BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="buzzard12" data-source="post: 1609524" data-attributes="member: 35831"><p>Angled is a must. Its gotta be heavy too, you gotta suffer. Suffering is essential for art, can't impress this enough upon you all. You can't just drive up to your quarry and slip the scope onto a window clamp, sketch with the heating on, comfortably whilst ever so dry. You've gotta hike, with lots of weight, at least 10 miles and preferably uphilll on a slow but devastating gradient. (Ptarmigan is a real artistic martyrs quarry, up there with Caspian Snowcock which might well be the holy grail of devastating art subjects, go for them in summer when their really high up for maximum kudos) The more kit you have the better, especially if you never use it anyhow. That way, when you arrive on site, bent over and arthritically paralysed, you can truly appreciate the fact your subject has winged several miles further over a quagmire of moorland, ensuring that when you eventually catch up on it(and believe me this should take a very long time indeed), your suffering shall be apparent on your artwork, if you haven't forgotten your sketchbook. Only through pain can the aspiring artist find the way to the light. I use an Leica by the way. Angled. Heavy.(Micro Midget my arse!) Suffer. Suffer gladly.</p></blockquote><p></p>