51¶ÌÊÓƵ

After taking the photo, I immediately was hooked and have been photographing feather closeups whenever the opportunity arises.

For bird hunters, feathers to photograph are easy to come by. Gaudy rooster pheasants are decked out in an array of feather colors and patterns, and waterfowl, prairie chickens, sharp-tailed grouse, quail and turkeys each have a unique plumage.

Nonhunters seeking feathers need not fret: Ask a friend to save you the plumage of their harvested birds, which can be easily preserved and photographed later. I stretch and pin the skins of fresh-cleaned birds, feather side down, to cardboard. Then I sprinkle borax on them and rub it into any remaining flesh or fat on the skin. Two weeks later, shake off the borax, and the preserved, odorless plumage is ready for a photo shoot.

Though illegal to possess nongame, native birds such as cardinals or robins, or their feathers, I photograph these in place when finding recently deceased birds. For example, the unfortunate bluejay that flew into our picture window became an ideal candidate. Single feathers, say from the wing of a sandhill crane or tail of a yellow-shafted flicker or tom turkey, gracefully perched in nature, also are photogenic.

I photograph feathers in the early morning or evening, when low-angle sunlight best refracts iridescent colors from the feathers and long shadows can add interesting detail. If needed, I use a lens brush to smooth the feathers and remove distracting flecks of dried skin or other debris. In my backyard, I place the bird or feathered skin on a low stump and shoot from a tripod using a 105mm macro lens. Since the feathers are stationary, I usually use a smaller aperture for greater depth of field and a low ISO. The latter provides more detail and color saturation and less noise, which makes for a better print, especially at large scale.

With intricate designs and iridescent colors, feather photographs can approach the abstract. Hanging on your wall, your photos might leave your sophisticated friends asking, “That’s cool. Is it a Richter? A Pollock?�