Problem with cheap cameras and autofocus

Today I found out where all of the big white birds are hanging out.

Joe Valentinetti, the guy who taught the photography course I once took, introduced me to the concept of "interfere with the image".  By which he meant put something in front of the primary image.  It adds important depth to any photograph.

When you do that with a cheap pocket camera the autofocus gives a really sharp edge to the leaves in the foreground and kinda blurs out the big white birds.

I got even closer and stood on top of a bench but this time the camera went for the grass.

Even so, it was pretty extraordinary.  I haven't seen that many of those big white birds together ever before, not even in Florida.

With that many together it is easy to pick out which of the noises which might not otherwise be associated with the birds is actually the birdcall.

They sorta croak, somewhere between a quack and a groan.

But finally I was too close and ended up disturbing the wildlife.  And thereby getting the best photo of the birds.

This is what you get when you ride around with a cheap camera in the pocket of your bicycle jersey.  There is plenty of good but sometimes you get the short end.

The big white birds are congregating en masse at Grass Lake.  The lake is deep enough this year to support an entire rookery.  That swamp down there that they were in when I found them has always been dry every other time I have been there, a measure of how high the water is in that watershed, a swamp on what has previously been dry land.  In the first photo you can see a little bit of the trail underpass over the road.  That's the route I usually follow when I am on this bit of pavement but the underpass is currently a victim of the same high water that created that swamp.  There is still, after more than two weeks since the last big storm, about two feet of water in that little tunnel.

Nice ride, 70s, sunny, light winds, maybe just a tiny bit of a hint of fall in the air.  Too early for that, but a very nice day.