Random Excellence: Xavi Bou

Photo by Xavi Bou

Birds have been Xavi Bou's great passion beginning with long nature walks he took as a child with his grandfather. His project "Ornitographies," in which "art and science walk hand in hand," map the traces of birds in motion across the sky; think of them as the far opposite of photographs that freeze motion with high shutter speeds or flash. It's surprising how varied and beautiful the pictures are.

Xavi, who graduated from the Grisart International Photography School in 2003, works in the fashion and advertising industry in Barcelona, Spain.

Mike
(Thanks to Luke Smith)

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Comments

[Adrian]

These seem amazing! Unfortunately, I can't seem to browse his page, and although he has some information on prints, no prices are given. Is there any hope for a collaborative print sale with TOP?

[Ted]

Ok that's cool. What's next?

[Jim Bullard]

While he isn't "freezing" the bird flight, it isn't one long exposure either. His site doesn't explain but it appears that he is shooting video and then combining the frames into a single image. Cool.

[Jim Simmons]

Wow. These are the most enjoyable new images I've seen in quite a while. Thanks for finding these for us, Mike.

[Roger Botting]

A most interesting technique and it gives some very nice photographs.
This is why I read your column Mike.
Now, go find some more different ideas , please.

[c.d.embrey]

This passes the show me something I haven't seen before test.

[andrew kirk]

Unbelievable! Thanks, Mike.

[Jim 'Longviewer']

Very cool. I nearly did this by accident with a Fuji compact in exr mode, getting one bird three times. I did not see this potential in my odd image, that's for sure!

[Homer Office]

And: https://www.ignant.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Photography_Hengki_Koentjoro_Indonesia_Landscapes_20-1050x1050.jpeg

By: Hengki Koentjoro

At: https://www.ignant.com/2017/01/16/atmospheric-photography-by-hengki-koentjoro/

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Umm... If these aren't stacked multiple images of high frame rate, relatively high shutter speed individual images, this bird and wildlife photographer of 30+ years admits to being kinda stumped.

[toto]

There are several photos in the portfolio that I liked; others looked like false eyelashes or flying centipedes.

[David Boyce]

Slit Scan has been around for a long time, but computer power and software developments have made it much easier to render now.

If you want to see some really amazing stuff google Daniel Crooks, an Australian artists who does both still and moving works using this technique.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Excellent concept and execution using the digital camera medium for a unique possibility. Bravo.

[jim]

I like that!
One day out on the patio, looking at dozens od hummingbirds, I decided to try a different approach. Instead of trying to stop them with high speeds, I decided to try very slow speeds. And to show the wings, I shot them with the setting sun behind the. The results were much more interesting than anything I had seen before. You can see the results here:
http://www.jimhayes.com/100plus/HUM/

[Eliot]

Here's an article on him with some info on technique that appeared a few months back. In line with your browser post, I had opened this article in a tab and never gotten around to reading it. Thanks for posting the picture, Mike, as it jogged my memory and got me to finally read the article.

http://gizmodo.com/youve-never-seen-birds-fly-like-this-before-1785514210

[Bourquek]

These are the "flying rods" or "sky fish" the paranormal crowd has been talking about. Who knows, maybe "orbs" are just out of focus dust particles illuminated by flash?

[Alan Hill]

As a bird watcher and occasional bird photographer, I found that what these images revealed was interesting, but I was frustrated by what they concealed.
My first reaction was always 'What's that bird?' Some of the patterns gave me a rough indication and I enjoyed visualising the flight of the birds to produce these patterns. But I wished I could satisfy myself about the identity of the species, was the fifteenth image a black-winged stilt and the third from last a pied kingfisher? In some of the others I could't even work out the direction the birds were flying in. That felt deeply dissatisfying - like reading a detective story and finding the last page missing.
Senor Bou's notes say that 'art and science walk hand in hand to create images', but without the science to match the art, the images lose much of their meaning.
Fortunately his Facebook page does provide some details and there are more in the article in The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2016/oct/12/xavi-bou-photographs-flight-paths-birds-in-pictures?CMP=share_btn_fb

[robert e]

These are ingenious, wondrous images that realize both fast and slow time.

At first glance I though this might be interesting photoshopped conceptual work. When I realized they were birds, I was reminded of Eadweard Muybridge's movement studies. Not quite the same, but not so different, and perhaps as revealing of the interrelation of movement, time, vision, perception, and of the nature and power of photography.

[Michael Perini]

I don't think it is slit scan because of the lack of continuous 'bending' of the image. These look more like video frame grabs stacked.
As Jim Bullard suggested the individual images aren't frozen which also suggests video shutter speeds.
In any event interesting.
Great Find.

[adamct]

These are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing! It was a really treat, Mike.

[Lynn]

I counted around 24 frames per sine wave cycle of wing beats in the first photo. Assuming three full beats per second that's 72fps stacked into a single image.