In the beginning of the year, a flock of pigeons were found in front of my house. Every morning, when the sun rises, I find them standing in a line on the cable. I was curious as to why they were there. On a whim, I grabbed a handful of rice and scattered them. The pigeons on the cable were obviously attracted, like the B52s; they swooped down. This filled the front of the house with the “cooing” of a large flock of pigeons, and the “plop” of flapping wings; it was a lively scene.

The next day, they returned on time. Interestingly, their heads were always facing the front of the house. It seems they understood that this place serves breakfast.

Looking at these pigeons, somehow an image appeared in my thoughts. Those “eyes and hands” were chasing away the pigeons.

For several days, this image haunted my mind.

Then, I decided to bring the scene to life.

When photographing birds, you can never have too long a focal length. If you have 400mm, you want 800mm, and you want to capture the finest feathers of the bird. In the case of bird photography, focal length means power.

However, I only have a 24-70mm on hand, which I’m afraid would make even the most ill-equipped bird photographer laugh.

Since I was under-equipped, I had to make the most of it. Fortunately, the distance between me and the pigeons was not very far. The pigeon in the frame under 70mm, was like the size of a finger. For my requirement of a composition, this was enough.

In order to have a clean background. I hung a piece of black facecloth on the railing.

I added a flash in order to capture the rapid movement of the pigeon. Everything was ready and I got down to work immediately.

After scattering the rice, the pigeons probably noticed that the situation was a little different than usual. There was a black cloth and a sneaky guy standing not far from it. They hesitated. But finally hunger seemed to overcome their doubts, and one of the pigeons took the lead and swooped down. Then the rest of the pigeons followed.

I hurriedly pressed the shutter, and because of the limited cycle time of the flash and the focal length, the situation was quite chaotic and I had to shoot almost blindly, hoping to catch my prey.

After a morning of hard work, I finally got an ideal shot of a dove.

Then I started to arrange the “eye and hand” setup. I became more familiar with the technique after a few shots earlier, and I had a particularly clear image in mind; the shoot went well, but still took most of the day.

In post-production, I incorporated the dove with the “eyes and hands” image, and finally, the concept was completed.

Have you ever photographed white doves? Tell us about your experience.