Eternally Yours

Australian Hobbies

Courtship display

St Kilda Botanical Gardens
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

October 1993

I know this looks rough but actually it was one of my favourite photos for a long time. It was taken with my Pentax K1000 using a Takumar 400mm lens plus Kenko 2x convertor way back at the end of October in 1993. (I got the lens for $120 at a camera store in the city) I remember it was late on a Sunday with a community festival in action. Some small tents/stalls and handfuls of picnickers with music and some cooking going on. The hobbies had been nesting in the park. I remember the male (above) called his arrival from the Herbert Street entrance (west of where I was sitting) and the female went to meet him. He delivered his present, I think in this case a sparrow. (You can just make it out at the lower left of her grasp). 

It was with transparency film. The Pentax K1000 was an all manual film SLR camera and I could just get one shot then wind the film on. I was lucky with the timing as it all happened so quickly.