose hanging on a hook between a yellow back door and an extended porch on my house. I noticed it when the robin swooped from a lilac bush to the nest while I was standing on the nearby driveway. Curious about the nest, but not wanting to alarm the bird, I waited till it flew off. The nest was too high to peer inside unless I stood on a ladder. But remembering the flip-out screen, I held it on high, tilted its angle, and viewed four perfectly formed blue eggs inside the nest.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks later, when watchfully waiting with the flip out screen on the ready, I spied four babies with wide-open mouths, awaiting food. The following weekend, good luck was mine. A baby bird emerged, posed on the nest for a few minutes, then hopped out, awkwardly fluttering away too swiftly for a clear shot. However, the flip out screen did enable closeup bird pictures impossible to get without a ladder or a lift onto someone’s shoulders. The baby birds and the fledgling are combined in a diptych.

All images were shot with the Olympus E-M5 Mark II. The blue eggs with the Olympus M. Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 with an exposure of 1/40 sec at F/4, -2/3EV and ISO 320; all others with the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8Pro lens – the yellow door at 40mm, exposure 1/50 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 500; open mouths at 40mm, exposure 1/4 sec at f/7.1, +1/3EV, ISO 400; single bird at 40mm, exposure 1/15 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400

Mildred’s book Haiku and Images is available on Amazon and is filled with beautifully reproduced color photographs along with original haiku underneath, embellishing the image and deepening its meaning. Pick up a copy to give as gift for yourself or a friend.