What's the Score?

This was my best image of the day.  I used my new scoring checklist.  It scored 5.5 

10 Point BIF Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?		Close
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp		Close
Does lighting enhance the image?		No
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?	1	Yes
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?	1	Yes
Does color enhance the image?		No
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?	1	Yes
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?	1	Adequate
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?	1	Ok
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?	.5	Flying

This starling had difficulty eating from the suet feeder.  He tried to fly into and grab a quick bite. You had to be there - my photo doesn't tell the story very well.  I scored it a 5.

10 Point BIF Scoring Checklist	Point	Comment
Is there adequate detail.  Noise? Focus? Is the body sharp?		Close
Is the exposure good? Has motion been arrested?  Are the wings sharp		Not completely
Does lighting enhance the image?		No
Is the bird in an interesting pose? Are the wings spread?	1	Yes
Did I make good use of the frame? Is the frame free of distractions?		Second bird is distracting
Does color enhance the image?		No
Does the background contribute to the image?  Color?  Depth?	1	Yes
Is this bird a good subject?  Young and beautiful?  Ugly, ragged and missing feathers?  In mating plumage - sexy?	1	Adequate
Does the bird look alive and engaged?  Eye sharp? Catchlight?	1
Is the bird doing something interesting?  Is it interacting with a mate, offspring, friends, enemies or the environment?	1

I've learned something from this checklist already. 

Spray and Pray allowed me to capture actions that occurred faster than I could react.  It provided choices for wing position and pose.

Spray and Pray didn't produce a single image with good lighting or color.  If I want to improve, I'll need to solve those problems.

Overall, focus was a huge problem - My 400mm lens has very little depth of focus.  I need to either find way to increase the depth of focus, change lens to something wider or convince he birds to fly along a path that I'm already focused on.

Spray and Pray

Spray and Pray -  Wikipedia:

"the term is also sometimes used in the photography community to describe a scenario where one shoots many photos of subject, and prays that one of them is a keeper."

A photographer with a hood over his head and a 4x5 camera on a big tripod is respected by his photographic peers.  If he uses the zone system, he is worshiped.

The photographer who walks over beside him with a 35mm SLR and points a camera at the same subject doesn't command the same respect.  If his camera goes click, click, click, click. click, click, click and click one photographer looks at another and says "Spray and Pray".  No respect.

I once had a composite photo of four cats.  I entered a photo contest that had a category titled "Animals".  Thinking that cats were animals I entered it in the Animal category.  It was a good picture and when asked I described how it was taken.  Each cat was photographed with the same camera, same lens, same light, same shutter speed, same f stop, same ISO and same location.  Cats are difficult to pose so I merged four images into one.  It never crossed my mind that this caused the cats to stop being Animals.   Fortunately  there was another category called Experimental.  If I had made the same image with four exposures in camera,  the experimental cats would have become animals again.

This blog will contain my observations about and experiences with multi-image photography.   Perhaps it will inspire you to get out from under the hood, retire the 4x5 camera, bury the zone system with Ansel and Spray and Pray yourself.