How the Heck?

[Patti Edens]

How is this possible?
A friend took this photo. Here's what she said ...

" ... I looked up the other day and saw this Dove and Cardinal sitting on a wire. ...Just as I clicked, the Cardinal flew off and I was pretty sure my click was a second too late to have caught him. As it turns out, I seem to have caught him sitting and flying off -- in the same shot.

All I did to this one was crop and add contrast. Can you explain how this happened?"

I'm at a loss to explain it for her.

I asked if there could have possibly been two Cardinals, but she is certain there was only the one.

My first thought was long shutter speed and flash with second curtain sync, but the EXIF says no flash and the camera flash won't do 2nd curtain sync anyway.

She shot it with a Nikon Coolpix L110 which does not have double exposure capabilities. That was my second thought.

Any ideas?

1/60th, f5.4, AE, EC=0, No Flash, 335mm (35mm equiv)

[d0ne]

:) my wild guess is the flying bird flew from outside of the frame and into the frame as she was taking the shot.

[d0ne]

or if she is really sure that she was a second late, the third bird landed in the same spot as the flying away bird while she was taking the shot? :D

[tx_tuff]

I think it's the cardinal's soul leaving it's body LOL. Really I have no idea, it does look like another bird flying through the shot.

[Patti Edens]

Yes, I think it must have been another bird and she just didn't see it. I think it was probably the female.

Thanks for looking and trying to solve the mystery.

[bburton]

Reminds me of JohnT's recent thread:

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...planation.html

[Patti Edens]

Oh man, that is so similar. I think something weird is going on. Thanks for pointing me to that thread Bruce. Very interesting!

Back to weirdness and not three birds.

[adamsheehy]

Third bird that was hiding in the leafy bush. It was probably trying to assassinate the turtledove.

[kenw]

I think it is a different bird. In particular, the one on the wire is a male, the one in the air appears to be a female (grey-ish and red).

[DigMe]

Have you checked to make sure that she doesn't have a tiny picture of a cardinal attached to the front of her lens? Maybe ALL of her pics have an extra cardinal in them!

brad