I originally failed to appreciate the appearance of Turdus migratorius, the American robin, but I have with time learned that they are hardly unattractive birds; I have captured many photographs which feature them, and the photographs about which this writing was written are no different, aside from being, as of the composition of this document, my best photographs which include the likenesses of Turdi migratorii.

On the sixth day of the month of April of 2019, I awakened intentionally early and, after completing some unrelated tasks, ventured outside, wishing to photograph some tiny birds, such as chipping sparrows, and, after exiting Mother’s house, at which I was residing for the weekend, I noticed that a small group of American robins was present in the grass; because robins are common songbirds, I decided to ignore them and pursue some birds who are more elusive than are the robins. However, other than a skittish red-bellied woodpecker and a downy woodpecker who refused to increase his visibility, I encountered no birds who are remotely uncommon in the area which surrounds Mother’s house, which prompted the photographing of the robins whom I had earlier encountered; if a robin discovers a location which is frequented by earthworms, then his abandonment of that space is unlikely, and the thrushes in these photographs were enjoying their finding and could therefore be approached with relative ease. Regardless of these individuals’ having demonstrated awareness of my presence by preserving some distance between themselves and me, when I lowered myself to the ground and pointed my camera at them, observing their hunting habits in the process, the robins gradually advanced toward me, understanding that I would likely not harm them, which greatly increased the ease with which I could photograph one of them. I had previously decided that the usage of an external camera flash may aid the photographing of birds in both bright and dark conditions, and, although I had previously attempted to execute this approach when the conditions were not optimal, the environment in this instance was deserving of being welcomed with open arms; the brightness of the day was nearly sufficient to result in pain when I exposed my retinas to the sunlight; after understanding this fact, one may assume that the usage of a flashgun would be unhelpful, possibly creating too much light, but this is not the case; fill flashes reduce the amount of contrast in the scene, thereby increasing the amount of detail which can be preserved by an image sensor of a finite dynamic range. Because I did not wish to inflict unnecessary discomfort upon these robins, I fired a test flash, which they noticed, but their discomfort did not appear to exceed minor annoyance; because of this, I decided that I would use the camera flash, although I had not recently charged its batteries, which resulted in the slow charging of the primary internal capacitor of the flashgun, which had the consequence of only occasionally firing the flash, potentially not using the flash in images in which it should have been used; however, the act of complaining after developing these photographs will not directly act as the solution to this problem.

After I captured some photographs which pleased me, I followed my standard procedure by thanking the American robins and successfully attempting to return to the house in a non-disruptive manner.

As always, constructive criticism pertaining to this photograph, my writing, or any of my other photographs would be joyfully received by me, because I rather strongly wish to improve the quality of my photography. The sugar-coating of criticism directed at my creations, or even me as a person, is unnecessary, and it often simply causes the man who criticised my work to appear to have been uncertain about the legitimacy of the criticism which he gave to me. Although I attempt to extract everything which is beneficial for me from every situation in which I am involved, the lack of confidence which is displayed by those who vigorously attempt to remove any offensiveness from their criticisms leads to my suspicion of the lack of advice which would affect my creations positively. Please verbosely explain to me any flaws which are present in this photograph and were directly caused by me, e.g., clipping highlights or shadows, if they are noticed.