Well, At Least There Were Crows

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86mm — 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Crows

Lots of Crows

at the Shogunzuka Overlook (将軍塚), Kyoto Japan

After posting “The Hope Imbibed in a Dull Sunset” the other day, I decided to pop on up for that evening's sunset even though I knew it would be
completely dull, out of a sense of irony and because I was going to be in
the neighborhood anyway.

As I walked up, there was more color than I had expected...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

As Good as it Got

Whatever flash of color was waiting for my arrival faded in the time it took to change lenses, and that was that.

The crows, however, often active at dusk, were in prime form.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155mm — 1/320 sec, f/7.1, ISO 4500 —
map & image data — nearby photos




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/5, ISO 900 —
map & image data — nearby photos

They accumulate in the trees near the top of the small mountain, sitting
more or less quietly until all at once in a sudden cacophony caws and wings
the sky erupts in crow, and they fly way out over the eastern part of the
city as a big expanding mass that, if viewed on a bird-by-bird basis, has
no apparent rhyme nor reason of purpose. After a minute or two, they start
to trickle back until at some point you notice that the sky is bird free,
or just one or two....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/10, ISO 3600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

And then a few minutes later, it starts over, repeating itself perhaps half a dozen times over the course of the fading light.