hunting for pigeons and reflections
This post goes for 'Show me a photo (of a bird)' contest, round #124. This week had no special prompt, so its a good option for me to extract from the archives the beautiful photos of pigeons and reflections that I took this spring and was hoarding since. Eventually, its their turn...
That April day turned into a long photo walk along the Neva embankment with a 70-200mm telephoto lens - there was a holiday "icebreaker festival" and I was hoping to shoot something interesting ... I met both pigeons and seagulls along the way, but the most interesting captures happened in the end of the walk, when the setting sun was shining on me.
An ordinary puddle of water on a granite parapet, illuminated by the sun's rays, turned into molten gold, didn't it? A dove bathed in liquid gold - I have never seen such a thing before.
In one frame there is a bird, and reflections, and shadows - a victory !! good capture, right? 
And if you're curious how the pool got its golden color... it was not exactly 'gold', the puddle was reflecting the tricolor of white, red and blue - the colors of the Russian state flag - painted on the icebreaker's huge yellow chimney.
As you can see, it was really huge, casting its reflections for a long distance. 
One more I took on the same day. It is more about the textures and reflections rather than about the pigeon itself, I was appealed so much by the asphalt texture of the shadow here.
And here by the fountain, I witnessed a real 'pigeons club'.
The most funny one, enjoying his 'after bath' refreshment. Isnt he cute? (and clean... maybe, for a while).
And the last one for today:
A beautiful pigeons mating couple I witnessed at the park another day. No reflections, cause asphalt was pretty dry, but some decent shadows included. Hope you enjoyed the visuals. Next time!
All images taken by me, copyright (c) 