I bought some Mickey and Donald cartoons from the twenties and thirties. They are crude compared to cartoons made 20 years later, but they are better than what we do today. The gags are funnier, the animation is heaps better, and the characters have life in them.
How could those people achieve results much better than what we do now with our core2duo ultra-powerful machines? They could draw and they were willing to draw a lot! Animation is a complex combination of many elements, but the main thing are the drawings that come to life.
It seems that all the years between those early animators in 1920-s and us were lost. Instead of improving what they have achieved, we make less funny, cheaper, uglier, poorly animated cartoons and we educate our audience that this is modern, this is cool. So cheap, crappy and ugly is now perceived as stylish. Mediocrity rules and reproduces with an incredible persistence.
I can't see a way out of this.
Small birds are a real challenge to photograph. I haven't had any success so far with my old camera. I hope that the new one will be much better at this as I really like those 'insignificant' creatures. I find myself much more attracted by a Silvereye or a Fairy-Wren than by any magnificent raptor.
above: Common Brushtail Possums in Melbourne
top to bottom: Eastern Rosella, Green Rosella, Musk Lorikeet, Rainbow Lorikeet, Galah
Two Plovers, if fact. They mate for life and are always close to each other.
It's funny how they incubate their eggs on the ground,
but apparently they are quite well armed. On the photo below the yellow barb on the wing is clearly visible. And their wingspan is huge for such a middle-sized bird.
But instead of tirelessly guarding his busy wife, the gentleman on the photo below often gets distracted by the interesting look of his own feet. They are interesting indeed!
This is a male white-backed Australian Magpie, photographed in Tasmania. According to my Field Guide to Australian Birds it is smaller than the continental white-backed Magpies and is a specific version called Tasmanian form.
