Well, I've seen many pigeons over the years but when I saw this one in the tree I thought to myself that I don't ever remember actually seeing a pigeon in a tree. I've seen them on the ground, I've seen them on buildings and statues. Walls, fences, power lines. But never a tree. So, when I saw this pigeon just sitting there daring me to shoot I had to shoot it.
I've noticed a little change in my photography lately. I still have a long way to go but I notice that I can see many issues before I take the shot and not after. And as GI Joe said, "knowing is half the battle". I find that most of the shots I screw up happen when I try to rush through the shot.
I'm also learning more about the "magic triangle" and why it's not really a triangle. While adjusting the settings to balance the light with thought to a triangle is not completely inaccurate it's not as straightforward as that as adjusting the settings effect more than just the amount of light hitting the sensor. This image, for example, had to have an aperture large enough to ensure the entire pigeon was in focus. Opening up to f1.8 would have been great to let more light in but it would have caused half the bird to be out of focus.
