Staged Photos

[Kristy123 0]

Hahahahaha thats great

What fantastic pics, I loved them, and I sure know how patient you need to be. I tried to get Bob to sit on a motorcycle for a picture to make a card for a friend, but gosh, I think he was more into manipulating me and my patience to see how much millet he could extract from me. I finally got a decent picture, but alas, had to leave the millet on the handlebars!

 

Here was my effort!

Robyn

 

[nubbly5 0]

 

My favourite! Makes me giggle everytime I look at it.

Edited May 3, 2011 by nubbly5

[Jabberwocky92 0]

Hey guys!

 

Oh gosh I haven't been on for ages. All I can say is if I see another hospital I am going to scream, which is kinda funny seeing as I'm going to the dental hospital next friday to get some teeth taken out.

 

So you'll hear the scream then LOL.

 

Quick update on Dalek:

 

He is doing fantastic in his new cage which is all set up apart from some natural branches (darn the weather and not being able to get to the farm). But he loves it none the less. Way better then the small purple one

 

I found a dinosaur skull model the other day which is I think about the same size as a baby t-rex's skull that Dalek loves to hop around and play with. So i'm going to use that to my advantage and hopefully set up some photos using the skull and that. So i'll post them up when I get them done. It will probably just be Dalek and the skull, no other props because he has hit his 'terror stage' as i'm calling it.

 

He's gone from a dream budgie to a little demon within the last couple of weeks. But we'll get through it.

Edited May 3, 2011 by **KAZ**

[moglet 0]

I love Dalek, he is so gorgeous! Your photos are terrific fun. I've been away for a bit being flat out busy with work, so it was so nice to log on and find Dalek up to no good again!!!!

 

Got some photographers hints if you want them.... If you can, turn up the ISO speed on your camera to 400. Most snappy cameras are set by default to about 200. In low light you can push it up 400 and it will help with allowing more light and less movement blur. Also, if you have a tripod use it. If not, improvise and stabilise the camera in one spot. I have been known to use piles of books, boxes etc. It just helps in low light situations to avoid camera shake. Using a timer feature on your camera will avoid camera shake as you push the button. Set up the scene, set the timer and try to keep Dalek's attention from wandering.... LOL!!

 

Whenever I do a shoot for work, I always shoot a million too many photos. Snap all the time, you can always delete them. You may find you have thirty photos, but one only with have the 'wow' factor. IF you have a lamp around, set it up behind or to the side of the camera, it will just help to throw a little more light on your scene.

 

Keep going, they are way cool!!! What about some rubber insects, snakes, dinosaurs or even skeletons, pieces of fruit, he could be in a giant orchard!? Please keep posting, they are very fun

[moglet 0]

I wanted to show you these pics. I took them with the camera on the same table as the birds. I sat there for ages until they got far to interested in the camera to be afraid and came over to investigate.

 

Sadly, Gizmo, the Lutino, died earlier this year. She was the most amazingly friendly and loving budgie I have ever had.

 

[Jabberwocky92 0]

I wanted to show you these pics. I took them with the camera on the same table as the birds. I sat there for ages until they got far to interested in the camera to be afraid and came over to investigate.

 

Sadly, Gizmo, the Lutino, died earlier this year. She was the most amazingly friendly and loving budgie I have ever had.

 

 

Those pictures are awesome! I've always wanted to try something like that with Dalek, but i'm to scared he'll destroy my camera xD! Darn having a cheap camera that isn't immune to budgie bites!

 

 

~!~

 

 

Okay i'm back again, xD! Even though on Friday i'm getting my four wisdom teeth ripped out (So not looking forward to that!) I decided to get online and post some photos that I have been messing around with.

 

Because of TAFE and a hectic personal life I haven't been able to make stuff that I would like to use for photoshoots with Dalek. But because I know that his training will fail if I don't do it every day, I have just been mucking around with some props and that. To get him to remember his place and what to do.

 

In saying that, here are some of the better photos that have come out of our muck around sessions:

 

 

This prop is a model of a baby T-Rex head that I started to build and then the newsagent decided to stop getting the magazines in, so this is all i'm left with. xD At least I got all the peices of the skull! It took me about three minutes to get him to sit on the skull, I still haven't found out why it took him so little time to get used to it. BUt I guess he was just in a good mood that day lol.

 

This is the first photo I took with the dinosaur prop, as you can see Dalek is on my finger. The reason he is puffed up is he decided to go to sleep on my finger, xD!

 

 

So after a few minutes of him snoozing he decided to wake up, have a scratch and then come up with the second photo, which he jumped on to the skull and happily bounded around.

 

 

 

~!~

 

 

 

I took this photo today. He is in front of two framed photos of himself, the special thing about the photos in the background is a couple of people I know through a Doctor Who forum decided to photoshop two photos of him. The one on the right is him sitting on The Doctor's shoulder as a 'pirates parrot' and the one on the left is him wearing a fez. A running joke in the Doctor Who community after The Doctor wore a fez in series five.

 

 

Again this is another muck around shot I did today. There is a running joke in the forum I participate on for Doctor Who about Tang. No one really knows where it started from, but it's been going for a few topics now. So I decided to show them who had stolen the Tang. I put a few seeds up on the lid and got him to eat it off them, and then by this time my camera batteries were nearly dead so drastic measures were in order. So I picked him up off my hand and plonked him on to the lid and quickly grabbed the photo. And this is what I got. I like this photo more because even though it was taken with flash, you can still see his beautiful colour. Yes I do know he still has the brown spot above his nose, but we are still working on eliminating things to get rid of it.

 

~!~

 

Now this last photo was kinda just me mucking around with trying to get a photo of the detail on his back, and it ended up a great shot that I am trying to find a nice frame to put it in.

 

 

It is a bit fuzzy I know, due to crappiness that is my camera (Though I do love my camera and couldn't live without it xD) In this photo you can actually see the green on his wings, which is beautiful when he stretches his wings right out. You can also see the colour of his back and the amazing detailing on his wings. His brothers and sister were lacewings according to someone that was there when we sold them, so I don't know if he is or if he was the odd one out xDD

 

 

But there you have it. Some more photos from Dalek and I, including a little snap shot in to my extremly messy room thanks to the last photo. Next time I'll keep my curtains as the back drop lol. I hope you enjoy them and I look forward to bringing you some more in the comming months. :3

 

~!~

 

okay, I thought i'd put these up quickly as well, because they really are the best photoshopped photos I have seen and I thought you might enjoy them xD

 

Then again I think i'm biased because Dalek is in them both lol!

 

 

And the last one:

 

 

okay, once again I didn't make these, they were made for use on a forum and also to surprise me by some lovely people who actually know how to use photoshop. I hope to be able to do this one day, when I finaly get around to buying photoshop for my computer lol!

Edited May 11, 2011 by Jabberwocky92

[moglet 0]

Very cool pictures! If you have a macro function on your camera, switch it on when you get close to him to take photos. That is why they are fuzzy when up close, the focal length for your lens is too long for the distance you have the camera away from him. If you can switch to macro you can get very close clear shots. I am lucky to have a mega 19x macro and can take pics almost touching the lens to what I'm shooting. That's how I took the ones of Gizmo and Whizzbang the Terrible.

 

Don't be afraid Dalek will wreck your camera, they are usually built a whole lot tougher than a budgie....!

 

I just love Dalek. He is such a hoot and a stunning colour.

[stace 0]

The Fez is famous in England, I think because of this revered old comedian, Tommy Cooper, who wore one as his trademark on stage. You'd be way too young to know of him, Jabberwocky.

 

It's probably why the Doctor wore one on the TV series. Here's an old Tommy Cooper sketch about his budgie, Albert.

 

 

[Guest K&M Breeding]

sometimes the best way to get a bird to cooperate is just to let them do it on their own

 

~ Any one want to take a ride in my Automobile ~ (for some reason that is stuck in my head - I think its from a song that was even before my time LOL

 

 

I had more but I can't find them they must me on my hard drive of my other computer and not in my photobucket

[Jabberwocky92 0]

sometimes the best way to get a bird to cooperate is just to let them do it on their own

 

~ Any one want to take a ride in my Automobile ~ (for some reason that is stuck in my head - I think its from a song that was even before my time LOL

 

 

I had more but I can't find them they must me on my hard drive of my other computer and not in my photobucket

 

See I'd love for Dalek to do something like that, but he just doesn't xDD! As soon as he's out of his cage he bounds around my bed, sits on me or up on my curtain rod. He doesn't really like exploring my room that much. Think he's still in his clingy baby stage at the moment.

 

~!~

 

I was looking at my camera at the different things I can do and my batteries died O_O! But I will be getting some more next week to work out different shot types and that xD I'm sure he'd love me spending an hour and a half with him mucking around with the camera, he normally does.

 

I have just had all four wisdom teeth ripped out and i'm still feeling really icky and that from it, so I'm sure that it will be a little bit before I get anymore photos up here.

 

I'm glad you guys are loving the photos.

[Jabberwocky92 0]

 

 

Two new photos I took of Dalek the other week, still trying to work out my camera functions with the close up, and this is what I got from those messing around xD! I don't know why his stomach looks weird in the second photo, cause normall he doesn't have that. Maybe he was holding his breath while the photo was taken xDD! He's a weird guy like that.

 

 

 

[**KAZ** 0]

Stop with the staged photos already Every photo he is in ....he is not looking well or happy. Forget the photo topic and get him well. If it means a vet....then go.

[Lozza 0]

Stop with the staged photos already Every photo he is in ....he is not looking well or happy. Forget the photo topic and get him well. If it means a vet....then go.

 

I do agree, especially in those last 2. He looks sick to me.

[Jabberwocky92 0]

okay, i've had a few messages so I am posting this here because this is the board I used most.

 

As of last month Dalek had started to get even sicker, we knew that he was sick since he was born due to his little quirks and such. He started to have fits a few weeks before he passed and I rushed him to my normal vet begging for help. Sadly where I live, the nearest avian vet is nearly two hours away and only works on a Monday. Dalek got sick over the Queens birthday holiday, which meant the vet wasn't in.

 

I rang everyone I could think of including a bird hospital down in Melbourne, which was nearly four hours away from us, trying to beg someone to help me. I managed to take him back to my vets and get someone who knew a little about budgies (her family breeds them) to come in and look at him. She suspected (with out doing the tests) that he had brain damage and also maybe some liver disfunction. We gave him some medicine to help get rid of his constapation, but there was nothing we could do for the brain damage.

 

The fits were getting worse and I had to make the worst choice that I will ever have to make in my life. I nearly had him put down, but the fits were not causing him any pain or discomfort, the vet saw him have a mini one and then saw how he was okay after it. I made the choice to take him home and love him so much for his finale few weeks, as I couldn't bring myself to put him down when he wasn't in any pain and was still his happy self. I brought him home back to Hamlet and a week later I woke up to find that he had passed sometime in the morning.

 

Should I not have budgies because the avian vet lives so far away? I don't know, i'm still having that argument with myself at the moment. Was there something more I could have done? No, there really wasn't anything I could have done due to the fact that the avian vet works one day a week and is so far away, I did the best I could.

 

I know a lot of you pointed out that he looked sick, and I do appreciate your concern for someone elses bird. My family and I always knew that he was sick, I just lived in hope that he would get better as he grew up, but I always knew that he would slowly get worse and worse. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, and I fear that some may have thought I was a bad owner, but I didn't want to believe it myself.

 

Looking after a budgie that you know is only going to have a short life is hard, and I did my utter best to give him the best life he could have and the best of everything that a student can buy her little friend. I miss him every day and I wish that things could have been different and that by some miracle he could have been saved, but I learnt the hardest lesson anyone can learn. It doesn't matter what you do, if it's their time to go, they will go. I'm just glad that he went peacefully and with out pain.

 

 

 

One of the last photos of Dalek I ever took, it was taken the day that we were told that there was nothing anyone could do to save him.

[birdluv 0]

 

One of the last photos of Dalek I ever took, it was taken the day that we were told that there was nothing anyone could do to save him.

very lovely and precious picture. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Edited July 22, 2011 by birdluv

[**KAZ** 0]

Nobody is judging you as a bad bird owner, so dont think that for a second. Yes, we pointed out he didnt look at all well in your staged photos, but thats because some of us have a keener eye for noticing these things and the sooner action is taken when its pointed out...the better.

I am real sorry your efforts on his behalf werent enough to save him but dont let that influence you getting another budgie in the future. Some budgies go years without needing a vet. You just had the odds stacked against you this time.

[Pride 0]

Sometimes you are also just unlucky

[stace 0]

Thanks for letting us know what happened, Jabberwocky. I'd grown very fond of little Dalek and your stories. And so had a lot of others on here. All the best.

[Wendymoon 0]

So sorry about your buddy Dalek. That photo with you together is very sweet.

[Cheeky 0]

I'm so sorry he was a gorgeous wee thing and I'm sure u made his short life very happy. You shouldn't let it put you off getting another wee friend though. Hugs

[robyn 0]

okay, i've had a few messages so I am posting this here because this is the board I used most.

 

As of last month Dalek had started to get even sicker, we knew that he was sick since he was born due to his little quirks and such. He started to have fits a few weeks before he passed and I rushed him to my normal vet begging for help. Sadly where I live, the nearest avian vet is nearly two hours away and only works on a Monday. Dalek got sick over the Queens birthday holiday, which meant the vet wasn't in.

 

I rang everyone I could think of including a bird hospital down in Melbourne, which was nearly four hours away from us, trying to beg someone to help me. I managed to take him back to my vets and get someone who knew a little about budgies (her family breeds them) to come in and look at him. She suspected (with out doing the tests) that he had brain damage and also maybe some liver disfunction. We gave him some medicine to help get rid of his constapation, but there was nothing we could do for the brain damage.

 

The fits were getting worse and I had to make the worst choice that I will ever have to make in my life. I nearly had him put down, but the fits were not causing him any pain or discomfort, the vet saw him have a mini one and then saw how he was okay after it. I made the choice to take him home and love him so much for his finale few weeks, as I couldn't bring myself to put him down when he wasn't in any pain and was still his happy self. I brought him home back to Hamlet and a week later I woke up to find that he had passed sometime in the morning.

 

Should I not have budgies because the avian vet lives so far away? I don't know, i'm still having that argument with myself at the moment. Was there something more I could have done? No, there really wasn't anything I could have done due to the fact that the avian vet works one day a week and is so far away, I did the best I could.

 

I know a lot of you pointed out that he looked sick, and I do appreciate your concern for someone elses bird. My family and I always knew that he was sick, I just lived in hope that he would get better as he grew up, but I always knew that he would slowly get worse and worse. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, and I fear that some may have thought I was a bad owner, but I didn't want to believe it myself.

 

Looking after a budgie that you know is only going to have a short life is hard, and I did my utter best to give him the best life he could have and the best of everything that a student can buy her little friend. I miss him every day and I wish that things could have been different and that by some miracle he could have been saved, but I learnt the hardest lesson anyone can learn. It doesn't matter what you do, if it's their time to go, they will go. I'm just glad that he went peacefully and with out pain.

 

 

 

One of the last photos of Dalek I ever took, it was taken the day that we were told that there was nothing anyone could do to save him.

 

Really sorry about Dalek but know he gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of bbc members. We feel for your loss but you have your wonderful little "picture stories" of him. May your next little friend be as wonderful as Dalek.

[Jabberwocky92 0]

Thank you all for your kind words.

 

I still have budgies in my room, I have actually ended up with four in my room, none of them are tame but they happily live in the cage and I am happy to watch them for the moment.

 

I had Hamlet who I brought as a friend for Dalek, and then Raptor came in from the flight aviary suffering from mites and a bad cold, so he got all fixed up, but when I tried to take him back, both he and Hamlet started to screech in distress and didn't settle down until I put Raptors cage back down. So I put him in with Hamlet and they really are best of friends.

 

My father and I then brought two young females, but when I got them home I realised how skinny they were (someone wasn't looking after them properly grrr!), so in to the prurple cage they went (the purple cage was fantastic because they could still excersise but not to the point that they would keep losing weight). After a good two weeks of feeding them up on a high fat diet, they are in perfect weight range. But when we tried to take them, both Hamlet and Raptor went crazy once more wanting their girls back.

 

So now the two girls have ended up in the cage (Thank gosh I brought a huge cage!).

 

All four of them are living happily in their cage and are extremely spoilt. They get fresh lettuce, brocoli and corn each week, though I've cut the lettuce out for a while because they've had enough of that. Raptor and Hamlet love their corn and brocoli, the girls are still a little wary of it. Im' gonna start to introduce them to some carrots soon. But all four are extremely healthy and spoilt and loving their new home.

 

 

From left to right: Houdini, Ophelia, Raptor and Hamlet.

Edited July 25, 2011 by **KAZ**