After we pass the shortest day I look forward with anticipation to no longer travelling to work and back in the dark. I look forward to more light at the end of the day but it is tempered by the loss of low angled light which retreats to the ends of the days leaving the middle of the day a bit barren photographically. I just prefer the quality of light in late autumn and winter. Once spring arrives the harshness hurts my eyes for much of the day. Despite that there are some good things as the world springs back to life.

One of the good things is all the spring blooms. The Taiwan Cherries flower early and line significant parts of my commute to work. Most of the year they hide in plain sight and you are only reminded of their relentless spread as they burst into triumphant, flamboyant bloom. Seeing them for the invasive exotic that they are tempers my enjoyment of their beauty somewhat. Despite that it is always a good opportunity to challenge myself to get some Tui images.

The grove at Centennial Park in Rotorua becomes a pandemonium of Tui activity and the challenge is always to get a bird in a nice pose without obstructing branches, in even light and with a clean background. The trees are dense with branches, twigs and flowers and the planting is quite dense which makes clean backgrounds especially hard to achieve. I find the best approach is to look for a low hanging branch or twig and try and line it up with as distant a background possible and then wait patiently for a cooperative bird. The above image and the one that follows are an example of this approach.

The other approach that works is to try and catch them against a patch of bare, hopefully cloudy sky to achieve a high key image.

Close frame filling images can limit distractions but if you keep an eye out for more distant birds on the edge of the chaos, they can offer some bird in habitat options.

Photos with Nikon Z9 with Nikkor Z 400mm f4.5 VR S + 1.4x teleconverter