What is Bird Street Photography?

I have been fascinated – okay, obsessed – with photographing birds for a few years now. They are magnificent creatures who are largely unpredictable and a challenge to photograph. As opposed to static landscape and architectural photography (both of which I love to do), bird photography more closely resembles the genre of “street photography” but with trees, bushes, water, and the sky as their very busy streets. Like traditional “street photography”, you may be familiar with the location you go to, but you can never predict what scenes will unfold.

I am based in Littleton, Colorado and almost all of the images on this website are of “locals”, meaning not only did I photograph most of the birds here in Colorado, but the vast majority were photographed in the Littleton area. Some are year-round residents; others are migrants “fleeing” through the state.

Although I photograph a variety of species, I care much less about that than I do about catching a variety of avian activities such as fishing, eating, flying, courting, etc. All photos are completely natural, meaning I do not “stage” any setups by using “baiting” techniques, sound calls or perches. And although I edit my images in post-processing, I do not use Photoshop compositing such as changing out a sky or background unless I specifically indicate so.

Many of my images display a sense of whimsy or awe or anthropomorphic bird behavior that we recognize in our own behavior. I strive to move the viewer to feel an emotion, whether that be a smile or an “aww” or whatever pops into your heart.

This website is laid out in about a dozen galleries. Rather than have each gallery represent a bird species I have organized them by activities that birds typically do such as eating, fishing, flying, fighting, etc. To me this is a much more interesting way to present these images although I do try to identify species whenever known. I also try to use “Alt Text” on images to assist any visually impaired viewers of the site.

My photographs across the genres and subjects have been selected in over 80 juried competition art shows from San Francisco to New York, Chicago to Houston, Oregon to the Carolinas and, of course, my home state of Colorado. If you are looking for my other website that features other subjects such as Americana, architecture, and landscapes, please go to www.paulmalinowskiphotography.com.

I truly hope you enjoy my website. Please visit frequently as I will be continually updating the galleries with new photos of random “street photography” of birds.

Paul Malinowski

Colorado